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Seals Stadium was built for the minor league San Francisco Seals, the team where Joe DiMaggio and his lesser-known brothers Dominic and Vince got their start. Until 1938, however, the San Francisco Missions also played there as the home team, which is why there was a third locker room there. Seals Stadium had a simple one-deck design but had elegant architectural stonework on the outside and an Art Deco ticket sales / office building near the right field corner. It was situated in an elevated spot, providing fans with an impressive view of the Mission District. In back of the stadium there was a tall Hamm's Beer brewery. "From the land of sky blue waters..." Across 16th Street beyond right field was Franklin Square, a small park. The third base side of the grandstand was shorter than the right side because 15th Street made an odd bend near the left foul pole. In 1946 or so, bleachers were added in right field.
The Giants played at Seals Stadium for two years while Candlestick Park was under construction. With its long foul line distances, average distance to center, and roofless, wide-open grandstand, it is hard to imagine a sharper contrast to the Giants' former home in the Polo Grounds. The outfield fences were angled inward, perpendicular to their respective portions of the grandstand, so that the power alleys were relatively modest in length, much like Wrigley Field in Los Angeles. The left field bleachers were added in time for the Giants' arrival, but the seating capacity of 22,900 was still woefully inadequate for Major League games. Meanwhile, the Dodgers, the other migrants from New York (Brooklyn), were playing in gigantic Memorial Coliseum, which had a capacity of nearly 100,000. The fence in front of the center field scoreboard was moved several times over the years, including in 1959, which reduced the distance to center field by ten feet. The distances to right and left field were reduced by about five feet in that final year, possibly to accommodate two extra rows of bleacher seats. One odd feature of Seals Stadium was that it never had dirt warning tracks, one of the last major league ballparks without them.
In July 1959 Willie McCovey played his first major league game in Seals Stadium, just a few months before the Giants moved out and demolition began. Today an automobile dealer and grocery store occupy the land where it once stood.
SOURCES: Lowry (2006), Pastier (2007), Ritter (1992), Gershman (1993)
FAN TIPS: Bruce Orser, Bill Kalenborn