The city of Fresno had professional baseball as far back as 1898 when it had a team in the original California League, then considered an "outlaw" league (i.e., outside the bounds of Organized Baseball). The team dropped out of the league after that year, but the California League returned in 1905 with the Fresno Tigers, joined late in the season by Fresno native and future hall of famerFrank Chance. In 1906, the Tacoma Tigers of the Pacific Coast League moved to Fresno, playing as the Fresno Raisin Eaters for one season. In 1910, Fresno rejoined the old California League, which had entered Organized Baseball as the Class "D" California State League, but the league folded during the season. When the league reorganized, Fresno rejoined it in 1913, finishing second in a four-team league. Fresno finished first in 1914, after which the team and league folded. Starting in 1905, these teams played at Recreation Park.[1]
Cardinals Affiliation
When the modern California League was founded in 1941 as a Class "C" minor league, the Fresno Cardinals were a charter member, the others being the Anaheim Aces, Bakersfield Badgers, Merced Bears, Riverside Reds, San Bernardino Stars, Santa Barbara Saints, and Stockton Fliers. The Cards finished first, 6+1⁄2 games ahead of the Saints, but lost the playoffs to the Saints 4 games to 1. In 1942, they finished second in a season shortened by America's entry into World War II. The league suspended play for the 1943, 1944, and 1945 seasons. In 1946, the California League resumed operations. The Cardinals won pennants in 1948 and 1952.
In 1955, the Cardinals fielded one of the best teams in the history of minor league baseball, ranked the 79th best minor league team of all time by baseball historians Bill Weiss and Marshall Wright.[2] It was one of only a handful of lower classification teams (i.e., Class A, B, C and D) to have been included in the top 100 minor league teams. The Cards finished 104–43 for a .707 won-lost percentage, 5+1⁄2 games ahead of the San Jose Red Sox for the season as a whole. The league played a split season schedule, though, and the Cards finished second, 2+1⁄2 games behind the Stockton Ports in the first half of the split season. In the second half, though Stockton faded, Fresno barely finished first, only one game over San Jose. In the playoffs, Fresno defeated Stockton 3 games to 1 to win the CL pennant. The 1955 Cardinals set league records for most runs (1,048), hits (1,500), and RBI (893) in a season. Their 104 games won and .707 winning percentage remain California League records to this day. The team won its last pennant in Fresno the following year, 1956.
The Fresno Cardinals had long been one of the league's more popular teams, due in large part to its affiliation with the major league Cardinals. Until 1955, St. Louis had been the major leagues' westernmost city, with the St. Louis Cardinals winning many fans in the western part of the United States as a result. In addition, a large percentage of the population of Fresno and the surrounding area consisted of transplants from the states of Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas, and Arkansas, who arrived with a natural affinity for the Cardinals.
The televising of major league baseball games and other factors began taking its toll on minor league attendance during the 1950s, with many teams and entire leagues folding as a result. Scaling back their minor league operations, the St. Louis Cardinals sold their Fresno club after the 1956 season to the Greater Fresno Youth Foundation and ended their affiliation with the team. In 1957 the team, now known as the Fresno Sun Sox, operated without a major league affiliation, and finished last. Jerry Zuvela was the team captain.
In 2010, the Fresno Cardinals, a collegiate summer baseball team was founded.[3]
Giants Affiliation
1958–1984 logoBill Thompson in 1984
In 1958, the team entered into a working agreement with the San Francisco Giants, who had moved from New York the previous winter, and were renamed the Fresno Giants, winning the California League pennant in their inaugural year.
In 1963, the entire minor league system was reorganized, with the California League granted Class A status for the first time. As a Class A team, the Fresno Giants won championships in 1964, 1968, 1974, 1985 and 1987. With the 1987 championship, Fresno tied Modesto for most California League championships (9) up to that time in the history of the league.[4] On August 8, 1985, Fresno became the first California League franchise to win 3,000 games (Source: Bill Weiss). Fresno hosted the California League All-Star game in 1986 and 1987 at Euless Park.
The Greater Fresno Youth Foundation operated the Fresno Giants and hosted an annual hot stove league dinner in the winter. The San Francisco Giants, Oakland A's, Los Angeles Dodgers and other teams sent players and coaches to the dinner regularly as part of their winter hot stove league tours. The Greater Fresno Youth Foundation had two general managers during the time it owned the team. Tom McGurn ran the ballclub (source: Fresno Bee death notice, October 24, 1989, retrieved July 11, 2014) from 1957 to 1978. In those days, running a minor league baseball operation was a one-man job. Bill Thompson,[5] who had formerly teamed with Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons announcing San Francisco Giants radio broadcasts from 1965 to 1975,[6][7] was hired as general manager in 1978 and was there when the Greater Fresno Youth Foundation sold the team to Modesto-based Save Mart Supermarkets president Bob Piccinini in 1982. As minor league operations became more sophisticated and required more management, Piccinini and Thompson hired an assistant general manager, Curt Goldgrabe in 1983, and later Brian Pickering in 1987. Thompson remained general manager until Piccinini sold the Fresno franchise following the 1987 season.[8] (In 1999, Piccinini led an unsuccessful attempt to buy the Oakland A's.)
