The Pacific Coast League (PCL), comprised of six minor baseball teams from Seattle to Los Angeles, was founded in 1903 by Cal Ewing. The San Francisco Seals made their debut in 1903 at Recreation Park at Harrison and 8th. The field had been built in 1897 on land leased from the City and the Pacific Sugar Company.
On March 5, 1906 Cal Ewing bought the San Francisco Seals. The first game of the season was on April 7, 1906 at Recreation Park. Eleven days later, the entire area was destroyed in the 1906 Earthquake and Fires[1]. The team played the rest of the season at Oakland’s Idora Park. At the end of the season Idora Park was slated to become residential housing, and Ewing began frantically searching for space to build a new stadium for both the Seals and the Oakland Oaks (another PCL team that Ewing also owned). In January 1907, with only 55 days before Opening Day, a site was secured for a new ballpark on Valencia between 14th and 15th over a nitric acid chemical plant that had been abandoned since 1878 when the company was declared a public nuisance because of noxious fumes (the company moved to Berkeley). 300 workers were hired and rushed to complete the field. There was no time to plant grass, so loam was used instead. Things looked to be on track until March 16th, when a two-week rainstorm flooded the field. Ewing, at the time President of the PCL, pushed Opening Day back by one week so that the field could dry out. On April 6th, New Recreation Park officially opened with 7,000 fans attending the first game. But it was an inadequate field. Ewing had tried, unsuccessfully, to lease a 35 square foot strip of land between third base and the left field seats. The undeveloped strip was owned by Oakland socialite Hanna Crome, who despised baseball. The result was that the right field line had to be pushed closer to the right fence, which was already at 235 feet, the minimum distance for a legal home run. Any ball that went over the right fence during a game at New Recreation Park was deemed not to be a home run.
In 1913 Ewing ran into legal issues regarding ownership and leasing rights of New Recreation Park (the Seals were competing for space and time with the Oaks). Frustrated, Ewing funded a new baseball stadium that he named after himself,
located between Masonic, Anza, Geary, Turk and Calvary Cemetery[2]. The land was leased from the Catholic Church. Mayor James Rolph[3] was one of the 18,000 fans who attended Opening Day in 1914. But every home game played at Ewing Field that season was shrouded in fog[4]. Sometimes games were cancelled because the fog was so low. Discouraged, Ewing sold the team at the end of the 1914 season to the owners of the Los Angeles Angels. The new owners refused to play at Ewing Field, opting instead to return to New Recreation Park. Ewing would go on to be part owner of the Oakland Oaks until 1929.
Ewing Park became a playing field for amateur teams. In 1923 Ewing Field was refigured to accommodate football. It also hosted boxing matches. And then, on June 5, 1926, the wooden stadium caught fire caused by a cigarette and the entire structure not only burned down, but took several neighborhood homes with it. The site remained abandoned until 1938 when the Catholic Church sold the land to developers who named their residential development Ewing Terrace.
During the 1920s the San Francisco Seals were considered the best minor league team in the United States. In 1931 the Seals moved to their own park aptly named Seals Stadium[5] at Bryant and 16th. The following year, Seals outfielder Vince DiMaggio arranged a tryout for his younger brother Joe. Joe DiMaggio[6] would make his professional baseball debut as a Seal at the end of the 1932 season and would play on the team for three years (1935 being a pennant year) before signing with the New York Yankees. Willie Mays’[7] father, Willie “Cat” Mays, played for the Seals in 1946 (another pennant year).
In 1957, when the New York Giants announced their intention to move to San Francisco, the Seals moved to Phoenix Arizona as a Giants’ affiliate. 1960 saw the beginning of multiple ownership and name changes before the team finally dissolved in 2010.
[1] 1906 Earthquake and Fires: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=2849
[2] Lone Mountain Cemeteries: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=3762
[3] James “Sunny Jim” Rolph: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=5365
[4] Karl the Fog: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=3950
[5] Seals Stadium: story coming September 20th
[6] Joe DiMaggio: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4124
[7] Willie Mays: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=3266
