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SUMMERLIN, NV − Athletics left fielder Tyler Soderstrom spent Monday morning house-hunting in Las Vegas, hit two homers in the evening, and then stood in the clubhouse at nearly midnight wondering what in the world just happened.Teammate Lawrence Butler gushed about rival players telling him how badly they want to join their team when they hit free agency, but, of course, they still will have to play in a minor-league ballpark for one more year.Baseball Hall of Fame president Josh Rawitch stopped into town to retrieve the baseball from the first pitch of the game and a nameplate from Athletics starting pitcher Jeffrey Springs’ locker, then wondered if perhaps he needed need some bats for posterity.Hall of Fame pitcher Rollie Fingers, a Las Vegas resident the past three decades, was in the house to belt out, "Play Ball," and was simply thankful he never had to pitch in his hometown.A sellout crowd of 8,519, including four suites filled with Athletics front office officials and investors, poured into the Las Vegas Ballpark on June 8, getting a glimpse of their future. There were flames shooting into the sky during the introductions. There were ceremonial first pitches from DJ Pauly D of "Jersey Shore" and Nick Carter, lead singer of the Backstreet Boys. There were gaudy player introductions from Bruce Buffer, who normally announces UFC fights. There was even a military flyover.For the first time in three decades, and only the second time in the city’s history, Las Vegas hosted regular-season Major League Baseball games (the A's played there in 1996 as the Oakland Coliseum was undergoing renovations).Monday's game perhaps set pitching back 30 years.There were 34 hits, 11 home runs, 29 runs scored and 441 pitches thrown by 14 pitchers in the Milwaukee Brewers’ 15-14, 12-inning victory, with A’s owner John Fisher cheering in jubilation and screaming in anguish from his suite as the game dragged onto the night."The most bizarre game I've ever had in Major League Baseball in 11 years," Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. "Never saw anything like it."Said A’s catcher Shea Langeliers after the 4-hour, 14-minute game that included 16 ABS challenges: "It was a crazy game. It was just kind of wild all of the way around."How else are you going to explain a game where the A’s hit seven home runs, and lost? Or that Brewers starter Kyle Harrison, who entered the game with a 1.57 ERA, gave up eight earned runs in just 2 ⅓ innings, one more than the total of his past seven starts? Or that Brewers first baseman Andrew Vaughn, who had never even set foot in the city limits of Las Vegas, now loves the place after going 4-for-4 with 4 RBIs?"The ball flies obviously," said Springs, who gave up eight hits and five runs in five innings. "It’s kind of crazy to sit in here and watch how the rest of the game went."It was so absurd that both teams scored in every inning but the fourth in regulation, with both exploding for four runs apiece in the 10th inning, and somehow both shut out in the 11th inning, even with the automatic baserunner."This place is definitely hitter-friendly," Soderstrom said. "Thin air, so the ball flies. The infield is really hard, so a lot of balls are chopped straight down, bouncing through. It was something else.’"It was the first game of a six-game homestand against the Brewers and Colorado Rockies, and a sneak preview for the soon-to-be Las Vegas A’s, baseball’s ultimate nomad franchise. They have moved from Philadelphia to Kansas City to Oakland and now Sacramento, and finally will have a new permanent home in 2028, a $2 billion state-of-the-art facility on the Las Vegas strip."I already have friends saying they can’t wait to come and visit me," Butler told USA TODAY Sports. "Nobody wants to come visit me in Sacramento. I tell people where I’m playing, and they say, 'I ain’t never been to Sacramento.'"But everybody comes to Vegas."The A’s, who decided to move to Sacramento for three years after abandoning Oakland, might have been better off if they just moved to Las Vegas using their own Triple-A facility instead of the Giants’ minor-league park in Sacramento. It would have been a prime opportunity to market the club in the city they’ll soon be calling home.But, hey, money talks.The A’s are getting paid $80 million for their local TV rights this season as if they were still playing in the Bay Area. That local TV deal would have gone away if they had moved to Las Vegas, which has the 40th-largest TV market.They’ve got 1½ more years in Sacramento, where they have no formal name and are called simply the Athletics with no city designation. By then, MLB is hoping that all 30 teams will share their local TV revenue.In the meantime, they’ve got five more games in Las Vegas this week, with another homestand scheduled in Las Vegas next year, too."I’m not a huge fan of this," veteran reliever Mark Leiter Jr. said. "I’ve enjoyed playing in Sacramento. Now, you’re just starting to get comfortable in the home ballpark, and we’re on the road for two weeks. It’s like, 'Ok, now go try this other stadium.’"A little unique for these to be actual home games when we’re staying in a hotel."The A’s, who are staying at a resort on the Las Vegas strip, will get a first-hand look at their new domed facility Tuesday, June 9, with a stadium tour. Several A’s players like Nick Kurtz and Butler are planning to return this winter to house-hunt. A’s manager Mark Kotsay has already bought a house in Las Vegas.The $2 billion question will be whether the A’s new digs turn this franchise into a potential gold mine attracting sellout crowds in their 33,000-seat ballpark, or whether fans will be apathetic toward a vagabond franchise that’s not homegrown.Don Logan, president of the Las Vegas Aviators who has been with the franchise for 43 years, sat back in his office Monday, deluged with phone calls from friends looking for tickets, predicts it will be an overwhelming success largely because of the visiting fan support."The thing