Stockton Ports

Stockton Ports Founded in 1941 Stockton, California
Team logo Cap insignia
Class-level
Current	Class A – Advanced
Minor league affiliations
League	California League
Division	North Division
Major league affiliations
Current	Oakland Athletics (2005–present)
Previous	Texas Rangers (2003–2004) Cincinnati Reds (2002) Milwaukee Brewers (1979–1983, 1985–1999) Seattle Mariners (1978) California Angels (1972) Baltimore Orioles (1959–1971) St. Louis Cardinals (1958) Chicago Cubs (1953–1954) St. Louis Browns (1952) Chicago White Sox (1949)
Minor league titles
League titles (11)	1946 1947 1963 1965 1969 1980 1986 1990 1992 2002 2008
Team data
Nickname	Stockton Ports (1946–2000, 2002–present)
Previous names	Mudville Nine (2000–2001) Stockton Flyers (1941–1942)
Colors	red, white, and blue
Mascot	Splash
Ballpark	Banner Island Ballpark (2005–present)
Previous parks	Billy Hebert Field (1941–2004)
Owner(s)/ Operator(s)	Tom Volpe / 7th Inning Stretch, LLC
Manager	Rick Magnante
General Manager	Bryan Meadows

The Stockton Ports are a minor league baseball team in Stockton, California. The Ports play in the North Division of the Class A – Advanced California League and are a minor league affiliate of the Oakland Athletics. Their home field is Banner Island Ballpark, which seats over 5,000 people and opened in 2005. The Ports' games are broadcast on KWSX (1280 AM).

History

Baseball first came to Stockton in the 1860s. At the time Stockton fielded a team in an earlier incarnation of the California League. In 1888 the Stockton team won the California League pennant with a record of 41–12. That same team also gained a bit of notoriety as a possible inspiration of "Casey at the Bat", a famous baseball poem by Ernest Thayer. Thayer was a journalist for the San Francisco Examiner at the time and the games were hosted in a ballpark on Banner Island, a place once known as Mudville.

The Stockton Flyers were established as a charter member of the California League in 1941. The league suspended operations in June 1942 due to World War II. The Flyers were rechristened as the Stockton Ports to recognize Stockton's status as an inland port city when the league resumed operations in 1946. That season, the Ports went on to win their first California League pennant.

In 1947, the Ports won the California League pennant again without a major league affiliation (they had a limited working agreement with the Pacific Coast League's Oakland Oaks). After going 24–18 playing through June 4, they went on a 26-game winning streak and took first place, never to relinquish again in that season. The win streak is one of the longest in professional baseball and is still a California League record. The Ports finished that season with a record of 95–45 and 16 games ahead of the two teams tied for second place. Years later, baseball historians Bill Weiss and Marshall Wright rated the 1947 Ports as one of the 100 best minor league teams of all time, ranked at number 98.^[1]

Owned by Stockton local Carl W. Thompson, Sr. (1971–73), the Ports would disband after the 1972 season, coming back as an affiliate of the Seattle Mariners in 1978. The Ports won more games in the 1980s than any other team in minor-league baseball.^[2] In an homage to the team in the Ernest Thayer poem, the Ports were renamed as the Mudville Nine in 2000 and 2001,^[3][4] then returned to the Ports name in 2002.

The Ports won their eleventh California League Championship in 2008 with a 9–3 victory over the Lancaster JetHawks on September 14, 2008. With 11 league titles, the Ports have the most among the league's active franchises, with the defunct Reno franchise also having won 11.

In 2005 the Ports became an affiliate of the Oakland Athletics and began play at Banner Island Ballpark.

Major league affiliations

• 1941: Los Angeles Angels, PCL
• 1946: Independent
• 1947–48: Oakland Oaks, PCL
• 1949: Chicago White Sox, AL
• 1950–51: Independent
• 1952: St. Louis Browns, AL
• 1953–54: Chicago Cubs, NL
• 1955: Oakland Oaks, PCL
• 1956–57: Baltimore Orioles, AL
• 1958: St. Louis Cardinals, NL
• 1959–71: Baltimore Orioles, AL
• 1972: California Angels, AL
• 1978: Seattle Mariners, AL
• 1979–2000: Milwaukee Brewers, AL (1979–97)/NL (1998–2000)
• 2001–02: Cincinnati Reds, NL
• 2003–04: Texas Rangers, AL
• 2005–present Oakland Athletics, AL

Notable Ports alumni

• Daric Barton
• Travis Buck
• Bobby Crosby
• Dallas Braden
• Mike Epstein
• Bobby Grich
• Geoff Jenkins
• Jim Morris
• Juan Nieves
• Mike Piazza
• Ben Sheets
• Gary Sheffield
• Kurt Suzuki
• Mudville Nine players

Roster

Stockton Ports roster
Players				Coaches/Other
Pitchers 24 Koby Gauna 10 Brett Graves 46 Nick Highberger 19 Grant Holmes 29 Mitchell Jordan 13 Jared Lyons 12 Casey Meisner 16 Corey Miller 11 Matthew Sergey 22 Victor Veliz 20 Joey Wagman		Catchers 15 Iolana Akau 38 Argenis Raga Infielders  5 Jose Brizuela -- Branden Cogswell  7 Chris Iriart  3 Melvin Mercedes 27 John Nogowski 26 Sandber Pimentel 14 Mikey White Outfielders  9 Seth Brown 23 Justin Higley		Manager  2 Rick Magnante Coaches 44 Steve Connelly (pitching) 30 Tommy Everidge (hitting) 7-day disabled list * On Oakland Athletics 40-man roster # Rehab assignment ∞ Reserve list ‡ Restricted list § Suspended list † Temporary inactive list Roster updated October 4, 2016 Transactions → More MiLB rosters → Oakland Athletics minor league players

References

1. Weiss, Bill; Wright, Marshall (2001). "Historians Weiss, Wright Rank 100 Best Minor League Baseball Teams". Minor League Baseball. Retrieved August 26, 2014.
2. National Geographic. 179, No. 4. April 1991. Missing or empty |title= (help)
3. Kroichick, Ron (May 4, 2000). "Funky Mudville Has Murky Future". SFGate.com. Retrieved August 26, 2014.
4. "California League (Adv A) Encyclopedia and History". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved August 26, 2014.

External links

• Official Stockton Ports website