Stockton Ports

For the physical deepwater shipping port in Stockton, see Port of Stockton.

The Stockton Ports are a Minor League Baseball team of the California League and the Single-A 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 logo Cap insignia
Minor league affiliations
Class	Single-A (2022–present)
Previous classes	Low-A (2021) Class A-Advanced (1978–2020)
League	California League (2022–present)
Division	North Division
Previous leagues	Low-A West (2021) California League (1941–2020)
Major league affiliations
Team	Oakland Athletics (2005–present)
Previous teams	Texas Rangers (2003–2004) Cincinnati Reds (2001–2002) Milwaukee Brewers (1979–2000) Seattle Mariners (1978) California Angels (1972) Baltimore Orioles (1959–1971) St. Louis Cardinals (1958) Chicago Cubs (1953–1954) St. Louis Browns (1952) Chicago White Sox (1949)
Minor league titles
League titles (11)	1946 1947 1963 1965 1969 1980 1986 1990 1992 2002 2008
Team data
Name	Stockton Ports (1946–1972, 1978–1999, 2002–present)
Previous names	Mudville Nine (2000–2001) Stockton Mariners (1978) Stockton Flyers (1941–1942)
Colors	Red, white, blue
Mascot	Splash
Ballpark	Banner Island Ballpark (2005–present)
Previous parks	Billy Hebert Field (1941–2004)
Owner(s)/ Operator(s)	Tom Volpe / 7th Inning Stretch, LLC
General manager	Jordan Feneck
Manager	Gregorio Petit
Media	KWSX 1280 AM – MiLB.TV (currently select away games only)

The Ports were established in 1941 as members of the California League and have won the California League championship 11 times.

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.

In conjunction with Major League Baseball's restructuring of Minor League Baseball in 2021, the Ports were organized into the Low-A West.^[5] In 2022, the Low-A West became known as the California League, the name historically used by the regional circuit prior to the 2021 reorganization, and was reclassified as a Single-A circuit.^[6]

Major league affiliations

• 1941: Los Angeles Angels, PCL
• 1946: Independent
• 1947–1948: Oakland Oaks, PCL
• 1949: Chicago White Sox, AL
• 1950–1951: Independent
• 1952: St. Louis Browns, AL
• 1953–1954: Chicago Cubs, NL
• 1955: Oakland Oaks, PCL
• 1956–1957: Baltimore Orioles, AL
• 1958: St. Louis Cardinals, NL
• 1959–1971: Baltimore Orioles, AL
• 1972: California Angels, AL
• 1978: Seattle Mariners, AL
• 1979–2000: Milwaukee Brewers, AL (1979–97)/NL (1998–2000)
• 2001–2002: Cincinnati Reds, NL
• 2003–2004: Texas Rangers, AL
• 2005–present Oakland Athletics, AL

Roster

Stockton Ports roster

• v
• t
• e

Players				Coaches/Other
Pitchers -- Mark Adamiak   19 Luis Carrasco 27 Charlie Cerny 34 Micah Dallas   35 Franck De La Rosa -- Stevie Emanuels   11 Dheygler Gimenez 13 James Gonzalez 38 Wander Guante 20 Carlos Guarate 22 Gunnar Hoglund 10 Garrett Irvin -- Colton Johnson   22 Jake Pfennigs   16 Blaze Pontes 46 Vince Reilly   30 Eduardo Rivera 21 Franyelson Rodriguez 44 Pedro Santos 39 Yunior Tur 33 Dallas Woolfolk -- Chen Zhong-Ao Zhuang		Catchers 18 Carlos Franco  4 Jose Mujica  2 Cooper Uhl Infielders  9 Nelson Beltran  5 Bjay Cooke  1 Jose Escorche  7 Brennan Milone 12 Dereck Salom  6 T.J. Schofield-Sam 28 Tommy Stevenson Outfielders  3 Henry Bolte 29 Pedro Pineda -- Kevin Richards    8 Colby Thomas		Manager -- Javier Godard Coaches 26 Gabriel Ozuna (pitching) -- Ron Witmeyer (hitting) 60-day injured list -- Grant Judkins   7-day injured list * On Oakland Athletics 40-man roster ~ Development list # Rehab assignment ∞ Reserve list ‡ Restricted list § Suspended list † Temporarily inactive list Roster updated February 12, 2024 Transactions → More rosters: MiLB • California League → Oakland Athletics minor league players

Notable Ports alumni

Baseball Hall of Fame alumni

• Pat Gillick (1959) inducted 2011
• Mike Piazza (2007) inducted 2016

Notable alumni

• Joe Altobelli (1969, MGR) Manager: 1983 World Champion – Baltimore Orioles
• Daric Barton (2005)
• Don Baylor (1968) MLB All-Star; 1995 NL Manager of the Year; 1979 AL Most Valuable Player
• Bo Belinsky (1959)
• Paul Blair (1963) 2 x MLB All-Star; 8 x Gold Glove
• Bruce Bochte (1972) MLB All-Star
• Skye Bolt
• Dallas Braden (2005)
• Milton Bradley (2005) MLB All-Star
• Travis Buck (2005)
• Al Bumbry (1969) MLB All-Star; 1973 AL Rookie of the Year
• Enos Cabell (1970)
• Trevor Cahill (2008) MLB All-Star
• Coco Crisp (2015)
• Bobby Crosby (2005) 2004 AL Rookie of the Year
• Vince DiMaggio (1948) 2 x MLB All-Star
• Josh Donaldson 3 x MLB All-Star; 2015 AL Most Valuable Player
• Sean Doolittle (2008, 2012, 2015, 2017) MLB All-Star
• