There will be a celebration of the Bay Area’s past sports greatness on Wednesday when the Multi-ethnic Sports Hall of Fame resurfaces at one of the country’s great sports bars of yesteryear.
Former A’s and Giants outfielder Bill North, a two-time World Series champion with Oakland in the early ‘70s, will be the special guest from 6 p.m.-10 p.m. at the grand re-opening of Rickey’s Sports Lounge in San Leandro.
North, now 75, is eager to share his thoughts about his old team preparing to leave Oakland and head toward Las Vegas.
“I’m a pragmatist. I’ve been watching how professional sports have treated Oakland for many years,” North said during a phone conversation Tuesday. “And nobody’s really done anything for the community.
“I have an opinion that rich people like to get richer and make other rich people richer without purpose,” added North, who spent more than three decades as a financial planner near his Kirkland, Washington home. “I loved The Town … and there’s a whole bunch of people that could have done better with Oakland. I was a baseball player there and I saw times you could have looked at Oakland as an opportunity.
“To me, it’s just another example of a lack of caring for those in marginalized situations.”
There figures to be a number of lively sports conversations as a number of other former East Bay greats will be on hand at the former go-to place for Raiders fans, which had a soft re-opening in May ahead of its official restart coinciding with the beginning of the NFL season this week.
Dave Stewart, a four-time 20-game winner who led the A’s to their last World Series championship in 1989, headlines a list of former players scheduled to attend. The list includes ex-baseball players Mike Norris and Bip Roberts, ex-Raiders Raymond Chester, Art Thoms and Mike Dotterer, former NFL players Sherman White and Jerry Robinson, as well as ex-Harlem Globetrotters legend Nate Branch.
Award-winning sports columnist/author Dave Newhouse and author Arif Khatib, the founder of the East Bay-based Multi-ethnic Sports Hall of Fame, will be part of a panel with North that discusses sports in Oakland, past and present, and more. Newhouse, a former longtime writer for this organization, and former A’s executive Andy Dolich authored “Goodbye, Oakland,” a look at how the city landed on the verge of losing the Raiders, Warriors and the A’s. Khatib will also have updates on his sports hall of fame’s next class as well as the presentation of the first annual Curt Flood Platinum Award ceremony on Feb. 24, 2024. The award, in honor of Oakland’s Flood, one of baseball’s greatest pioneers, will be presented to the top performers from football, baseball, hockey and basketball.
For a charitable, tax-deductible donation, guests are welcome to attend the ceremonies at Rickey’s, located at 15028 Hesperian Blvd. in San Leandro. For $50, attendees will receive autographs and photo opportunities with the athletes in attendance along with a chance to win A’s and Giants tickets through a raffle. For $100, guests will also receive autographed copies of Newhouse and Dolich’s book as well as Khatib’s book, “Remember the Sacrifice,” a series of vignettes on unheralded athletes of color, some of which come from the Bay Area.
For more information as well as tickets for Wednesday night’s festivities, go to www.multiethnicsportshof.com, or call 510-629-3895.
