The Mission Reds were a minor league baseball team located in San Francisco, California , that played in the Pacific Coast League (PCL) from 1926 through 1937.
65-526: In early September of 1914, the failed Sacramento Solons team moved to San Francisco and renamed itself "Mission", in reference to San Francisco's Mission District . San Francisco newspapers had dubbed the Sacramento team the "Wolves", in reference to manager Harry Wolverton . The "Wolves" nickname followed them to San Francisco. The local papers also called them "the Missions". The Mission club continued to play
130-692: A longer relationship with Arabella and that he was the biological father of her son. Huntington died at his Camp Pine Knot , in the Adirondacks, August 13, 1900. Archer M. Huntington became a well-known Hispanist and founded The Hispanic Society of America , a museum and rare-books library dedicated to Spanish and Portuguese history, art, and culture, based in upper Manhattan, in New York City. Archer and his second wife, sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington , founded Brookgreen Gardens sculpture and botanical gardens near Murrells Inlet, South Carolina . He also founded
195-667: A merchant in Sacramento at the start of the California Gold Rush . Huntington succeeded in his California business. He teamed up with Mark Hopkins selling miners' supplies and other hardware. In the late 1850s, Huntington and Hopkins joined forces with two other successful businessmen, Leland Stanford and Charles Crocker , to pursue the idea of creating a rail line that would connect America's east and west. In 1861, these four businessmen (sometimes referred to as The Big Four ) pooled their resources and business acumen, and formed
260-654: A new Sacramento franchise was admitted to the PCL in 1918. For most of its existence, the Sacramento team finished in the second division, but there were a few bright spots. Originally known as the Senators, the team was purchased by Branch Rickey in 1935 and renamed the Sacramento Solons. Rickey's close friend and business partner Philip Bartelme served as the Solons' president from 1936 to 1944. The Solons finished first in 1937 but lost
325-736: A peddler. About this time, he visited rural Newport News in Warwick County, Virginia in his travels as a salesman. He never forgot what he thought was the untapped potential of the area, where the James River emptied into the large harbor of Hampton Roads. In 1842 he and his brother Solon Huntington, of Oneonta, New York , established a successful business in Oneonta, selling general merchandise there until about 1848. When Huntington saw opportunity in America's West, he set out for California . He set up as
390-533: A vibrant and progressive community. The 15 years of rapid growth and development led to the incorporation of Newport News, Virginia as a new independent city in 1896. It is one of only two independent cities in Virginia that were so formed without developing first as an incorporated town . Near the tracks of the C&;O's Hampton Branch was a normal school , dedicated in its earliest years to training teachers to educate
455-802: Is best known for his political activity in Washington, D.C., and California. At this stage he was based mostly in New York, and visited California about once a year. Stanford remained president, first of the Central Pacific and then of the Southern Pacific Company, until 1890. Huntington was agent and attorney for the Southern Pacific Railroad, vice-president and general agent for the Central Pacific Railroad, first vice-president of
520-724: The Blue Ridge Mountains . It had been completed along this route as far as the upper reaches of the Shenandoah Valley when the War broke out. Officials of the Virginia Central, led by company president Williams Carter Wickham , realized that they would have to get capital from outside the economically devastated South in order to rebuild. They tried to attract British interests, without success. Finally, Major Wickham succeeded in getting Collis Huntington interested helping to complete
585-545: The Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants moved to California, forcing the aforementioned teams to move to Spokane , Salt Lake City , Phoenix and Vancouver , respectively. Although the Solons were not immediately displaced, the close proximity of the San Francisco Giants (just over an hour to the south) also took its toll on attendance. After the 1960 season, the team was sold and moved to Honolulu and renamed
650-597: The Central Pacific Railroad as part of the first U.S. transcontinental railroad . Huntington helped lead and develop other major interstate lines, such as the Southern Pacific Railroad and the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (C&O), which he was recruited to help complete. The C&O, completed in 1873, fulfilled a long-held dream of Virginians of a rail link from the James River at Richmond to
