Golden Knights, Raiders and Ringers Raise Money For Charity With Softball Game Entertainment
By Alan Snel
LVSportsBiz.com
LVSportsBiz.com photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
Let’s just say it was not your average softball game.
Sure, there was beer drinking. One of the softball players had a certain easy access to cans of 7Five Brewing “Training Day” golden ale. And each team had a ringer, too.
But there was a certain surreal feel to the softball match Saturday, where mostly players from the Vegas Golden Knights were playing mostly players of the Oakland Raiders football team on a $150 million brand-new ballfield normally used by the Las Vegas Aviators Triple A baseball club. The ballpark in Summerlin was packed and it was a sellout.
They raised $136,000 from the game under the “Battle 4 Vegas” banner, which said it was giving the money to the Tyler Robinson Foundation, the nonprofit foundation of local band Imagine Dragons to help the families of kids suffering from cancer.
The team headed by Golden Knights winger Reilly Smith was filled with Golden Knights players like Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson, Deryk Engelland, Erik Haula, Shea Theodore and Ryan Reaves, who supplied the 7Five Brewing Company brews.
Smith. Photo credit: J. Tyge O’Donnell/LVSportsBiz.com
They faced a squad topped by former Raiders great Marcus Allen and included players like recently drafted rookie Josh Jacobs, linebacker Vontaze Burfict, lineman Trent Brown and former Raider Rod Woodson.
The jewel of a minor league baseball park was overrun by Golden Knights fans, though there were fans wearing Tim Brown, Derek Carr and Ken Stabler Raiders jerseys, too. VGK fans took the game seriously, cheering furiously when Knights players struck a hit or scored a run.
It was a surreal feel to a softball game that included a major league team — the NHL Golden Knights — that have taken over this city. And it included an NFL team that is playing its final season in Oakland while a new $1.8 billion stadium project is built in Las Vegas and set to open for the 2020 season.
There was a flyover to start the game, Wayne “Mr. Las Vegas” Newton helped sing “Take Me Out The Ballgame,” and fans screamed, “Knight,” during the national anthem. This is Las Vegas.
Throw in colorful local ringers like Jose Canseco and Shane Victorino, and you had yourself an entertaining cross-section of athletes swinging the softball bat .
Canseco in the Home Run Derby. Photo credit: Alan Snel/LVSportsBiz.com
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