Could Sacramento support an MLB team? Watch the video above for the answer. Be sure to check out The Touchback on YouTube for more videos.
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From the Senators to the Solons, Steelheads and Rivercats, California’s capital has a long, complicated history with baseball. The city loves the sport, but this love hasn’t always been reciprocated. That is why Sacramento could easily support an MLB team. The proof is in the history.
During the PCL’s heyday in the 1940s, support and attendance for the Sacramento Solons was solid. It was also the league’s smallest market by some margin. Unfortunately, the league was never granted major league status and interest in the PCL began to wane. The final nail in the coffin came when the Dodgers and Giants moved out west. The Solons stuck around until after the 1960 season when they were sold and moved to Hawaii.
It would be more than a decade before professional baseball would return to the California capital with the Solons 2.0 setting up shop at Hughes Field on the campus of Sacramento City College. They were in town for a good time, not a long time. The franchise set all kinds of home run records but moved two years later.
It would take more than 20 years for baseball to return to California’s capital. Sure, there were always rumblings of a baseball team showing up. They even started building a multipurpose stadium next to Arco Arena that, in hindsight, would have been a disaster.
America’s pastime returned to Sacramento in 1999 with the independent Sacramento Steelheads of the Western Baseball League. They played right next door to Hughes Stadium on the campus of Sac City College but it’s safe to say Union Stadium lacked the charm, and home runs, of its neighbor. More than 3,500 people turned out for opening day but that was enough for most folks.
To learn about this and if Sacramento could support an MLB team, watch the video!