715-693: The Central Pacific Railroad company to create the western link of America's First transcontinental railroad . Of the four, Huntington had a reputation for being the most ruthless in pursuing the railroad's business; he ousted his partner, Stanford. Huntington negotiated in Washington, D.C. , with Grenville Dodge , who was supervising railroad construction from the East, over where the railroads should meet. They completed their agreement in April 1869, deciding to meet at Promontory Summit, Utah . On May 10, 1869, at Promontory,
SECTION 10
#1732845016501780-625: The Hawaii Islanders for 1961. The third version of the Sacramento Solons began during the AAA realignment in 1969 as the Eugene Emeralds . After the 1973 season, it was determined that Eugene was too small to support PCL baseball, and the team was moved to Sacramento for the 1974 season, taking the name of its predecessor teams, the Sacramento Solons. The Solons' old stadium, Edmonds Field , had long since been demolished. The only available facility
845-735: The Mariners' Museum in Newport News, one of the largest of its kind in the world. Huntington's nephew, Henry E. Huntington (1850–1927), was also a railway magnate and founder of the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California . He was active in Los Angeles, California , where he was the main force behind development of the Pacific Electric system. He
910-506: The Ohio River Valley . The new railroad facilities adjacent to the river there resulted in expansion of the former small town of Guyandotte, West Virginia into part of a new city which was named Huntington in his honor. Turning attention to the eastern end of the line at Richmond, Huntington directed the C&O's Peninsula Extension in 1881–82, which opened a pathway for West Virginia bituminous coal to reach new coal piers on
975-555: The Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities). This site was later a key piece of the Abby and John D. Rockefeller Jr. 's massive restoration of the former colonial capital city. They developed Colonial Williamsburg , one of the world's major tourist attractions. Huntington did not neglect his namesake city at the other end of the C&O. In order to supply freight cars to
1040-579: The Big Four principals of the Central Pacific Railroad. The railroad's first locomotive C. P. Huntington , (transferred from the CPR), was named in his honor. With rail lines from New Orleans to the Southwest and into California, Southern Pacific expanded to more than 9,000 miles of track. It also controlled 5,000 miles of connecting steamship lines. Using the Southern Pacific Railroad, Huntington endeavored to prevent
1105-577: The C&O, and by extension to the Southern Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads as well, Huntington was a major financier behind Ensign Manufacturing Company . He based the company in Huntington, West Virginia, directly connecting to the C&O; Ensign was incorporated on November 1, 1872. After Huntington's death in 1900, his nephew, Henry E. Huntington , assumed leadership of many of his industrial endeavors. The younger man quickly sold off all of
1170-737: The C&O. Beginning in 1865, Huntington had been acquiring land in Virginia's eastern Tidewater region , an area not served by extant railroads. In 1880, he formed the Old Dominion Land Company and turned these holdings over to it. Beginning in December 1880, he led the building of the C&O's Peninsula Subdivision , which extended from the Church Hill Tunnel in Richmond east down the Virginia Peninsula through Williamsburg to
1235-526: The Central Pacific (in which he did not). He first asked to delay payments for fifty years, then for a hundred years. His proposal to cancel the loans created a firestorm of opposition in California, covered colorfully in the newspapers by Ambrose Bierce ; when it was defeated in Congress in 1897, the governor of California celebrated by declaring a public holiday. Huntington lost the battle in Congress in 1899 and
1300-460: The Central through a cautiously conceived wagon road to the booming Comstock; gaining state and county aid, cost data, experience in construction and finance; thus discovering the immense liberality of the federal subsidy; mobilizing every resource and building through to Ogden on a revolving fund basis; netting perhaps a million by these means; then, half-reluctantly, beginning over, making the C.P. build
1365-523: The Chinese for their culture and industry, and condemned state and federal discrimination against American Indians and Chinese, Filipino, and Japanese immigrants. “If we deny to the individual, no matter what his creed, his color or his nationality, the right to justice which every man possesses,” he told a gathering of California civic and railway leaders in 1900, “there will be no enduring prosperity and [the nation’s] decline will surely follow. Collis Huntington
SECTION 20
