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by William D. McPoil (Author)
Sacramento has enjoyed baseball since the Gold Rush. As early as 1869, the first professional baseball team in America, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, came to Sacramento and played against a locally organized team. A few years later, the Sacramento team joined the California League to compete against those from San Francisco and Oakland, becoming a charter member of the newly formed Pacific Coast League in 1903. All the while, children and adults alike were picking up the sport in the many parks, sandlots, and schoolyards throughout the city. In the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, amateur and sponsored teams competed against each other for trophies and bragging rights. Then, in the 1950s, Little League, Babe Ruth League, and American Legion Baseball flourished.