that's different about Vegas is the tourists," Logan said. "I mean, we had 40-plus million people coming here before COVID, and you augment that to the two million people that live here, and it’s a different market. You’re already seeing that with the Raiders. If you’re a visiting fan and you want to see your team somewhere, you go to Vegas."There are a lot of times here where there are more fans for the visiting team than the Raiders. When the Chiefs and Packers played here, it was like home games for them."The A’s got a taste of that experience this night, too, with nearly as many fans cheering for the Brewers as the A’s, and erupting when the Brewers recorded the final out.No matter. Money is money, and as long as you’re buying tickets, no matter your allegiance, the A’s will gladly welcome you."This is going to be the ultimate destination place," Logan said. "We’ve got the best hotels. We’ve got the best dining. We’ve got the best shopping. We’ve got the best entertainment. We’ve got the casinos. We’ve got a great airport with great access to all the major airports around North America."Besides all of that, if you’re one of the major companies, and you want a place to entertain your key employees or your bring customers, you buy a suite and bring them here. That's what’s happening in the other sports, and it's going to continue to happen with baseball."It’s happening already. The A’s have nearly sold out all of their 44 suites − 30 regular suites, 12 party suites and two dugout suites − that will allow fans to sit right next to each dugout with clear glass, almost as if you’re sitting with the players, too.They also could make a small fortune with their premium and club-level personal seat licenses that range from $6,000 to $106,000. If you include the personal seat licenses, they are expected to be among the highest-priced tickets in MLB.Brian Jacobs, 68, a retired school district superintendent from Pahrump, Nevada, doesn’t plan to empty out his retirement fund for seat licenses for him and his wife, MaryAnn, but already is planning to give up his season tickets for the Aviators and buy season tickets for the A’s."We’re making that transition," Jacobs said. "I think it’s going to be so exciting to have the big boys here in town. I’ve already been getting text messages from my friends in Southern California saying, 'Hey, get ready for us to come up for the weekend to catch a ballgame.' I think we’re going to have a lot more friends visiting us now."The A’s players say they’re hearing from a lot of friends themselves who want to be their future teammates.“I don’t want to say any names," Butler said, "but a lot of players have been talking to me about wanting to come here. So that’s pretty cool to see that we’re going to be a known place that players will want to come play."A new ballpark on the Vegas Strip. A new fanbase. A young, exciting team. And, you’re in Vegas, baby. What’s not to love?"It’s going to be starting something fresh," said first base star Nick Kurtz, the 2025 AL Rookie of the Year, "and I feel like it's going to be really cool. I speak for a lot of us saying that."And, oh yes, no state taxes compared to the 13.3% they’re paying in California."That’s the huge part," Butler said. "California won’t be taking all of our money."Says catcher Jonah Heim, who met his wife in Las Vegas when played in 2019 for the Aviators: "I think they’ll definitely have a huge advantage with no tax."The A’s, who are engaged in a full-scale public relations blitz this week, and have giveaways every game this homestand with fans receiving Vegas 28 jerseys on Monday, are desperately trying to whet the appetite for their new fanbase."It’s good to be here in Vegas to be able to play a regular-season series in front of a community that we’re obviously going to be a big part of," Kotsay said. "We want to do as much as we can here in the community, get out, and show that our engagement is going to be 100%, which I think we’re doing and going to do as we get further into this relationship."The fans have responded, with at least 8,500 tickets sold for each game against the Brewers, and 8,000 or more for each game against the Rockies. The weather has even cooperated, with an 80-degree balmy evening Monday. The forecast is for mild temperatures the rest of the week, but with a day game Sunday, and the high expected to be 101, it could be rather uncomfortable, even though it’s a dry heat.Still, no matter how many hospital visits, food bank drivers, meet-and-greets the A’s have planned, nothing will replace good ol’ fashioned winning. The Vegas Golden Knights certainly showed that by being in the Stanley Cup Final their first year in 2017-2018, winning the Stanley Cup in their sixth year, and returning to the Final again this year.If you win, they will come, and after losing 102 games and 112 games in 2022 and 2023, the A's have shown steady improvement and are 31-35, just 3 ½ games out of first place."There’s some really special dudes over there," Murphy said, "and they’ve been on the cusp for a while. They’ve impressed me the last couple of years how they’ve played.’’The A’s not only need to win right away in Las Vegas, but also must embrace their proud history, reminding Vegas folks that this franchise has been around 126 years, won three consecutive World Series titles in the '70s, and played in three consecutive World Series in 1988-1990."They’ve got to get out there, talk about the history of the A's, and all of the great players they've had," Logan said. "They have an established brand. It’s the only green-and-gold color scheme in baseball. They’ve got some advantages being the Athletics."They've got to promote the fact that this is an iconic brand."And, hey, maybe let the folks know too that once they’re in their climate-controlled environment at their new ballpark, normalcy will prevail without pop-ups going over the fence for homers, they won’t need to outscore the Raiders just to have a shot at winning.Just don’t count on that this week.Follow Nightengale on X: @Bnightengale