#17328450165011430-671: The Missions followed suit. The Mission Reds were unable to establish a fan base during their 12-year stay in San Francisco, nor was the team able to replace the Oakland Oaks as the Seals' main rival. For most Bay Area baseball fans, the Missions were only of interest when the Seals and Oaks were on the road and the Missions were playing a compelling team. The Missions finished first in the Pacific Coast League just once, in 1929; they lost
1495-512: The PCL standings in newspapers listed the team as the "Missions" or "Mission." The terms "Reds" and "Missions" were used synonymously in game reports. Like its short-lived predecessor, the Mission Reds were supposed to represent San Francisco's Mission District . From 1926 to 1930, the team played home games at Recreation Park, also home to the Seals. When the Seals moved to their own ballpark, Seals Stadium (at 16th and Potrero Streets), in 1931,
1560-599: The S.P., and when it had, reversing the favorable leases, fattening up the Southern, reaping a second harvest from its bonds and stocks, also taken originally on construction contracts. Huntington died at his "camp," Pine Knot , in the Adirondack Mountains on August 13, 1900. He is interred in a Classical -style mausoleum at the Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx , New York. In addition to his railroad building, Huntington
1625-528: The Sacramento schedule for the final seven weeks of the 200-plus games season. They staged their home games at Ewing Field (the 1914 season's regular home of the San Francisco Seals ); and at Oaks Park (regular home of the Oakland Oaks ), often playing their Sunday doubleheaders one game on each side of the Bay. The Missions' last home games came on Sunday, October 25, with the morning game in San Francisco and
1690-670: The Sacts or the Senators). Other teams forming the PCL were the Los Angeles Angels , Portland Beavers , Oakland Oaks , San Francisco Seals and Seattle Indians . Although the Solons finished second in the inaugural year, attendance was not good and the team moved to Tacoma for the 1904 season, renamed the Tacoma Tigers . The Tigers won the PCL pennant in 1904 and won the first half of the split 1905 season before falling off so dramatically in
1755-524: The South's many African-American freedmen after the Civil War and abolition of slavery. Both adults and children were eager to learn. Most southern blacks had been denied opportunities for education literacy before the Civil War. The school which developed to become modern-day Hampton University was first led by former Union General Samuel Chapman Armstrong . Perhaps the best known of General Armstrong's students
1820-456: The Southern Pacific Company, and a director of the two lines. His main duties were selling company stocks and bonds and acting as the chief lobbyist in Washington, where his two main challenges were to block federal support for a proposed rival transcontinental route, the Texas and Pacific Railway (in which he succeeded) and to postpone payment of the $ 28 million in cash loans the government had made to
1885-649: The Southern Pacific finally paid off the loans in 1909. Huntington described his activities in a series of private letters to David D. Colton, a senior financial official of his railroads. After Colton's death, litigation opened his files in 1883 and Huntington's letters proved a huge embarrassment, with their detailed descriptions of lobbying, payoffs, and bribes to government officials. They showed Huntington to be an active, profane, and cynical promoter of his companies and display his eagerness to use money to bribe congressmen. The letters did not demonstrate that any cash actually changed hands with any official, but they revealed
1950-413: The Southern Pacific holdings. He and other family members also continued and expanded many of the senior Huntington's cultural and philanthropic projects, in addition to developing their own. Historian Howard Jay Graham has summarized Huntington's business acumen: Huntington's career affords unique opportunity for study of the promoter's function—for observing "the entrepreneur as innovator"—hedging into
2015-539: The Stars name for the former Mission Reds. Sacramento Solons The Sacramento Solons were a Minor League Baseball team based in Sacramento, California . They played in the Pacific Coast League during several periods (1903, 1905, 1909–1914, 1918–1960, 1974–1976). The current Sacramento River Cats began play in 2000. The team derived its name from Sacramento's status as capital of California . Solon
Mission Reds - Misplaced Pages Continue
2080-651: The United States was celebrating the centennial of the surrender of the British troops under Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781, an event considered most symbolic of the end of American Revolutionary War . Three days after the last spike ceremony, on October 19, the first passenger train from Newport News took local residents and national officials to the Cornwallis Surrender Centennial Celebration at Yorktown on temporary tracks that were laid from
