At least in the spring of 1899, there was a baseball stadium at the corner of 16th & Folsom Streets in the Mission District of San Francisco. This was NOT the Seals Stadium existed from 1931-1959 at 16th & Bryant Streets.

Does anyone know the NAME of this older baseball stadium, exactly WHEN it existed, and, particularly, if there are any extant PICTURES of the place? Please e-mail me at stst@stst.net.

Thank you!
Scott Trimble



-- Scott Trimble (stst@stst.net), July 08, 2002

Answers

In the 2001 fall issue of the Argonaut, Daniel Bacon wrote extensively about the nine ballparks that have been in San Francisco. But nowhere does he mention one at 16th and Folsom. He does write that in 1960, the first game played in San Francisco was played at Center (now 16th) and Dolores. And in 1968 there was a ballpark at Folsom and 25th called Recreational Grounds. While the article goes on to mention other locations such as one at 15th and Valencia, it never places a ballpark at 16th and Folsom.

-- Michael Binetti (mbinetti@boldata.com), July 23, 2002.

Update! First of all, this baseball stadium definitely did exist, but my guess is that this article you mentioned focused on more recent ones.

I know now that the 16th & Folsom Street ballpark was known as Recreation Park and it was a smaller one, perhaps seating only about 5,000-10,000 people. It was almost certainly destroyed before construction of the Seals Stadium in the early 1930s.

Recreation Park was where the Cal vs. Stanford games were played in the days before their own respective stadiums were constructed. I'm still looking for pictures of this place, so if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!

Thanks,
Scott


-- Scott Trimble (stst@stst.net), July 24, 2002.

Hmm... The San Francisco Public Library has several pictures of "Recreation Park" in their archives...

http://67.115.155.213/cgibin/tramp2.exe/authorit y_hits/A04vf59i.001?server=photos&item=1

but they place this ballpark at 15th & Valencia Streets. That's one block north and three blocks west of 16th & Folsom.

Does anyone have any idea of how many square blocks this stadium might have taken up? Could this be the same location, but perhaps there was a different entrance or exit at the other intersection?

Thanks again,
Scott


-- Scott Trimble (stst@stst.net), July 24, 2002.

Jerry Flamm, in his book, Good Life in Hard Times, has a chapter on the Seals and writes a bit about Recreation Park. He says that it was built in 1907 after the 'quake and fire had burned down its predecessor at 8th and Harrison. It was home to the Seals until Seals Stadium was opened in 1931. In 1914, the Seals played half a season at a new stadium built at the base of Lone Mountain but were chased back to the good old "Mish" by the wind and fog. Sound familiar?

-- Don Martinich (dutchm@dcn.org), July 25, 2002.