OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Sonny Gray earned his first career win for the Athletics in Oakland on Aug. 15, 2013, against the Astros. Almost 11 years later, the right-hander notched victory No. 100 back in the Coliseum wearing a Cardinals jersey this time facing his former club.
It meant the world to him to win what is likely his last start on this mound, with the A's set to play the next three seasons in Sacramento.
The memories flooded back, like how his son Gunnar was born in the Bay Area and spent his first five years here. And there were the playoff seasons of 2013 and ‘14 during his time with the A’s. They're the team that drafted him in the first round at 18th overall out of Vanderbilt in 2011.
“It's a special place for me,” the 34-year-old Gray said. “Gunnar was raised here for the first five years of his life. We lived here from, what, 2013 to '17. We came to the ballpark here every day and I got to see the best sides of it, I guess. I got to see the sellouts and the winning the divisions and the going to the playoffs and playing in the playoffs here.”
So when Gray mixed his pitches — 22 of his fastballs went for strikes — to toss six scoreless innings and strike out six without walking a batter in the Cardinals’ 3-1 victory Monday night, he couldn’t help but reflect on it all once more.
When his teammates question what a stop in Oakland will be like, Gray insists, “You just don't know it like I know it.”
“It does hold a special part. This is the team that drafted me. This is the team that gave me a shot,” he said. “This is the team that believed in me. This is the fans that helped shape my career. I always enjoy coming back here.”
Hearing those “Sell the team!” chants struck him, too. That was hard. He hopes, in time, the A's fans might be able to celebrate along the way in this final year before the club plays the next three seasons in Sacramento ahead of a planned move to Las Vegas for the start of the 2028 campaign.
Gray understands the frustrations, especially given the years he spent in Oakland weren't close to the same as the situation now.
“I was out there pitching and even when I was out there I could hear “Sell! Sell!” It just makes me feel uncomfortable,” he said. “I'm kind of like, ‘Man, I don’t like that.' I do think that the fans probably do feel some type of way possibly but also, too, I would say as crappy as a situation as it is for the fans, maybe just try and enjoy it. It's going to be it, maybe just try to soak it in and enjoy it, just enjoy all the last moments and the last games and everything that you get to see.”
Sure, it's only mid-April and Gray is still on a pitch count after he strained his right hamstring in spring training, but the magnitude of the moment felt greater given his history here.
“I kind of knew it going into this week, right, like, 'OK, I'm throwing the first game in Oakland,' you're kind of sitting there like, ‘you know it’s probably going to be my last start here,'" he said. "I've made so many starts here and just knowing the whole week that this is probably the last one that you'll have, probably the last time we'll ever play here, it was pretty special. ...
“To me, it had a lot more meaning than just a game in the middle of whatever month it is.”
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St. Louis Cardinals' Sonny Gray pitches against the Oakland Athletics during a baseball game in Oakland, Calif., on Monday, April 15, 2024. (Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
St. Louis Cardinals' Sonny Gray pitches to an Oakland Athletics batter during the first inning of a baseball game Monday, April 15, 2024, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
St. Louis Cardinals' Sonny Gray walks to the dugout after pitching against the Oakland Athletics during the third inning of a baseball game Monday, April 15, 2024, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
St. Louis Cardinals' Sonny Gray pitches to an Oakland Athletics batter during the first inning of a baseball game Monday, April 15, 2024, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
PARIS (AP) — French actor Gérard Depardieu will face a criminal trial in October over the alleged sexual assaults in 2021 of two women on the set of a film, prosecutors announced Monday.
The 75-year-old actor, who previously has denied any wrongdoing, was detained for questioning by police in Paris for several hours earlier Monday. His lawyer, Christian Saint-Palais, later declined to comment to reporters other than to say that the actor was no longer in custody.
The Paris public prosecutor’s office said in a statement that the actor has been “summoned to appear before the criminal court” after the questioning.
A trial will start in October “for sexual assaults likely to have been committed in September 2021” against “two victims, on the set of the film ‘The Green Shutters,’ ” the statement said. It did not name the alleged victims.
French newspaper Le Parisien has reported that a 53-year-old movie decorator has alleged that Depardieu grabbed her and kneaded her waist, stomach and breasts during filming for “Les Volets verts,” or “The Green Shutters,” according to the woman’s lawyer, Carine Durrieu Diebolt, when she filed the complaint to the Paris prosecutor’s office in February.
In an open letter last October, Depardieu said: “I have never, ever abused a woman.”
Depardieu has also been accused by more than a dozen other women of harassing, groping or sexually assaulting them. He was handed preliminary rape and sexual assault charges in 2020 following allegations from actor Charlotte Arnould.
In that case, the investigating judge completed his probe on April 17 and transferred the file to the Paris public prosecutor’s office “to review and determine next steps in the proceeding,” the prosecutor's office said Monday.
Depardieu was long seen as a national icon in France. He has been a global ambassador for French film and enjoyed international fame with several roles in Hollywood.
The latest episode involving Depardieu came as French cinema is roiled by a #metoo awakening following actor Judith Godrèche’s call for France’s film industry to “face the truth” on sexual violence and physical abuse. She made that appeal during a live broadcast in February of the Cesar Awards ceremony, France’s version of the Oscars.
Barbara Surk reported from Nice, France. AP writer John Leicester in Le Pecq, France, contributed.
Reporters wait outside the police station where French actor Gerard Depardieu is being questioned, Monday, April 29, 2024 in Paris. French media are reporting that police have summoned actor Gerard Depardieu for questioning about allegations made by two women that he sexually assaulted them on movie sets. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
French actor Gerard Depardieu's lawyer Christian Saint-Palais returns at the police stations Monday, April 29, 2024 in Paris. French media are reporting that police have summoned actor Gerard Depardieu for questioning about allegations made by two women that he sexually assaulted them on movie sets. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
French actor Gerard Depardieu's lawyer Christian Saint-Palais answers a call Monday, April 29, 2024 in Paris. French media are reporting that police have summoned actor Gérard Depardieu for questioning about allegations made by two women that he sexually assaulted them on movie sets. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Police officers stand outside the police station where French actor Gerard Depardieu is expected to be questioned, Monday, April 29, 2024 in Paris. French media are reporting that police have summoned actor Gérard Depardieu for questioning about allegations made by two women that he sexually assaulted them on movie sets. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
View of the police station where French actor Gerard Depardieu is expected to be questioned, Monday, April 29, 2024 in Paris. French media are reporting that police have summoned actor Gérard Depardieu for questioning about allegations made by two women that he sexually assaulted them on movie sets. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
FILE - Actor Gerard Depardieu addresses the media during the press conference for the film 'Saint Amour' at the 2016 Berlinale Film Festival in Berlin, Germany, Friday, Feb. 19, 2016. French media are reporting that police have summoned actor Gérard Depardieu for questioning about allegations made by two women that he sexually assaulted them on movie sets. Broadcaster BFMTV and the daily Le Parisien both reported that the 75-year-old actor was called in for police questioning in Paris on Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Axel Schmidt, File)