2145-686: The afternoon game in Oakland. There was newspaper chatter about the Missions moving to Recreation Park for 1915, but by then they had moved to Salt Lake City , where they became the Salt Lake Bees . The Mission Reds were born in Los Angeles in 1909, where they played under the name the Vernon Tigers . The team won two Pacific Coast League pennants during its 18-year stay in Southern California. Declining attendance forced owner Edward Maier to put
2210-851: The capital city in 2000 when a group of area businessmen led by majority owner Art Savage purchased the Vancouver Canadians of the PCL and moved the team to Sacramento. Foregoing the traditional name of Sacramento baseball teams, the owners named the team the Sacramento River Cats . Unlike their predecessors, who were often troubled at the box office, the River Cats have been among the leaders in Minor League Baseball attendance since their return to Sacramento, and leading all minor league teams in attendance for their first nine consecutive years in Sacramento. The River Cats took up residence at
2275-573: The community, with local features named in honor of each. Much of the railroad and industrial development which Collis P. Huntington envisioned and led are still important activities in the early 21st century. The Southern Pacific is now part of the Union Pacific Railroad , and the C&O became part of CSX Transportation , each major U.S. railroad systems. West Virginia coal is still transported by rail to be loaded onto colliers at Hampton Roads. Nearby, Huntington Ingalls Industries operates
2340-722: The country. Huntington defended himself: The motives back of my actions have been honest ones and results have redounded far more to the benefit of California than they have to my own. In 1968, Huntington was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum . Collis Potter Huntington was born in Harwinton, Connecticut , on October 22, 1821. His family farmed and he grew up helping. In his early teens, he did farm chores and odd jobs for neighbors, saving his earnings. At age 16, he began traveling as
2405-510: The decrepit Hughes Stadium with its bandbox dimensions. The Solons' owners "leased" the team to San Jose for the 1977 and 1978 seasons, when the team was known as the San Jose Missions , in hopes of obtaining a new baseball-only facility. After two seasons of dismal attendance in San Jose, the team was sold and moved to Ogden, Utah , for the 1979 season. The Pacific Coast League returned to
2470-618: The entrance to the harbor of Hampton Roads from the Chesapeake Bay (and the Atlantic Ocean). The tracks were completed about 9 miles to the town which became Phoebus in December 1882, named in honor of its leading citizen, Harrison Phoebus . The new branch line served both the older Hygeia Hotel and the new Hotel Chamberlain , popular destinations for civilians. During the first half of the 20th century, excursion trains were operated to reach nearby Buckroe Beach , where an amusement park
2535-404: The harbor of Hampton Roads for export shipping. He also is credited with the development of Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company , as well as the incorporation of Newport News, Virginia as a new independent city . After his death, both his nephew Henry E. Huntington and his stepson Archer M. Huntington continued his work at Newport News. All three are considered founding fathers in
2600-467: The line. Beginning in 1871, Huntington oversaw completion of the newly formed Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) from Richmond across Virginia and West Virginia to reach the Ohio River . There, with his brother-in-law Delos W. Emmons , he established the planned city of Huntington, West Virginia . He became active in developing the emerging southern West Virginia bituminous coal business for
2665-472: The lower Peninsula, Collis and other Huntington family members and their Old Dominion Land Company were involved in many aspects of life and business. They founded schools, museums, libraries and parks among their many contributions. In Williamsburg, Collis' Old Dominion Land Company owned the historic site of the 18th-century capital buildings. This was transferred to the women who were the earliest promoters of what became Preservation Virginia (formerly known as
Mission Reds - Misplaced Pages Continue
2730-424: The main line at the new Lee Hall Depot to Yorktown. No sooner had the tracks to the new coal pier at Newport News been completed in late 1881 than the same construction crews were put to work on what would later be called the Peninsula Subdivision's Hampton Branch. It ran easterly about 10 miles into Elizabeth City County toward Hampton and Old Point Comfort , where the U.S. Army base at Fort Monroe guarded
2795-408: The massive shipyard at Newport News. From his base in Washington, Huntington was a lobbyist for the Central Pacific and the Southern Pacific in the 1870s and 1880s. The Big Four had built a powerful political machine, which he had a large role in running. He was generous in providing bribes to politicians and congressmen. Revelation of his misdeeds in 1883 made him one of the most hated railroad men in
