List of baseball parks in San Francisco

[1][2] The Daily Alta California newspaper reports a game of base ball being played upon the Plaza (Portsmouth Square) "by a number of the sporting gentlemen about town", on February 3, 1851.

[3] Mention of the play of a game of Townball at Portsmouth Square is recorded in The Daily Alta California newspaper on January 14, 1852.

[1][4] An early town leader serving on the city council as second alcalde, or assistant mayor, of San Francisco during the years 1849-1854 was Frank Turk a New York Knickerbocker.

[6] In the 1860s, baseball grew in prominence in San Francisco, with the first game reported to be between the Eagles and the Red Rovers on February 22, 1860.

The San Francisco clubs were named the Eagles, Pacifics, Lafayettes, Knickerbockers, Atlantics, Bay City, Empires, Brodericks[8] and the Cosmopolitans.

[9] In the 1870s additional teams were named the Libertys, Wide Awakes (Oakland), Alhambra, Americans, Excelciors and the San Franciscos.

[17] Home of the Pacific Baseball League beginning in 1878, the ballpark was owned and operated by the politically active Captain Al Fritz of the influential Workingman's Party of California in partnership with Samuel Shear on land leased from San Francisco Mayor Andrew J.

[18] In later years, after the death of Fritz, the Recreation Grounds was leased by Waller Walace and Andy Pierce for organized ball play with the preeminent team of that era being the Haverlys.

[21] The ballpark was bounded by Harrison, Twenty-Fifth, Folsom and Twenty-Sixth Streets, including present day Garfield Square.

[25][26][27] By 1899, the park's days as a baseball venue were over, as it had been converted into a steeple chase rollercoaster and a building housing the "Battle of Manilla" panorama.