Recreation Park was the home park of the SF Seals in the PCL from 1907 to 1930; before Seals Stadium opened for the 1931 season.  The park was located in an area south of downtown SF at Valencia St and 14 St.  The park was built after the 1906 SF earthquake destroyed the Seal’s prior home field-old Recreation Park.

Recreation Park was also known as Recreation Grounds and opened to a capacity crowd on Opening Day 1907.

 

The recent temporary availability to SABR members of on-line Sanborn fire insurance maps was put to good use.  A Sanborn map of Recreation Park was found amongst the 1913-15 collection (San Francisco CA, Volume 7, Sheet 666).  The park was located within the city block bounded by 14^th St on the north, 15^th St on the south, Valencia St on the east and TBD St on the west.  The park site reached only to Valencia St as its eastern boundary.  Other properties within the city block were adjacent to the ballpark on the north, south and west.  The northern and southern boundaries of the park site were parallel with the surrounding street.  Not so on the west where the park’s perimeter (the LF fence) angled towards the east from the LF corner towards the CF corner.  The dimensions of the park’s land plot were not large: a little more than 400 ft east-to-west (413 on the northern boundary and 428 at the southern boundary) and only 336 ft north to south.  As home plate was located in the southwest corner, this made the RF dimension very limited.  The total area of the park site amounted to only 3.2 acres-the smallest ballpark in terms of overall area I have ever encountered.

 

Based on park descriptions and a photo of the infield and grandstand found in: Runs Hits and an Era The Pacific Coast League, 1903-58, home plate was placed 40 ft from the backstop.  The backstop was a short diagonal section of the sort-of double-deck grandstand.  The ground level lower portion of the wooden grandstand consisted of eight rows of benches where the hard-drinking rowdy fans congregated.  The main level of the grandstand was roofed and extended from beyond 1B to beyond 3B.  The 1B and 3B portions of the grandstand were parallel with the foul lines and no more than 30 ft from the infield.  The 1B and 3B bleachers both converged with the foul lines as they neared the LF and RF corners.  The LF fence ran at less than 90 degrees to the foul line, while the RF fence was at 90 degrees tot the RF foul line. There was no seating in the outfield.  Based on the square footage of the grandstand and bleachers, the seating capacity was estimated to be about 10,000.  There was no separate clubhouse as the dressing rooms (noted on the Sanborn) were beneath the 3B portion of the grandstand.  There was a two story building (purpose and function unknown) in the CF corner, next to the flag pole, that extended behind the LF fence.  Another photo from Runs Hits and an Era, is of the 1918 Opening Day ceremonies held at the CF flag pole in front of this two story building.  This photo does show the height of the wooden CF fence to the right of the two story building to be about 20-24 ft.

 

With the home plate location at 40 ft from the backstop, the other dimensions of the park were derived from the Sanborn.  They were:

 

LF 325

LC 358

CF Corner 379 (Deepest point in the park)

CF 340 (Dead CF)

RC 277

RF 240

Backstop 40

 

To keep from running out of baseballs due to home runs over the very close RF fence, a high screen was mounted on top.  The total height of the fence and screen was 60 ft.  The screen apparently ran from the RF foul line to nearly the CF corner.  The fence is denoted only as “High Fence” on the Sanborn.  The LF-CF fence was about 10 ft in height.

 

Average Outfield Distances

LF  336

CF  335

RF  252

 

Not surprisingly, the park had a reputation as a real hitter’s park in the 1920s.

 

 

Ron Selter