2860-482: The museum's hands after the death of his stepson, Archer. His last will directed that if his stepson should die childless (which he did), Huntington's Fifth Avenue mansion or the proceeds from the sale of the property would go to Yale University. He also made specific bequests totaling $ 125,000 to Hampton University (then Hampton Institute) and to the Chapin Home for the Aged. He was referred to in Black Beetles in Amber by Ambrose Bierce as "Happy Hunty". Huntington
2925-468: The newly built Raley Field , which was constructed specifically for baseball. The Solons were affiliated with the following major league teams: Collis Huntington Collis Potter Huntington (October 22, 1821 – August 13, 1900) was an American industrialist and railway magnate. He was one of the Big Four of western railroading (along with Leland Stanford , Mark Hopkins , and Charles Crocker ) who invested in Theodore Judah 's idea to build
2990-403: The next few years. In 1914, attendance was so bad that the Solons moved to San Francisco in the middle of the season, finishing out the year as the San Francisco Missions . The team was sold to Salt Lake City businessman Bill "Hardpan" Lane after that season and moved there for the 1915 season, renamed the Salt Lake City Bees . When Portland dropped out of the league after the 1917 season,
3055-414: The port at San Pedro from becoming the main Port of Los Angeles in the Free Harbor Fight . Following the American Civil War , efforts were renewed in Virginia to complete a canal or railroad link between Richmond and the Ohio River Valley. Before the war, the Virginia Board of Public Works and the Virginia Central Railroad had provided financial assistance to construct a state-owned link through
3120-447: The post-season series to the Hollywood Stars . The team had a 1,088-1,117 (.480) overall record. In 1935, Reds manager Gabby Street was suspended from the Pacific Coast League indefinitely for assaulting an umpire . In 1938, two years after the original iteration of the Hollywood Stars moved to San Diego , owner Fleischaker, facing mounting losses on the field and at the gate, moved the Mission Reds back to Los Angeles, and reclaimed
3185-412: The postseason series to the San Diego Padres . In 1942 the Solons won their first – and only – Pacific Coast League pennant. These were the glory years of the Pacific Coast League , during which it was unrivaled for the attention of West Coast baseball fans. The Solons drew reasonably well when featured opponents included teams from Los Angeles, Hollywood , San Francisco and Oakland . However, in 1957,
3250-406: The second half that the team was returned to Sacramento to finish out the season, where it lost the postseason series to the Angels. The Sacramento team moved to Fresno in 1906, renamed the Fresno Raisin Eaters , then returned to Sacramento in 1907, where it played in the California League for the next three seasons. The Solons returned to the PCL in 1909, but were mired in the second division for
3315-421: The southeastern end of the Peninsula on the harbor of Hampton Roads in Warwick County, Virginia . Through the new railroad and his land company, coal piers were established at Newport News Point. It may have taken more than 50 years after Virginia's first railroad operated for the lower Peninsula to get a railroad, but once work started, it progressed quickly. In a manner he had previously deployed, notably with
SECTION 50
#17328450165013380-399: The southern states....Though it was politically unwise, Huntington ordered his companies to give equal employment and pay to black workers, and he publicly opposed the exclusions of black and other non-white children from public schools, as well as other “Jim Crow” restrictions then being enacted in the South and elsewhere. In newspaper columns and public speeches in the West, Huntington praised
3445-486: The team up for sale after the 1925 season. A group of San Francisco businessmen led by Herbert Fleishhacker purchased the Tigers, moved the team to San Francisco for the 1926 season, and called the team the Mission Reds. San Francisco's second baseball team during this time period, the Mission Reds, were rivals to the well-established San Francisco Seals . Fans seldom referred to the team by its full name "Mission Reds," preferring instead "the Missions." More often than not,
3510-434: The team, San Francisco newspapers often tagged them the Wolves , a nickname which continued when they moved to San Francisco and became the Mission team. A Sacramento team played 1900–1902 in 1899–1902 iteration of the California League . This team was called the Senators, but also the Gilt Edges. That team then became a charter member to the Pacific Coast League (PCL) in 1903, called the Sacramento Solons (also known as
