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Seals Stadium opened in April of 1931. The ballpark had certain features which separated it from other ballparks.
Built for $1.25 million (roughly $21 million today, which is still remarkably cheap!) Seals Stadium had three dressing rooms. Why, when other baseball parks had just two?
Seals Stadium was home to two minor league teams of the Pacific Coast League: the San Francisco Seals and the Mission Reds. Hence, there were three dressing rooms: one for the Seals, one for the Reds, and a third for the visiting team.
Built during the Depression, Seals President Charles Henry “Doc” Strub often recalled how desperate laborers would jump onto the running boards of his car, eager to work for $3 per day in wages. ($56.50 in today’s dollars)
The stadium had six tower banks for lighting, which was the best of all minor league stadiums at the time.
The field measured 340 ft. down the left field line, 375 to the left center, 400 to the center, 397 to the right center, and 385 to the down the right field line.
A capacity crowd of 18,600 attended the opening day of April 7, 1931. The grandstands at the ballpark did not have a roof over them, which was another unique feature. They were left uncovered due to the rare annual rainfall during the months baseball was in season. Moreover, fans preferred to sit in the sun because San Francisco’s weather was much cooler than the rest of the Bay Area.
One of the other unique features of the stadium was a giant water tank underneath the grandstand. Occasionally management had a seal swimming around in the tank which the kids just loved.
Another draw was a local kid from San Francisco named Joe DiMaggio who became a Hall of Famer. Joe played for the Seals from 1932 – 1935. “Jolting” Joe hit safely in 61 consecutive games while playing for the Seals. His brothers Vince and Dominic also played for the team.
Everything else is just history
[Continued next week]
