Oakland Ballers gifted legacy BART car originally turned down by A's. Here's how they'll use it

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- Oakland's newest baseball team is getting a very big piece of Bay Area history as gift from BART.

The Ballers are retrofitting a legacy BART car that was delivered to the ballpark on Thursday morning into a new concession stand for the park. The car was loaded onto a flatbed track in Hayward before being driven over to Raimondi Park.

This long-standing piece of Bay Area history that had been used for the past 50 years to transport passengers across the Bay Area was retired last April.

Over the next year, the car will be stored off-site while it's being transformed into a concession stand.

The Ballers plan to unveil the BART car next season.

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BART says this exact legacy car arriving at the Raimondi Park was initially supposed to go to the A's to bring to their new stadium to commemorate their long history in the Bay Area.

But team officials emailed BART in 2023 to inform them they would no longer be accepting the car.

The Ballers said they jumped on the opportunity to snag this piece of history the moment BART called.

"We want Raimondi Park to feel like a living museum, where we can repurpose and bring pieces of Bay Area history for people to experience, and this is going to be a big step of that," said Casey Pratt, the vice president of Communications and Fan Entertainment for the Ballers. "I think that's pretty much the spirit of the Ballers, is taking these things and finding another way for people to get another chance to enjoy them, treat them with the respect and history that they deserve."

The Ballers also recently brought in two other donated pieces of history to Raimondi Park that will be new this season. You might recognize them

Two Stomper statues, originally commissioned by the A's several years back, were gifted from the Oakland Zoo and Visit Oakland after the team left the Bay Area.

The park is planning to call this area 'Scrappy's Sanctuary for Lost Animals.'

Opening Day for the Ballers at Raimondi Park kicks off on May 20.