FAIR BALL: The San Francisco Seals at the Golden Gate International Exposition

The San Francisco Giants’ home opener is Friday, April 5th. The Treasure Island Museum will celebrate San Francisco baseball on Saturday, April 6th, with a salute to the outstanding minor league team that came first—the San Francisco Seals.

At the time of the Golden Gate International Exposition, there were no major league baseball teams on the West Coast. In fact, the furthest West that any major league team played was St. Louis. But that doesn’t mean fans were deprived of baseball in California. The Pacific Coast League (PCL), formed in 1902, was a high level minor league that produced future Hall of Fame greats Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Tony Lazzeri, and Bobby Doerr among others.

In August 1939, the PCL's San Francisco Seals players fanned out across a field on Treasure Island. Eight hundred feet overhead was the Goodyear blimp whose crew was prepared to drop baseballs to the waiting Seals players below. A catch from that height would set the world’s record for a catch of a ball dropped from the greatest altitude. It was a great publicity stunt for the Seals, for the PCL, for West Coast baseball and for Treasure Island! At that time, the record was held by the major league Philadelphia Phillies. So what happened? Join us on Treasure Island and find out.

Presenters Fred Klink and John Fornbacher will have the story of the ball dropped from the blimp as well as photos, videos and other baseball artifacts of the period. And they will be dressed in authentic Seals uniforms. The exhibit will be available from 10:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and admission is free. Come celebrate the Giants’ Opening Day with us on April 6.