An account of the rest of the ownership story of the Fresno Giants is found in a Fresno Bee sports article from September 13, 1988: ″Piccinini sold the team to Bill Yuill, a Canadian media mogul, for a reported $560,000 on September 15, 1987. After the 46-year-old Euless grandstand was condemned because of structural defects and the team lost its long working agreement with the San Francisco Giants, Yuill reportedly sold it to Dave Kramer, a Van Nuys businessman, for $615,000 in 1988.
Kramer suffered major financial losses as the team was forced to rent portable bleachers and trailers to house its dressing rooms, concessions and offices at Euless. In addition, the Fresno Suns operated as a co-op, with players supplied by several major league clubs and the Hanshin Tigers of Japan.″
Up to 1988, Fresno and the San Francisco Giants held the longest continuous working agreement in all of minor league baseball, 30 years.[citation needed] Without a working agreement, operating independently as the Fresno Suns in 1988, and lacking an adequate park, the team finished near the bottom of the standings and drew only 34,734 patrons, less than half the league average. The franchise was bought by Joe Buzas, who moved it to Salinas for the 1989 season.[9]
Minor league baseball returned to Fresno in 1998, when the owners of the Tucson Toros of the AAA Pacific Coast League moved their franchise to Fresno and renamed it the Fresno Grizzlies, where it once again became a San Francisco Giants affiliate.[10] Grizzlies games were played at Pete Beiden Field on the Fresno State campus until a new downtown ballpark, Chukchansi Park, was finished for the 2002 season.[11]
Ballpark
Euless Park aerial view, Spring 1987John Euless Park stands in 1984Left field fence after windstorm on April 24, 1984.
The home of minor league baseball in Fresno was originally called Cardinal Field in 1941–42.[12] Grandstands seating 2,600 were built on the site during World War II (source: Fresno Bee, May 20, 1984, retrieved May 19, 2014) to host the Fresno Cardinals on the campus of what was known then as Fresno State College, and was called Fresno State College Park from 1946 to 1957.[13]
After the Cardinals affiliation ended in 1957, the name was changed to John Euless Park[14] for John Euless,[15] a local proponent of professional baseball who was associated with the Greater Fresno Youth Foundation and instrumental in keeping pro baseball in Fresno[16] by leading the charge to build the ballpark. Euless came to Fresno in 1906 from Tennessee and was very involved in the city. He worked for real estate and insurance companies, helped start an oil enterprise in the Coalinga district, and advocated for local grape growers in Washington, D.C. (Source: Fresno Bee 7/02/2014)
In 1956, Fresno State moved its campus to its present location in the northeast part of the city, and Fresno City College bought the old campus.[17]
It seemed the beginning of the end of the ballpark started on April 24, 1984 when a gust of wind blew down the left field fence two hours before the start of a game (source: Fresno Bee, April 25, 1984, retrieved May 19, 2014), the same day a 6.1 earthquake hit northern California.[18] Then, the next night, a transformer blew during a game, knocking out the lights and cancelling two games against the Reno Padres (source: Fresno Bee, April 27, 1984, retrieved May 19, 2014). The State Center Community College District, now owner of the ballpark, made an emergency allocation of $42,136 to finance repairs to the outfield fence during a meeting on Tuesday May 1, 1984, and repairs were completed about a month later (Source: Fresno Bee, May 3, 1984, retrieved June 9, 2014). At the same time, Euless Park received a new scoreboard and new field lights, which were installed by July 14, 1984 (Source: Fresno Bee, July 15, 1984, retrieved June 9, 2014).
Constructed entirely of wood, the stadium grandstands were intended to be a temporary structure, but continued in its mostly original form until the stands were bulldozed due to structural defects (thought to be termite damage)[19] in the spring of 1988. (Source: Fresno Bee column by Bob McCarthy, September 7, 1988, retrieved June 9, 2014)
Fresno City College baseball teams still use this facility for home games today.[20] The ballpark is adjacent to FCC's Ratcliffe football stadium and across Blackstone Avenue from the current Fresno City College campus.[21]
Notable alumni
The following is an alphabetical list of Fresno players and coaches who played or coached in the major leagues. The year played in Fresno is listed after the name.[22]
Will Clark and Jeff Brantley were teammates at Mississippi State before being drafted by the San Francisco Giants and sent to Fresno in 1985.Wendell Kim played for the Fresno Giants in 1974 and was their manager 1983–85.Garry Maddox 1974Steve Stone
Set Cal League record of 20 straight losses in 2nd half. (source: Fresno Bee Sept. 1, 1988, retrieved June 9, 2014.)
