Stockton Ports

History

Baseball in Stockton dates to the 1860s, when the city fielded a team in an earlier version of the California League. In 1888, the Stockton team won the California League pennant with a 41–12 record. That same team may have inspired the poem "Casey at the Bat" by Ernest Thayer, a journalist for the San Francisco Examiner who covered games at a ballpark on Banner Island, a place once called Mudville. The Stockton Flyers were founded as a charter member of the California League in 1941, but the league suspended operations in June 1942 due to World War II. When the league resumed in 1946, the team was renamed the Stockton Ports to reflect the city's status as an inland port, and that season the Ports won their first California League pennant. In 1947, the Ports captured another California League title while operating without a major league affiliation (they had a limited working agreement with the Pacific Coast League's Oakland Oaks). After a 24–18 start through June 4, they embarked on a 26-game winning streak, still a California League record, and finished the season at 95–45, 16 games ahead of the two second-place teams. Baseball historians Bill Weiss and Marshall Wright ranked the 1947 Ports as the 98th greatest minor league team of all time during Minor League Baseball's centennial in 2001. Owned by Stockton local Carl W. Thompson, Sr. from 1971 to 1973, the Ports disbanded after the 1972 season and returned in 1978 as an affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. The following year, they began a long affiliation with the Milwaukee Brewers. The Ports posted the best winning percentage in Minor League Baseball during the 1980s. In homage to the team in Thayer's poem, the Ports were renamed the Mudville Nine for the 2000 and 2001 seasons, then reverted to the Ports name in 2002. In 2005, the Ports moved to the newly built Banner Island Ballpark and became affiliates of the Oakland Athletics. They won their 11th California League championship in 2008, defeating the Lancaster JetHawks 9–3 on September 14.