Should we have a green beam for the Sacramento A’s? Let’s light it up | Opinion

On a recent, evening walk with my dog and a friend at Sutter’s Landing, we turned around to head back along the American River Parkway bike trail and were suddenly confronted with a bright purple beam shooting straight into the cosmos.

The Sacramento Kings had clearly won their game, we noted, with no small hometown pride. We shot pictures of the purple streak over the downtown skyline and mused about the excellent marketing strategy. It’s a handful of super-bright lasers wheeled out to the roof of the arena on an old A/V cart, but for 20 miles around, everyone would know Sacramento’s hometown team had won the night.

Despite being born and raised in Sacramento, I’ve never been more consistently aware of Kings’ wins in my life.

Opinion

Now, humor me for just a moment and let yourself imagine the sight of two lasers in the sky: A purple beam for the Kings, and a green beam for the A’s, the Major League baseball team that recently announced they’re making a pit stop in West Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park for the three seasons starting next year, before the team’s move to Las Vegas.

Heck, I want every team in the city to get a beam. Let’s share the love.

Why not three beams? A purple beam for the Kings, a green beam for the A’s and a red beam for Sacramento Republic FC. It might be a nightmare for airport traffic control and local geese, but a girl can dream.

I know the recent history of the A’s is complicated, and I’ve no wish to be embroiled in any more arguments about whether or not they should leave Oakland, how that came to be, or the justifiably hurt feelings of fans in the East Bay. As a woman, merely dipping my toe into the topic of sports often leaves me bruised and battered. No wonder barely one in five sports writers are women — fanboys really know how to make a girl feel unwelcome.

But the fact of the matter is that the A’s are coming whether you like it or not and Sacramento “is a real baseball town,” as Babe Ruth once said. Let’s embrace it and play some ball.

And since they’re coming, they need their own beam. Sacramento is the beam town, after all.

It also doesn’t matter to me that the A’s won’t officially be taking our name: Whether or not they remain the Oakland A’s, just the A’s, the Oakland A’s in West Sacramento, or the Las Vegas A’s by way of Sacramento and formerly of Oakland, I really don’t care — and I think most people in the Sacramento area don’t care either.

We just want to watch some baseball and feel the kind of pride the beam is already so good at instilling.

What’s in a name, anyway? I already know I’ll call them the “Sacramento A’s” long past when they (maybe) move to Las Vegas in 2028, and who’s to stop me? I still stubbornly call Sutter Health Park “Raley Field,” and until the day I die, the home base of the Kings will be “Arco Arena” — though that might have more to do with my personal dislike of Golden 1 Credit Union. Anyway, can’t stop, won’t stop.

There’s going to be a million different opinions on this, and I know I’m just one of them, but the Kings’ beam has brought together Sacramento’s sports fans and non-sports fans alike in a shared sense of victory. The beam is a point of pride for our city. Adding another beam to the city would cement this latest gimmick as our calling card, not just a one-off success.

There’s no reason our latest team acquisition — for however short a time they’re ours — can’t inspire the same.