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A’s Blank Rangers On Opening Day

Published

11 years ago

April 6, 2015

Oakland, CA – Blame it on the two new video boards or the swift “willing and dealing” by General Manager Billy Bean this offseason. The A’s overcame an obstacle that had been their achilles heel for the last ten years. Three Oakland managers Ken Macha, Bob Geren and Bob Melvin have fallen victim to losing on Opening Day.

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“This will be my fourth opening day and we haven’t won one yet,” said Melvin. “It does bother me. You really want to enjoy and embrace opening day but I really would like to get this losing streak out of the way”

The ten-year losing skid (on Opening Day) ended tonight, in fact, not only did the A’s shutout the Texas Rangers 8-0. Sonny Gray was a gem on the mound pitching a no-hitter through eight innings. He allowed on hit to Ryan Rua who leadoff the eighth with a single to right field. The crowd rose to their feet chanting “Sonny, Sonny, Sonny” and gave him a standing ovation when he walked off the mound.

“That was a big monkey we needed to get off our back,” Melvin explained. And to do it in the fashion we did tonight was terrific. It’s really nice to get that win.”

Gray finished the night with one walk and struck out three. His pitch count was at 98. One mistake, leaving a fastball over the plate a little too long was the deciding factor of Rua breaking up his “no-no”. But Gray wouldn’t change a thing. He knew he was in a zone and that one pitch he wouldn’t take back.

“There in the eighth, I didn’t feel like I made a bad pitch,” said Gray. “I was maybe a little tired, left a few pitches up, but the hit, he put a great swing on it and hit he ball into right field. But I wouldn’t take that pitch back.”

“He was throwing all his pitches,” Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre said. “He was commanding his fastball and throwing his pitches for strikes. He pitched great game.”

A team full of new faces did not disappoint. Ben Zobrist recorded his first home run as an Athletic in the first. He followed Sam Fuld’s one-out triple with a two-run shot to left field giving Oakland a 2-0 lead. The A’s added two more runs to pull away from the Rangers in the fourth. And never looked back as the hits kept coming.

“For the fans that maybe didn’t know how well we were in Spring Training,” Zobrist said. “They were able to see what this team’s capable of. The game is a lot harder than we made it look tonight.”

Ike Davis leadoff the fourth with a free pass. Stephen Vogt doubled to left field moving Davis to third. Marcus Semien drove in Davis on a bloop single to center field making it a 3-0 game. Then on a wild pitch, Vogt scored. In the seventh, Vogt hit a three-run homer to extend Oakland’s lead 7-0. Billy Butler scored in Eric Sogard in the eight making it a 8-0 game.

For years the A’s needed a power hitter but from the looks of tonight’s game the team is well on their way to have a success season. The defense was superb keeping Texas frustrated throughout the game. A crucial call in the fifth didn’t result in scoring in any runs but kept the momentum login of Oakland.

Butler grounded into a force out to shortstop Elvis Andrus to second baseman Rougned Odor. Fuld slid into second and was tagged out by Odor who never had the ball to tag him out. The A’s challenged the call and it was overturned. The result a Fielder’ Choice, E-6. Pitcher Anthony Bass walked Davis, loading the bases with one out. But Vogt struck out stranding all three.

“I think we have more consistent power throughout our lineup,” said Vogt. “We may not have a 30-home run guy like we’ve had in the last couple of years. You’re going to miss that kind of power. That’s a special power. But up and down the lineup, you’re going to see guys hunting for 10 or 15 home runs.”

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The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 8 – 14, 2026

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Black Artists in America, Installation Three Wraps at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens

TRI-STATE DEFENDER — With 50+ paintings, sculptures and assemblages, the exhibit features artists like Varnette Honeywood from Los Angeles, whose pieces appeared in Bill Coby’s private collection (before they were auctioned off) and on “The Cosby Show.” Also included are works by Alonzo Davis, another Los Angeles artist who opened one of the first galleries there where Black Artists could exhibit.

Published

2 weeks ago

March 24, 2026

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By Candace A. Gray | Tri-State Defender

The tulips gleefully greet those who enter the gates at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens on an almost spring day. More than 650,000 bulbs of various hues are currently on display. And they are truly breathtaking.

Inside the gallery, and equally as breathtaking, is the “Black Artists in America, From the Bicentennial to September 11” exhibit, which runs through Sunday, March 29. This is the third installment of a three-part series that started years ago and illustrates part of the Black experience through visual arts in the 20th century.

“This story picks up where part two left off,’’ said Kevin Sharp, the Linda W. and S. Herbert Rhea director for the Dixon. “This era is when we really start to see the emergence of these important Black artists’ agency and freedom shine through. They start to say and express what they want to, and it was a really beautiful time.”

With 50+ paintings, sculptures and assemblages, the exhibit features artists like Varnette Honeywood from Los Angeles, whose pieces appeared in Bill Coby’s private collection (before they were auctioned off) and on “The Cosby Show.” Also included are works by Alonzo Davis, another Los Angeles artist who opened one of the first galleries there where Black Artists could exhibit.

“Though [Davis] was from LA, he actually lived in Memphis for a decade,” said Sharp. “He was a dean at Memphis College of Art, and later opened the first gallery in New York owned and operated by black curators.”

Another featured artist is former NFL player, Ernie Barnes. His work is distinctive. Where have you seen one of his most popular paintings, Sugar Shack? On the end scene and credits of the hit show “Good Times.” His piece Saturday Night, Durham, North Carolina, 1974 is in this collection.

Memphis native James Little’s “The War Baby: The Triptych” is among more than 50 works featured in “Black Artists in America, From the Bicentennial to September 11” at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens, the final installment of a three-part series highlighting the impact and evolution of Black artists through 2011.

The exhibit features other artists with Memphis ties, including abstract painter James Little, who was raised in a segregated Memphis and attended Memphis Academy of Art (before it was Memphis College of Art). He later moved to New York, became a teacher and an internationally acclaimed fixture in the art world in 2022 when he was named a Whitney Biennial selected artist at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Other artists like Romare Bearden, who had a Southern experience but lived up North, were featured in all three installments.

“During this period of time, he was a major figure,” said Sharp. “He wrote one of the first books on the history of African American art during a time when there were more Black academics, art teachers, more Black everything!”

Speaking of Black educators, Sharp said the head curator behind this tri-part series and Dixon’s partner in the arts is Earnestine Jenkins, Ph.D., an art history professor at the University of Memphis, who also earned a Master of Arts degree from Memphis State University (now UofM). “We began working with Dr. Jenkins in 2018,” he said.

Sharp explained that it takes a team of curators, registrars, counterparts at other museums, and more, about three years to assemble an exhibit like this. It came together quite seamlessly, he added. Each room conjured up more jaw-dropping “wows” than the one before it. Each piece worked with the others to tell the story of Black people and their collective experience during this time period.

One of the last artists about whom Sharp shared information was Bettye Saar, who will turn 100 years old this year. She’s been working in Los Angeles for 80 years and is finally getting her due. Her medium is collages or assemblages, and an incredible work of hers is on display. She’s married to an artist and has two daughters, also artists.

The exhibit catalogue bears some of these artists’ stories, among other scholarly information.

The exhibit, presented by the Joe Orgill Family Fund for Exhibitions, is culturally and colorfully rich. It is a must see and admission to the Dixon is free.

Visit https://www.dixon.org/ to learn more.

Fun Facts: An original James Little design lives in the flooring of the basketball court at Tom Lee Park, and he makes and mixes his own paint colors.