About the Cal Expo site: The land from the river to Arden Way was donated to the state for a new fairgrounds an arena and a stadium. At the time the concept was a year round recreation park, a sports car road racing track etc. The state scaled back the plans and developed the current Cal Expo site. They then sold the property from Expo Blvd. north Arden Way to developers instead of building the Arena and Stadium for which the donation by the Swanston family was intended.
Thanks for the kind words. And a shout out to the Sacramento Library for providing access to every issue of the Sacramento Bee and a few other resources.
Major League Baseball has ignored the baseball rulebook requirements regarding ballpark outfield dimensions since the opening of Camden Yards in 1992. LOL since then the Orioles have realized that Oriole Park itself was a bit of a bandbox and have moved the LF fences back themselves. The Orioles are my mama's team 👐
Awesome Video! Really enjoy the history of baseball, especially when it crosses Sacramento, San Jose, and Ogden.. all places I know very well. Thanks for sharing!
Excellent, well researched video. Seamless editing of old footage, live video, photos, and print media was professionally done. I’ll have to drop by Lou’s Burgers the next time I’m in Sacramento. 👍👍👍
Wow, did not know this about Sacramento, and I have lived here in the area since 1990. Interesting you talk about Piccini, as he and Andy Dolich got screwed by Selig from buying the A’s and they would have built the A’s a new stadium! 🤦♂️ 😡
The name Gagliardi is pronounced “Guh-Lar-Dee” - the second G is silent. I remember the SJ Missions and I will share some information with you later this evening. So here's what I remember about AAA baseball coming to San Jose. Prior to Joe Gagliardi bringing AAA to San Jose, we had a very successful California League A-ball franchise called the Bees. The team was owned by two local businessman (John 'Bud" Urzi & Peter Felice). The Bee's were established in 1962 and played in SJ until 1976. From 1968 to 1976 the franchise was affiliated with the Kansas City Royals. KC sent many of their top prospects to SJ and we had excellent teams that we're always in the hunt for a Cal League title. When I found out that Joe Gagliardi was bringing AAA baseball to SJ at first I was very happy - but when the details started to come out as to what the composition of the team would be, then it became a huge disappointment. A native San Josean, Mr. Gagliardi did not endear himself to local San Jose baseball fans by basically changing EVERYTHING that had to do with the local team. First thing, instead of calling the team the San Jose Bees and trading on all of the goodwill that Bud and Pete had built up for nearly twenty years, he chose to name his AAA franchise the San Jose Missions. Meh. Secondly, there was a wholesale changeover regarding front office personnel and the public facing employees of the team, ushers, ticket takers etc. For reasons known only to himself Mr. Gagliardi chose to dispense with all of the ushers who had worked at Municipal Stadium for decades. These men were all old San Jose ballplayers - mostly semi-pro and some with professional experience, but they were solid baseball guys and they were a welcome sight at the stadium. You would show up every April when baseball season started and you would see Pete Albini, Roger McMinn, Nick Gaetano and a number of others and it felt comfortable, familiar and friendly. Joe wiped all of that out at once by firing all of those ushers and replacing them with cute young girls who while familiar with the game, were less than informed on where to find your seats, etc and they spent more time talking to their boyfriends than watching the game and paying attention to the customers. And now the final straw - the baseball was the shits. We had just experienced nine years of excellent Class-A baseball with a team stocked with players like Amos Otis, Steve Busby, Dennis Leonard, Doug Bird and George Brett and many others who all ended up in the big leagues. What did Gagliardi give us? A Triple-A team affiliated with two of the worst franchises in Major League Baseball - the Cleveland Indians and the Seattle Mariners. Two garbage franchises with lousy players and a team that was just like their parent club - last place. We went from a minor league franchise that would win 75-80 games a year to one that struggled to win 50 games. Fans stayed away in droves. You would go to an afternoon game and there would be maybe 500 fans in attendance (about 1/3 of what the Bees would draw) and you would watch your sad sack AAA team get smoked by the better clubs in the PCL. Thankfully, the AAA experiment lasted only two years. A-ball returned to SJ in 1979 with new ownership and a new affiliation (Expos). The A-ball franchise limped along for a number of years until it was sold to a group of businessman who were able to get affiliated with the SF Giants beginning in 1988. That was the start of an extremely successful era of minor league baseball in SJ that has lasted to this very day. When I think back to the years 1977-78 I consider them a very dark chapter in San Jose baseball history.
It's not the eighties anymore when the Bay Area and Sacramento felt like they belonged to different states- and in my opinion the NHL and MLB make perfect sense to me for the state capital. The bottom line is that it is a much better market than cities like Milwaukee and Cincinnati and Tampa Bay for example.
@@RanFranklin I think it is realistic for someone from the bay to drive to sac to watch an A's game. Especially A's fans. What im saying is sactown let's the Oakland A's live on and I really hope they ain't go to Nevada.
The very best city the Oakland A's should move to is Sacramento. They'd still retain their fans from the Bay Area. In addition They'd draw fans north to Redding, south to Fresno, and east to Lake Tahoe and Reno.
About the Cal Expo site: The land from the river to Arden Way was donated to the state for a new fairgrounds an arena and a stadium. At the time the concept was a year round recreation park, a sports car road racing track etc. The state scaled back the plans and developed the current Cal Expo site. They then sold the property from Expo Blvd. north Arden Way to developers instead of building the Arena and Stadium for which the donation by the Swanston family was intended.
