2 days Ago By Tyler Koerth, ChiCitySports
The Chicago Cubs first nine games of the 2025 regular season will all be on the road. They’ve already checked Japan and Arizona off the list. Next up is Sacramento, where they will face the Athletics.
Monday’s game against the Athletics will be a historic moment as the Athletics will be playing their first regular season game in Sacramento at Sutter Health Park. The Athletics will call this ballpark home, which is also the San Francisco Giants Triple-A team’s stadium, for the next three seasons before moving to Las Vagas. With MLB implementing a new balanced schedule a few seasons ago, every team will make at least one trip to Sacramento while the Athletics are playing home games there.
However, that does not mean every player is excited about it. Recently, one Cubs reliever had strong feelings regarding this. One Chicago Cubs reliever has strong feelings regarding playing the Athletics in a Triple-A stadium in Sacramento In a write up from Bob Nightengale of USA today, he shared several quotes from Cubs veteran reliever Ryan Brasier and his thoughts on playing at Sutter Health Park .
“I think it’s so stupid that we have to play at a Triple-A stadium,” Brasier said, “when they have maybe not a perfectly good ballpark in Oakland, but a big-league ballpark. I would have much rather play in Oakland than Sacramento, but I guess it doesn’t really matter what we want.” Things to know about Sutter Health Park What is the big deal about playing in a Triple-A stadium? For one, the maximum capacity seats only 14,014, if you include the outfield berm.
There is no tunnel between the dugouts and the clubhouse, which means that in order for players to access the clubhouse they will have to trek through an opening in center field. Lastly, the visiting club house is the smallest in the big leagues, whereas the Athletics club house is two stories tall. While playing in a Triple-A stadium may not seem like a big deal at first, the unique challenges of Sutter Health Park will certainly make for an unusual experience.
As the Cubs prepare to take the field for this historic home opener, all eyes will be on how they adapt to these less-than-ideal conditions. This article first appeared on ChiCitySports and was syndicated with permission..
