Seals Stadium
San Francisco, California
Tenants: San Francisco Seals (PCL 1931-57); San Francisco Missions (PCL 1931-37);
San Francisco Giants (NL 1958-59)
Groundbeaking: 1930
1st PCL game: April 7, 1931
Last PCL game: September 13, 1957
1st National League game: April 15, 1958
Last National League game: September 20, 1959
Demolished: November, 1959

Cost: $600,000
Owners: Dr. Charles Strub, George  Putnam and Charles Graham (1931)
Seating capacity: 16,000 (1931); 18,600 (1932); 20,700 (1933); 25,000 (1938); 23,601
(1939); 22,900 (1940); 20,700 (1941); 22,500 (1947); 22,180 (1953); 22,900 (1958)

Dimensions:
Left field: 340 ft. (1931), 365 ft. (1958), 361 ft. (1959)
Left-center: 375 ft. (1958), 364 ft. (1959)
Deepest left-center: 404 ft. (1958)
Center field: 400 ft. (1931), 410 ft. (1958), 400 ft. (1959)
Deep right-center corner: 415 ft. (1958)
Right field: 385 ft. (1931), 365 ft. (1940), 355 ft. (1958), 350 ft. (1959)

Fences:
Left field: 15 ft. (5 ft. concrete below 10 ft. wire); center field scoreboard: 30.5
ft.; right field: 16 ft. (5 ft. concrete below 11 ft. wire).

Hosted World Series: Never
Hosted All-Star Game: Never
Seals Stadium was a minor league baseball stadium that
stood in San Francisco from 1931 through 1959. The
stadium was originally built with three dressing rooms -
one for the visiting team, and one for each of the minor
league home teams, the San Francisco Seals and the
Mission Reds a.k.a the San Francisco Missions. The latter
team left in 1938, becoming the Hollywood Stars.

The stadium initially consisted of an uncovered
grandstand stretching from foul pole to foul pole and an
uncovered bleacher section in right field. In some years
during its minor league days, a live seal was kept in a
water tank underneath the grandstand.

A separate uncovered bleacher section was added in left
field when the New York Giants moved to the city in 1958.
The Giants played at Seals Stadium for two years while
Candlestick Park was under construction. Given the
temporary nature of their stay at the old park, they
declined to rename the stadium.

With the new ballpark safely nearing completion, Seals
Stadium was demolished in November 1959. Many of the
seats and the light stanchions were reused at Cheney
Stadium in Tacoma, Washington. From the late 1960s to
the mid-1970s, the site was a White Front discount
department store. The store was subdivided into smaller
shops after White Front went bankrupt. For many years
afterward, the site (bounded by Bryant St., 16th St.,
Potrero Ave., and Alameda St.) housed several San
Francisco automobile dealerships after the demise of Van
Ness Avenue's famed Auto Row in 1982. In the late 1990s
it was converted to a shopping center which includes a
Safeway grocery store. Coincidentally, Peter Magowan,
whose grandfather was an early investor in Safeway and
his father its chairman and CEO, became one of the
owners of the Giants in 1993.

Notes:

Orlando Cepeda hit his first Major League career home run
in Seals Stadium on April 15, 1958

All three DiMaggio (Dom, Joe & Vince) brothers once
played in Seals Stadium during their Minor League playing
days.

Seals Stadium was also nicknamed "Home Plate Mine"
because that was the name on the original deed title
purchased for the property.
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Source credits

MMIV www.ballparktour.com  MMX