Fan response to the Ballers’ April Fools’ Day gag convinced the team to go all-in on an alt-identity that’s a nod to the city’s connection to cannabis culture.
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A half-baked idea, repurposed as a last-minute April Fools’ 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.
“Maybe it’s the first April Fools’ Day joke that we now have to do in real life,” 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’s official Instagram account shortly past noon on April 1:
“We’ve been thinking… Oakland deserves something a little more elevated. Introducing the Oakland Blazers. An alt identity inspired by The Town’s culture, creativity, and innovation.
Come pack the Green Bowl section at Raimondi Park.
April Fools.
Or should we really do this?”
Accompanying the post was a rendering (see above) of a bright green baseball uniform with purple and orange accent colors, the Ballers’ name replaced with Blazers and a seven-bladed pot-leaf patch at the left shoulder.
The Blazers Origin Story
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, but also because Verhoek, owner of Pastime Tattoo in San Leandro, designed the Blazer uniforms that appeared in the April Fools’ Day post.
Pratt said fan response to the joke was immediate and the message was clear.
“Yeah, it was very well received — it completely exploded,” he said. “We thought that people would love it, but, we didn’t think they’d love it as much as they did. It was just a parade of [posted] comments from people saying things like ‘I would buy that immediately.’ At first, we were just happy to see the response.”
But then, Pratt said, the comments kept coming. And, at some point, a few hours into the joke, Pratt realized that a genuine smokin’ alt-identity for the team — pot-leaf-emblazoned jerseys and all — actually had legs.
“It’s expensive to outfit your entire team in a new uniform and we’d just gotten new uniforms celebrating our championship,” he explained. “So, 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.”
From Joke to Reality
Early the next day, the Ballers fully committed to the gag with a follow-up comment.
“OK. We hear you. 420 comments on this post and we’ll actually do it. Pass the word on the left-hand side.”
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’s bus) the Ballers posted to their Insta feed that they were full steam ahead.
(In case you’re unfamiliar with the concept, minor league baseball teams have a custom of occasionally adopting alternate identities or alter egos that temporarily replace a team’s 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 in 2024 (and became its championship team in 2025) , include Los Peloteros, which honors the city’s Hispanic community, and the Oakland Stands Up clenched-fist-holding-a-baseball jersey created in collaboration with the Black Panther Party Alumni Legacy Network.)
Beyond the fact that the Blazers’ alt-identity is definitely going to happen, details are as hazy as a hotboxing bullpen.
“Honestly, this was a plan that wasn’t a plan,” Freedman told me during our April 2 phone call. “And we’re less than 24 hours into our plan that wasn’t a plan, so we’re still kind of figuring it out. But we’re committed to doing it. The when and the where of it — and when the merch will be available for fans, which I think is what they’re most excited for — we don’t know yet.”
Pratt added that despite fans fervently expressing their desire for a 4/20 drop, the manufacturing turnaround time of five to six weeks — and the fact that the Ballers’ season opener at Raimondi Park won’t be until May 19 — make that a non-starter. In the meantime, he urged fans to head over to a dedicated Oakland Blazers landing page to sign up for alerts and news blasts about the new alt-identity.
Design Details, Cultural Fit and Destigmatization
While we all wait for word about that merch drop (and let’s face it, that stuff is going to sell), here’s a little more on those uniforms and why they’re a good fit for Oaktown:
Verhoek mentioned (and Pratt confirmed) that in a departure from the rendering first posted online, the Blazers’ ballcap, which uses the “O” version of the Ballers logo instead of the more familiar “B,” will incorporate a pot-leaf design as seen in the rendering below.
Verhoek also cited a very specific colorway inspiration.
“I chose light green, purple and orange, because the strain Granddaddy Purple was really popular around the time Oaksterdam University and the decriminalization [movement] were starting to get really big around here,” he explained. ”So those colors always kind of remind me of that strain and that era.”
Freedman also cited the city’s historic connection to cannabis in explaining how what started as a throwaway joke was an appropriate homage. “Oakland 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,” he said. “And our outfield wall signs promote alcohol, and weed’s better for you so we have no problem representing that part of our values.”
Verhoek said that when the Ballers do eventually take the field tricked out as the Blazers, he’ll take it as a win in the effort to destigmatize the plant.
“I think maybe this is a step towards a little bit more acceptance of cannabis within the mainstream culture of baseball,” he said, “It’s crazy to me that there’s still a stigma about something that has way less negative side effects [than alcohol]. So it’s 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.”
How to Be a Blazer Forever
And if that Oakland Blazers pot-leaf logo really resonates with you, Verhoek said you’ll eventually be able to make it permanent.
“Every year [Pastime Tattoo does] a free Oakland Ballers tattoo event,” he said. “And 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’m going to throw that design on there for sure.”
Now that’s a Baller[s] move.
This article is from an external, unpaid contributor. It does not represent High Times’ reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.