3575-488: The tenor of Huntington's morals. His biographer says, he was vindictive, sometimes untruthful, interested in comparatively few things outside of business, and disposed to resist the idea that his railroad enterprises were to any degree burdened with public obligations. There is, on the other hand, no question with respect to his indomitable energy, his shrewdness in negotiation, his independence of thought and raciness of expression, and his grasp of large business problems. He
3640-417: The tracks of the Central Pacific Railroad joined with the tracks of the Union Pacific Railroad , and America had a transcontinental railroad. The joining was celebrated by the driving of the golden spike , provided for the occasion as a gift to the CPRR by San Francisco banker and merchant David Hewes. Beginning in 1865, Huntington was also involved in the establishment of the Southern Pacific Railroad with
3705-425: The transcontinental railroad, and the line to the Ohio River, work began at both Newport News and Richmond. The crews at each end worked toward each other. The crews met and completed the line 1.25 miles west of Williamsburg on October 16, 1881, although temporary tracks had been installed in some areas to speed completion. Huntington and his associates had promised they would provide rail service to Yorktown where
3770-420: Was 23,500-seat Hughes Stadium , a football facility, the dimensions of which made the stadium a hitter's paradise. Left field, in particular, was less than the regulation minimum 250 feet from home plate. Despite two consecutive last place finishes, the Solons led the PCL in attendance due to the home run barrage. The Solons changed affiliations and the Texas Rangers refused to allow their top prospects to play in
3835-409: Was a youth named Booker T. Washington . He later was hired as principal of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, another historically black college , and developed it into Tuskegee University . When Sam Armstrong suffered a debilitating paralysis in 1892 while in New York, he returned to Hampton in a private railroad car provided by Huntington, with whom he had collaborated on black education projects. In
3900-445: Was also related to Clarence Huntington , a president of the Virginian Railway who succeeded Urban H. Broughton . He was the son-in-law of the VGN's founder, industrialist Henry Huttleston Rogers . He acquired a substantial collection of art, and was generally recognized as one of the country's foremost art collectors. He left most of his collection, valued at $ 3 million, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York , to pass into
3965-442: Was among the attractions for both church groups and vacationers. At the formerly sleepy little farming community of Newport News Point, Huntington began other, building the landmark Hotel Warwick and founding the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company . This became the largest privately owned shipyard in the United States. Huntington is largely credited with vision and the combination of developments which created and built
SECTION 60
#17328450165014030-457: Was an early Greek lawmaker and the term "solons" was often used by journalists as a synonym for "senators." Solon Huntington was a prominent Sacramento businessman during the 19th century, though less famous than his brother ( Collis Huntington ) and son ( Henry Huntington ).The team was also known at times as the Sacramento Sacts , an abbreviation of the name of the city, and the Sacramento Senators. During 1913-1914, when Harry Wolverton managed
4095-552: Was called, married Prince Franz Edmund Joseph Gabriel Vitus von Hatzfeldt-Wildenburg , a.k.a., Francis Hatzfeldt of the House of Hatzfeld , Germany , on October 28, 1889. They made their home at Draycot House, Draycot Cerne , Wiltshire , England . Huntington remarried on July 12, 1884, to Arabella D. Worsham (1851–1924). She brought to the marriage her son Archer Milton Worsham , from her first marriage, whom Huntington adopted that year. At fourteen, he became known as Archer Milton Huntington. There were rumors that Huntington had
4160-459: Was the dominant spirit among the small group of men who built up the Southern Pacific system, and that great organization remains his monument. According to historian Richard J. Orsi, [Huntington] was an ardent opponent of racial prejudice and discrimination....Huntington had been an abolitionist before the Civil War, and he later donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to support African American churches in California, and schools and colleges in
4225-405: Was the son of William and Elizabeth (Vincent) Huntington; born October 22, 1821, in Harwinton, Connecticut. His siblings were: Collis Huntington married Elizabeth Stillman Stoddard (1823–1883), of Cornwall, Connecticut , on September 16, 1844. She lived until 1883. They adopted her niece, Clara Elizabeth Prentice , born in Sacramento in 1860. Clara Elizabeth Prentice-Huntington (1860–1928), as she
#500499