Stockton Ports

The Stockton Ports are a Minor League Baseball team of the California League and the Class A-Advanced affiliate of the Oakland Athletics. They are located in Stockton, California, and are named for the city's seaport. The team plays its home games at Banner Island Ballpark which opened in 2005 and seats over 5,000 people.

Stockton Ports
Founded in 1941
Stockton, California
Team logoCap insignia
Minor league affiliations
ClassClass A-Advanced
LeagueCalifornia League
DivisionNorth Division
Major league affiliations
TeamOakland Athletics (2005–present)
Previous teams
Minor league titles
League titles (11)
  • 1946
  • 1947
  • 1963
  • 1965
  • 1969
  • 1980
  • 1986
  • 1990
  • 1992
  • 2002
  • 2008
Team data
NicknameStockton Ports (1946–1972, 1978–1999, 2002–present)
Previous names
  • Mudville Nine (2000–2001)
  • Stockton Mariners (1978)
  • Stockton Flyers (1941–1942)
ColorsRed, white, blue
              
MascotSplash (2005-present)
Skipper the Rat (2002-2004)
Mighty Casey (2000-2001)
Casey (1984-2000)
Casey Jr. (1996-2000)
BallparkBanner Island Ballpark (2005–present)
Previous parks
Billy Hebert Field (1941–2004)
Owner(s)/
Operator(s)
Tom Volpe / 7th Inning Stretch, LLC
ManagerBobby Crosby
General ManagerTaylor McCarthy
MediaKWSX 1280 AM - MiLB.TV (currently select away games only)

The Ports were established in 1941 and have won the California League championship 11 times. They are tied with the San Jose Giants in having the most titles among the league's active franchises.

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 for "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 title again without a major league affiliation (they had a limited working agreement with the Pacific Coast League's Oakland Oaks). After going 24–18 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. During Minor League Baseball's centennial celebration in 2001, baseball historians Bill Weiss and Marshall Wright rated the 1947 Ports as one of the 100 greatest minor league teams of all time, ranked at number 98.[1]

Owned by Stockton local Carl W. Thompson, Sr. (1971–1973), the Ports disbanded 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 the Mudville Nine in 2000 and 2001,[3][4] then returned to the Ports name in 2002.

In 2005, the Ports moved to the newly built Banner Island Ballpark and became affiliates of the Oakland Athletics. The team won its 11th California League championship in 2008 with a 9–3 victory over the Lancaster JetHawks on September 14.

Major league affiliations

Roster
Stockton Ports roster
Players Coaches/Other

Pitchers

  • 15 Xavier Altamirano
  • 17 Peter Bayer
  • 39 Jake Bray
  • 46 Trey Cochran-Gill
  • 34 Bryce Conley
  • 20 Ty Damron
  • 28 Michael Danielak
  • 27 Brady Feigl
  • 38 Will Gilbert
  • 16 Hogan Harris
  • 14 Nick Highberger
  • 22 David Leal
  • 36 Eric Marinez
  • 34 Wyatt Marks
  • 10 Kumar Nambiar
  • -- Gus Varland

Catchers

  • 18 Jordan Devencenzi
  • 29 Robert Mullen

Infielders

  •  2 Nick Allen
  • 11 Jeremy Eierman
  •  7 Nico Giarratano
  • 21 Ryan Gridley
  •  2 Payton Squier

Outfielders

Manager

Coaches

  • -- Javier Herrera (coach)
  • 24 Brian McArn (hitting)
  • 26 Chris Smith (pitching)


7-day injured list
* On Oakland Athletics 40-man roster
# Rehab assignment
∞ Reserve list
‡ Restricted list
§ Suspended list
† Temporary inactive list
Roster updated October 20, 2019
 Transactions
→ More rosters: MiLB • California League
 → Oakland Athletics minor league players

Notable Ports alumni
Baseball Hall of Fame alumni
Notable alumni
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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.
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