San Francisco Seals

The San Francisco Seals were a San Francisco professional baseball team that played in the Pacific Coast League (PCL) from 1903 through 1957, when the New York Giants moved to San Francisco. During this time, the PCL was made up of teams up and down the Pacific Coast, from Seattle in the north to San Diego in the south. The Seals, their cross-bay rivals the Oakland Oaks, and all other PCL teams were successful financially (at least until the early 1950s) because back then there were no televised major league games, or any major league teams west of St. Louis. In fact in 1948, the Seals set a season attendance record of 670,000, a minor league record that stood for almost 40 years. Many future major leaguers got their start playing with the Seals or other PCL teams from the league's beginnings through the 1950s. Players liked playing in the relatively cooler West Coast weather and at times could make more money playing in the PCL than in the majors.

The Seals and the Oaks had quite a rivalry through the years. They would play Sunday doubleheaders, with one game in the morning at Seals Stadium (shown here in a mid 1950's photo), then the afternoon game played across the bay in Emeryville at the Oaks' home park. Both parks of course are long gone now; a Safeway shopping center (Potrero Center) now stands at the site of the old Seals Stadium. Rumor has it that a plaque commemorating Seals Stadium will be placed at the site sometime during 2008.

1949 Seals logo (from
1949 SF Seals yearbook)

In April, 1994, I attended a SF Giants-Oakland A's exhibition game where they wore the uniforms of the Seals and Oaks, reviving this old rivalry. As I sat there in 3Com Park watching the pre-game warmups, I remembered the stories both my dad and granddad had told me about the Seals. I also remembered the stories my dad's best friend, Ed Greenhood had told me about the Oaks. Ed was a part-time batboy for the 1927 Oaks. His granddad helped organize the very first Bay Area semi-professional baseball team, the Greenhoods and the Morans in the 1880's. As I sat there that April day, I wished all three of them were there with me watching these new players bring back memories of the Seals and the Oaks.

UPDATE: On Sept. 8, 2008, the San Francisco Giants are planning "Pacific Coast League night" to honor Lefty and the old PCL, before their game against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Listed in the left column are links to other parts of this site. I'm always looking for more information and pictures to use for the site.

However, PLEASE DON'T email me about the following items:

Requests for additional information (other than what appears on this site) about former Seals or other ex PCL players, will be ignored. I do not know anything else about the Seals, former Seals' players and other ex PCL players. If you'd like further information about former Seals or other PCL players (boxscores, pictures, rosters, or stats), I suggest you contact the sports department of the San Francisco Chronicle or SF Examiner, or newspapers for the various league cities. You can also check out the PCL books link in the left hand column. Another possible source of information is Patric Doyle's Professional Baseball Player Database.
If you have old PCL baseball cards, pictures, autographs, or other assorted memorabilia and wonder how much they might be worth, I suggest you contact Mark Macrae at mark_macrae at comcast dot net. He is a SF Bay Area man who sells PCL-related memorabilia.

If on the other hand you have any old Seals graphics, pictures, or information that you would be willing to let me use here, or you just want to share memories of the Seals, email me at thawley at tdl.com.

This page is dedicated to my dad, granddad and Ed, along with the scores of players that were San Francisco Seals.

Page last updated February 12, 2008.