Related Research Articles
The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Baseball (MLB).
The California League is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in California. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 until its demotion to Single-A following Major League Baseball's 2021 reorganization of the minor leagues. The league temporarily operated for the 2021 season as the Low-A West before reassuming its original moniker in 2022.
The Fresno Grizzlies are a Minor League Baseball team of the California League and the Single-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies. They are located in Fresno, California, and play their home games at Chukchansi Park, which was opened in 2002 in downtown Fresno. They previously played at Fresno State's Pete Beiden Field from 1998 to 2001.
The San Jose Giants are a Minor League Baseball team of the California League and the Single-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. Located in San Jose, California, the Giants play their home games at Excite Ballpark.
The San Jose Missions were a minor league baseball team located in San Jose, California. The Missions played from 1977 to 1978 as members of the AAA Pacific Coast League. The Missions name returned in 1979 under a new franchise that played in the Class A-Advanced California League. In 1982, with a new affiliation, the club was renamed the San Jose Expos.
The Modesto Nuts are a Minor League Baseball team of the California League and the Single-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. They are located in Modesto, California, and are named for the several types of nuts grown in the Central Valley. They play their home games at John Thurman Field, which opened in 1955.
The Stockton Ports are a Minor League Baseball team of the California League and the Single-A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics. They are located in Stockton, California, and are named for the city's seaport. The team plays its home games at Banner Island Ballpark which opened in 2005 and seats over 5,000 people.
The Rancho Cucamonga Quakes are a Minor League Baseball team of the California League and the Single-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers. They are located in Rancho Cucamonga, California, and play their home games at LoanMart Field.
George Andrew Hendrick Jr. is an American former professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball as an outfielder between 1971 and 1988, most prominently as an integral member of the St. Louis Cardinals team that won the 1982 World Series.
William Richard Campbell was an American professional baseball pitcher who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1973 to 1987. He played for the American League (AL) Minnesota Twins, Boston Red Sox, and Detroit Tigers and the National League (NL) Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, and Montreal Expos.
Ronald Kenneth Hunt is an American former professional baseball second baseman. He played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball from 1963 to 1974 for the New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, Montreal Expos and St. Louis Cardinals. He batted and threw right-handed.
John Duffield Curtis is an American former professional baseball pitcher. Twice a first-round draft pick, Curtis played baseball at Clemson University and then pitched for several Major League Baseball (MLB) teams between 1970 and 1984. He retired with an 89–97 win–loss record and a 3.96 earned run average (ERA).
The Lodi Dodgers were a minor league baseball team based in Lodi, California. The "Dodgers" were a minor league affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1976 to 1983, playing as members of the Class A level California League and winning two league championships.
William John Posedel, nicknamed "Barnacle Bill", was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Bees/Braves in 1938–1941 and in 1946.
The 1958 San Francisco Giants season was the franchise's first season in San Francisco, California and 76th season overall. The Giants' home ballpark was Seals Stadium. The team had a record of 80–74 finishing in third place in the National League standings, twelve games behind the NL Champion Milwaukee Braves.
The 1985 San Francisco Giants season was the Giants' 103rd season in Major League Baseball, their 28th season in San Francisco since their move from New York following the 1957 season, and their 26th at Candlestick Park. It resulted in the team finishing in sixth place in the National League West with a record of 62 wins and franchise-record 100 losses. This was the first, and as of 2022, the only time in the history of the franchise that they reached the triple-digit mark in losses. It is also the highest number of games they have lost in a season, as well. The Giants were managed by Jim Davenport, who was dismissed on September 18, after compiling a dismal 56–88 record, and Roger Craig, who guided the team to a 6–12 mark during the final 2½ weeks of the season. They finished 33 games behind the division champion and their main rival, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Reno Silver Sox were a minor league baseball team that existed on and off from 1947 to 1992. The team name is derived from the nickname of Nevada, the "Silver State". There was another baseball team known as the Reno Silver Sox who played in the Golden Baseball League. From part of the 1955 season to 1992, they played their home games at Moana Stadium. The 1961 Silver Sox were recognized as one of the 100 greatest minor league teams of all time.
Several minor league baseball teams have been based in Salinas, California and played in the California League.
The Peninsula Pilots was a primary name of the Minor League Baseball franchise located in Hampton, Virginia from 1963–1992. The Pilots played in the Class A Carolina League.
Charles Bruce Miller is an American former Major League Baseball utility infielder. He played for the San Francisco Giants from 1973 to 1976. Miller was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the 20th round of the 1970 MLB June Amateur Draft from Indiana University. Miller led the Hoosiers in hits in both 1968 and 1969, earning all Big Ten honors at shortstop in 1969. He advanced through the White Sox farm system, hitting .289 for the 1972 Triple-A Tucson Toros, and was traded to the California Angels along with Bruce Kimm for veteran pitcher Eddie Fisher in August 1972.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