Your videos get better and better with each release. The time and effort you’re putting in is contributing a higher production value. Keep it up!
Thanks for the kind words. And a shout out to the Sacramento Library for providing access to every issue of the Sacramento Bee and a few other resources.
Just noticed the name of the team's manager: Jose Pagan. I remember seeing him play for the Giants back in the day... 17:32
Pirates too
Major League Baseball has ignored the baseball rulebook requirements regarding ballpark outfield dimensions since the opening of Camden Yards in 1992. LOL since then the Orioles have realized that Oriole Park itself was a bit of a bandbox and have moved the LF fences back themselves. The Orioles are my mama's team 👐
Your videos are getting better and better recently, a tip of the cap
Awesome Video! Really enjoy the history of baseball, especially when it crosses Sacramento, San Jose, and Ogden.. all places I know very well. Thanks for sharing!
Excellent, well researched video. Seamless editing of old footage, live video, photos, and print media was professionally done. I’ll have to drop by Lou’s Burgers the next time I’m in Sacramento. 👍👍👍
Wow, did not know this about Sacramento, and I have lived here in the area since 1990. Interesting you talk about Piccini, as he and Andy Dolich got screwed by Selig from buying the A’s and they would have built the A’s a new stadium! 🤦♂️ 😡
So glad none of those stadiums were built
The name Gagliardi is pronounced “Guh-Lar-Dee” - the second G is silent. I remember the SJ Missions and I will share some information with you later this evening. So here's what I remember about AAA baseball coming to San Jose. Prior to Joe Gagliardi bringing AAA to San Jose, we had a very successful California League A-ball franchise called the Bees. The team was owned by two local businessman (John 'Bud" Urzi & Peter Felice). The Bee's were established in 1962 and played in SJ until 1976. From 1968 to 1976 the franchise was affiliated with the Kansas City Royals. KC sent many of their top prospects to SJ and we had excellent teams that we're always in the hunt for a Cal League title. When I found out that Joe Gagliardi was bringing AAA baseball to SJ at first I was very happy - but when the details started to come out as to what the composition of the team would be, then it became a huge disappointment. A native San Josean, Mr. Gagliardi did not endear himself to local San Jose baseball fans by basically changing EVERYTHING that had to do with the local team. First thing, instead of calling the team the San Jose Bees and trading on all of the goodwill that Bud and Pete had built up for nearly twenty years, he chose to name his AAA franchise the San Jose Missions. Meh. Secondly, there was a wholesale changeover regarding front office personnel and the public facing employees of the team, ushers, ticket takers etc. For reasons known only to himself Mr. Gagliardi chose to dispense with all of the ushers who had worked at Municipal Stadium for decades. These men were all old San Jose ballplayers - mostly semi-pro and some with professional experience, but they were solid baseball guys and they were a welcome sight at the stadium. You would show up every April when baseball season started and you would see Pete Albini, Roger McMinn, Nick Gaetano and a number of others and it felt comfortable, familiar and friendly. Joe wiped all of that out at once by firing all of those ushers and replacing them with cute young girls who while familiar with the game, were less than informed on where to find your seats, etc and they spent more time talking to their boyfriends than watching the game and paying attention to the customers. And now the final straw - the baseball was the shits. We had just experienced nine years of excellent Class-A baseball with a team stocked with players like Amos Otis, Steve Busby, Dennis Leonard, Doug Bird and George Brett and many others who all ended up in the big leagues. What did Gagliardi give us? A Triple-A team affiliated with two of the worst franchises in Major League Baseball - the Cleveland Indians and the Seattle Mariners. Two garbage franchises with lousy players and a team that was just like their parent club - last place. We went from a minor league franchise that would win 75-80 games a year to one that struggled to win 50 games. Fans stayed away in droves. You would go to an afternoon game and there would be maybe 500 fans in attendance (about 1/3 of what the Bees would draw) and you would watch your sad sack AAA team get smoked by the better clubs in the PCL. Thankfully, the AAA experiment lasted only two years. A-ball returned to SJ in 1979 with new ownership and a new affiliation (Expos). The A-ball franchise limped along for a number of years until it was sold to a group of businessman who were able to get affiliated with the SF Giants beginning in 1988. That was the start of an extremely successful era of minor league baseball in SJ that has lasted to this very day. When I think back to the years 1977-78 I consider them a very dark chapter in San Jose baseball history.
great information 👍🏻
It's not the eighties anymore when the Bay Area and Sacramento felt like they belonged to different states- and in my opinion the NHL and MLB make perfect sense to me for the state capital. The bottom line is that it is a much better market than cities like Milwaukee and Cincinnati and Tampa Bay for example.
Sac is nothing like the Bay Area.
@@RanFranklinIt more resembles the bay area now than it did thirty forty years ago. Tons of bay area transplants
@@RanFranklin I think it is realistic for someone from the bay to drive to sac to watch an A's game. Especially A's fans. What im saying is sactown let's the Oakland A's live on and I really hope they ain't go to Nevada.
Lou's Bugers was the duke
Sacramento Represent
The very best city the Oakland A's should move to is Sacramento. They'd still retain their fans from the Bay Area. In addition They'd draw fans north to Redding, south to Fresno, and east to Lake Tahoe and Reno.