A half-baked idea, repurposed as a last-minute April Fools\u2019 Day joke, to temporarily turn the Oakland Ballers into the herb-green, pot-leaf-emblazoned Oakland Blazers has been such a big hit with fans that the baseball team has decided to officially adopt the alternate identity in the upcoming season.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe it\u2019s the first April Fools\u2019 Day joke that we now have to do in real life,\u201d Ballers co-founder and CEO Paul Freedman told me in a phone interview on April 2, less than 30 hours after the following message was posted to the team\u2019s official Instagram account<\/a> shortly past noon on April 1:<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been thinking\u2026 Oakland deserves something a little more elevated. Introducing the Oakland Blazers. An alt identity inspired by The Town\u2019s culture, creativity, and innovation.<\/p>\n Come pack the Green Bowl section at Raimondi Park.<\/p>\n April Fools.<\/p>\n Or should we really do this?\u201d<\/p>\n Accompanying the post was a rendering (see above) of a bright green baseball uniform with purple and orange accent colors, the Ballers\u2019 name replaced with Blazers and a seven-bladed pot-leaf patch at the left shoulder.<\/p>\n The Blazers Origin Story<\/p>\n According to Casey Pratt, the Oakland Ballers VP of Communications & Fan Entertainment, while the decision to pull a fast one on fans was a last-minute ask by Freedman, the seed for the herbal-leaning alt-identity was actually planted about eight months ago during a team podcast conversation involving Pratt, Ballers catcher Tyler Lozano and tattoo artist (and Ballers press box fixture) Ben Verhoek. I mention this not only because you can watch the precise moment it happens here<\/a>, but also because Verhoek, owner of Pastime Tattoo<\/a> in San Leandro, designed the Blazer uniforms that appeared in the April Fools\u2019 Day post.<\/p>\n Pratt said fan response to the joke was immediate and the message was clear.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, it was very well received \u2014 it completely exploded,\u201d he said. \u201cWe thought that people would love it, but, we didn\u2019t think they\u2019d love it as much as they did. It was just a parade of [posted] comments from people saying things like \u2018I would buy that immediately.\u2019 At first, we were just happy to see the response.\u201d<\/p>\n But then, Pratt said, the comments kept coming. And, at some point, a few hours into the joke, Pratt realized that a genuine smokin\u2019 alt-identity for the team \u2014 pot-leaf-emblazoned jerseys and all \u2014 actually had legs.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s expensive to outfit your entire team in a new uniform and we\u2019d just gotten new uniforms celebrating our championship,\u201d he explained. \u201cSo, at first we thought maybe we could find a sponsor that would like help us do this. Then it kept blowing up, and blowing up. At some point we realized we could probably sell enough hats and jerseys to offset whatever it would cost us to create these.\u201d<\/p>\n From Joke to Reality<\/p>\n Early the next day, the Ballers fully committed to the gag with a follow-up comment.<\/p>\n \u201cOK. We hear you. 420 comments on this post and we\u2019ll actually do it. Pass the word on the left-hand side.\u201d<\/p>\n By 2:44 p.m. on April 2 (barely 26 hours after making the joke that lit up their social media feed like Snoop Dogg on Willie Nelson\u2019s bus) the Ballers posted to their Insta feed<\/a> that they were full steam ahead.<\/p>\n (In case you\u2019re unfamiliar with the concept, minor league baseball teams have a custom of occasionally adopting alternate identities or alter egos that temporarily replace a team\u2019s primary branding to honor a specific cause or theme. Existing alt-identity uniforms for the Ballers, an independent minor league team that joined the Pioneer League<\/a> in 2024 (and became its championship team in 2025) , include Los Peloteros, which honors the city\u2019s Hispanic community, and the Oakland Stands Up clenched-fist-holding-a-baseball jersey created in collaboration with the Black Panther Party Alumni Legacy Network<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Beyond the fact that the Blazers\u2019 alt-identity is definitely going to happen, details are as hazy as a hotboxing bullpen.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, this was a plan that wasn\u2019t a plan,\u201d Freedman told me during our April 2 phone call. \u201cAnd we\u2019re less than 24 hours into our plan that wasn\u2019t a plan, so we\u2019re still kind of figuring it out. But we\u2019re committed to doing it. The when and the where of it \u2014 and when the merch will be available for fans, which I think is what they\u2019re most excited for \u2014 we don\u2019t know yet.\u201d<\/p>\n Pratt added that despite fans fervently expressing their desire for a 4\/20 drop, the manufacturing turnaround time of five to six weeks \u2014 and the fact that the Ballers\u2019 season opener at Raimondi Park won\u2019t be until May 19 \u2014 make that a non-starter. In the meantime, he urged fans to head over to a dedicated Oakland Blazers landing page<\/a> to sign up for alerts and news blasts about the new alt-identity.<\/p>\n Design Details, Cultural Fit and Destigmatization<\/p>\n While we all wait for word about that merch drop (and let\u2019s face it, that stuff is going to sell), here\u2019s a little more on those uniforms and why they\u2019re a good fit for Oaktown:<\/p>\n Verhoek mentioned (and Pratt confirmed) that in a departure from the rendering first posted online, the Blazers\u2019 ballcap, which uses the \u201cO\u201d version of the Ballers logo instead of the more familiar \u201cB,\u201d will incorporate a pot-leaf design as seen in the rendering below.<\/p>\n Verhoek also cited a very specific colorway inspiration.<\/p>\n \u201cI chose light green, purple and orange, because the strain Granddaddy Purple<\/a> was really popular around the time Oaksterdam University<\/a> and the decriminalization [movement] were starting to get really big around here,\u201d he explained. \u201dSo those colors always kind of remind me of that strain and that era.\u201d<\/p>\n Freedman also cited the city\u2019s historic connection to cannabis in explaining how what started as a throwaway joke was an appropriate homage. \u201cOakland has been at the forefront of the cannabis legalization movement and [cannabis] has been a big part of Oakland, culture and the music industry and the arts industry,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd our outfield wall signs promote alcohol, and weed\u2019s better for you so we have no problem representing that part of our values.\u201d<\/p>\n Verhoek said that when the Ballers do eventually take the field tricked out as the Blazers, he\u2019ll take it as a win in the effort to destigmatize the plant.<\/p>\n \u201cI think maybe this is a step towards a little bit more acceptance of cannabis within the mainstream culture of baseball,\u201d he said, \u201cIt\u2019s crazy to me that there\u2019s still a stigma about something that has way less negative side effects [than alcohol]. So it\u2019s good to see this a baby step in the direction of acceptance, especially in a place like Oakland, which has always been groundbreaking in that realm.\u201d<\/p>\n How to Be a Blazer Forever<\/p>\n And if that Oakland Blazers pot-leaf logo really resonates with you, Verhoek said you\u2019ll eventually be able to make it permanent.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery year [Pastime Tattoo does] a free Oakland Ballers tattoo event,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we are going to be giving away different sheets of Ballers designs every Tuesday home game for Tattoo Tuesdays, leading up to the end of the season, when we have the event. And, yeah, I\u2019m going to throw that design on there for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n Now that\u2019s a Baller[s] move.<\/p>\n This article is from an external, unpaid contributor. It does not represent High Times\u2019 reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/6a5806b7-40b1-4c5a-99b4-4f6e879caaff_3235.jpeg\"\/)
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