Team logo Cap insignia Division North Division Arena/Stadium Banner Island Ballpark | Current Class A – Advanced Founded 1941 League California League | |
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Current Oakland Athletics (2005–present) Previous Texas Rangers (2003–2004)
Cincinnati Reds (2002)
Milwaukee Brewers (1979–1983, 1985–1999)
Seattle Mariners (1978)
California Angels (1972)
Baltimore Orioles (1959–1971)
St. Louis Cardinals (1958)
Chicago Cubs (1953–1954)
St. Louis Browns (1952)
Chicago White Sox (1949) League titles (11) 1946
1947
1963
1965
1969
1980
1986
1990
1992
2002
2008 Location Stockton, California, United States | ||
Stockton ports baseball
The Stockton Ports are a minor league baseball team in Stockton, California. The Ports play in the North Division of the Class A – Advanced California League and are a minor league affiliate of the Oakland Athletics. Their home field is Banner Island Ballpark, which seats over 5,000 people and opened in 2005. The Ports' games are broadcast on KWSX (1280 AM).
Contents
- Stockton ports baseball
- Delta college baseball faces off against stockton ports
- History
- Major league affiliations
- References
Delta college baseball faces off against stockton ports
History
Baseball first came to Stockton in the 1860s. At the time Stockton fielded a team in an earlier incarnation of the California League. In 1888 the Stockton team won the California League pennant with a record of 41–12. That same team also gained a bit of notoriety as a possible inspiration of "Casey at the Bat", a famous baseball poem by Ernest Thayer. Thayer was a journalist for the San Francisco Examiner at the time and the games were hosted in a ballpark on Banner Island, a place once known as Mudville.
The Stockton Flyers were established as a charter member of the California League in 1941. The league suspended operations in June 1942 due to World War II. The Flyers were rechristened as the Stockton Ports to recognize Stockton's status as an inland port city when the league resumed operations in 1946. That season, the Ports went on to win their first California League pennant.
In 1947, the Ports won the California League pennant again without a major league affiliation (they had a limited working agreement with the Pacific Coast League's Oakland Oaks). After going 24–18 playing through June 4, they went on a 26-game winning streak and took first place, never to relinquish again in that season. The win streak is one of the longest in professional baseball and is still a California League record. The Ports finished that season with a record of 95–45 and 16 games ahead of the two teams tied for second place. Years later, baseball historians Bill Weiss and Marshall Wright rated the 1947 Ports as one of the 100 best minor league teams of all time, ranked at number 98.
Owned by Stockton local Carl W. Thompson, Sr. (1971–73), the Ports would disband after the 1972 season, coming back as an affiliate of the Seattle Mariners in 1978. The Ports won more games in the 1980s than any other team in minor-league baseball. In an homage to the team in the Ernest Thayer poem, the Ports were renamed as the Mudville Nine in 2000 and 2001, then returned to the Ports name in 2002.
The Ports won their eleventh California League Championship in 2008 with a 9–3 victory over the Lancaster JetHawks on September 14, 2008. With 11 league titles, the Ports have the most among the league's active franchises, with the defunct Reno franchise also having won 11.
In 2005 the Ports became an affiliate of the Oakland Athletics and began play at Banner Island Ballpark.