Baseball didn’t just arrive in Sacramento—it was baked into the city’s DNA from the start. Long before the gold rush ended, before the railroads connected California to the rest of the nation, people were gathering at Ferguson Field near R Street in 1860 to watch a game that would anchor Sacramento’s identity for more than a century and a half.
That’s the story the Sacramento History Museum is now showcasing in Play Ball! Sacramento in the National Pastime, an exhibit running through the end of October that traces how deeply this sport has woven itself into the fabric of our city. It’s not just a collection of old uniforms and dusty equipment—it’s a reminder that Sacramento has always been a baseball town, even when most people outside California didn’t know we existed.
The numbers are staggering when you dig into the details. Babe Ruth showed up twice to play barnstorming games here. The Sacramento Winter League operated from November through February, drawing talent from across the country. Teams with names like the Salons, the Senators, and the Gilt Edge (yes, named after beer brewed by the Buffalo Brewing Company) called Sacramento home. The city’s minor league stadiums—Buffalo Park, Moering Field, Cardinal Field, Doubleday Field, and eventually Edmonds Field—hosted generations of players chasing big league dreams. One final unforgettable moment: Willie Mays and Willie McCovey, Hall-of-Famers both, smacked back-to-back home runs in an exhibition game between the San Francisco Giants and the Cleveland Indians (now the Guardians) in 1964. The field was demolished a week later.
This history matters now more than ever. In late May, Sacramento officially announced its bid for Major League Baseball expansion, hoping to land a team when the league expands from 30 to 32 teams in 2029. Mayor Kevin McCarty didn’t shy away from the connection: he celebrated not just the campaign, but those 175 years of what he called Sacramento’s“love affair for baseball.”The exhibit at the Sacramento History Museum—open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.—isn’t just nostalgia. It’s evidence. It’s a case being made in photographs, video, and memorabilia that Sacramento earned this chance.
What’s particularly striking is how the story keeps producing local talent. Logan Webb, currently pitching for the Giants, is from Rocklin. Alyssa Nakken, the first-ever woman coach in Major League Baseball, hails from Woodland. Scott Boras, one of baseball’s most influential agents, is from Elk Grove. The city doesn’t just love baseball—it grows baseball people.
If Sacramento lands that expansion team in 2029, the conversation about what to name it is already heating up. Some museum staff members are pushing for names rooted in Gold Rush history—the Argonauts or the Miners—which would be fitting for a city that became a major hub because of the gold fields. Others, like Shawn Turner, the museum’s photocopier and magician, have other ideas entirely. He still wishes they’d gone with his suggestions when the River Cats moved to Sacramento in 2000: the Robber Barons or the Americans. (Yes, he’s still thinking about that.) But whether Sacramento gets a franchise or not, the real win is already clear: 175 years of history, and we’re just getting started.
About the Author
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson is a contributor to LocalBeat, covering local news and community stories.
