Casey Pratt has covered the Athletics and other Bay Area teams for more than 20 years for multiple television news stations.
Pratt is a California native who has built his career on ties to the Bay Area and its sports teams. He grew up in Danville, but his family has lived in the Bay Area for four generations. He fondly recalled memories of his grandfather’s house across from Lake Merritt in Oakland.
Pratt has become the go-to source for information on all things Bay Area sports, especially the Oakland Athletics, but like many journalists, he started out as just a sports fan.
Pratt looks back fondly on the Bash brothers (Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire) and Joe Montana-led 49ers of his youth, and says he was blessed with some great teams during that time in his life.
“I went to a community college in Mesa, San Diego,” Pratt says, “for four years, which I’m really proud of. I had some great journalism professors there, which led me in a natural direction to transfer to San Francisco State University.”
It was in San Francisco, according to Platt, that his journalism career really took off: His mother taught ABC News anchor Larry Beale’s daughter in elementary school, and the two became close and developed a teacher-student relationship, Platt said.
While pursuing a journalism degree at San Francisco State University, Pratt worked his way up the ranks in ABC7’s sports department, taking on a weekend sports producer role and eventually running the entire sports department.
“I was helping my colleagues get internships and I was telling all my instructors, ‘I already have my dream job in the industry. Do I really need to learn how to write an obituary?'” Pratt said.
Pratt’s career progressed. After leaving ABC7, he worked for NBC Sports Bay Area as an insider for the Oakland Athletics before returning to ABC7’s sports department.
Through his reporting, sportscasting and social media content, Pratt has covered the A’s, Giants, Raiders and 49ers and has become one of the most trusted voices in Bay Area sports.
Pratt has told countless stories, but one of his favorites was the Bernie Lean dance that went viral in 2012.
“It was a funny story that people loved to tell. It was a really silly story, I wrote it basically as a joke, and it went viral and became one of my favorite stories,” Pratt said.
When Sam Silveira was in sixth grade, Bernie Lean It’s become a popular celebration for the A’s, and he grew up a fan and worked for the team from 2018-21, serving as a fan liaison.
“As a fan, I have a lot of great memories of this team growing up, and Bernie Leen is just one of them,” Silveira said. “I worked for the Athletics for about three years and I can’t believe they’re moving. It’s a shame for the fans and for MLB.”
Silveira said he has been paying close attention to Pratt’s reporting and is grateful that he is shedding light on the situation.
Pratt said his frustration with the Athletics’ potential relocation was what motivated him to continue covering the possibility of a move.
“I run the sports department with Larry,” Pratt said, “and I produce the show and occasionally anchor the sports. It’s not my job to cover this, and it just became an issue, mostly because I was frustrated and fed up with the way things were going.”
As the Athletics’ move to Las Vegas loomed, Pratt began posting on his X account (formerly Twitter) and YouTube channel detailing every aspect of the move.
“I thought this was extremely important,” Pratt said. “Unless all of the information is made public and people are held accountable, something like this can’t be allowed to happen.”
Pratt said he followed the situation “relentlessly” and wanted to be as fair and accurate as possible.
“If it wasn’t fair to people, they wouldn’t talk to me,” Pratt said. “I just tried to get the information out there as best I could. It’s a very confusing, difficult, boring topic, with all the legal niceties and environmental impact statements and stuff. So I tried to get the information out in a way that was easy to understand.”
Pratt said the team is likely to move to Las Vegas. Negotiations with Oakland fell apart in 2023 and the team recently announced that the 2024 season will be its last in the city. He believes it’s very likely the Athletics will move.
Pratt is considering alternative plans to keep the team in Oakland, but none of them involve current owner John Fisher.
“I think the only way that’s going to happen is if John Fisher sells the team,” Pratt said. “I think there are a lot of people who would like to buy the team and build it in Oakland at the Howard Terminal or the Coliseum.”
Pratt isn’t the only one who thinks Fisher should sell the team.
Fan groups including Last Dive Bar and Oakland 68’s have organized boycotts and are selling merchandise with the word “for sale” written on it.
Mark Sigmon, a baseball historian and professor at San Francisco State University who grew up in Alameda and was an Athletics fan as a child, said baseball needs to get back on track with the Athletics.
“As I’ve studied baseball and seen the changes it’s undergoing, I’ve gotten the sense that baseball is like this great river that’s just flowing toward perfection,” Sigmon said.
Sigmon thinks of Fischer as an obstacle in the river, a baseball: The more water that surges against the obstacle, the more likely it is to break.
“A fool like John Fisher isn’t interested in the interests of baseball or what’s best for the game, he’s only interested in making as much money as possible,” Sigmon said. “Hopefully the tides of baseball will wash him and any other owners who behave like that away.”
Sigmon said for the first time since the late 1970s, he won’t be attending an Oakland Athletics game.
His attitude is consistent with that of many and exactly what Pratt thinks happens with most Athletics fans.
“I think there will come a day when fans will no longer watch major league baseball,” Sigmon said.
There’s no reason to root for the team, according to Sigmon and Pratt, and both experts say the Athletics’ decision to walk away is hurting MLB money and fans.
“It’s unfortunate, but I think there’s a market here that can grow,” Pratt said. “All you need is an owner and a team that’s willing to invest in their fan base, and you’ll reap the benefits. The Athletics have notoriously underinvested since the ’80s.”
With the move looming, many are wondering what will remain of Oakland baseball.
Pratt said the Oakland Ballers are the new team Athletics fans will root for.
“Everything they do is so great,” Pratt said. “The goal is to uplift youth baseball, uplift the community, and help all the Little Leagues that have been ignored or left behind by Athletics. They give them a place to play, they donate uniforms to Little Leagues, they allow them to do clinics and things like that for Oakland youth.”
While B.J. Boyd doesn’t work for the Ballers, he’s close friends with many of the staff members and helps out with coaching and youth development programs when he can. Boyd grew up in Petaluma, not far from Oakland. The Athletics selected him in the sixth round of the 2012 MLB Draft.
Boyd believes the Athletics’ departure will hit local young people learning the game the hardest, and since retiring from his playing career he has worked to make baseball more accessible to low-income communities.
“It’s great to see the kids, teachers and coaches,” Boyd said, “reaching out and giving back to the community to make it a better place and keep the sport alive.”
Boyd believes the Athletics’ departure creates an opportunity for the Ballers to step up, make a change and bring baseball to fans.
Pratt said his life won’t change much when the Athletics leave. He won’t miss much, other than taking his family to games. He said he’ll be busy covering the team that has Bay Area loyalties.
“Most of what I do with the Athletics is what I do in my free time, and frankly, I just have more free time,” Pratt said. “I’ll actually be better at covering other teams because I won’t be so busy with other crap.”
He’s one of the fans the Oakland Athletics will never get back.
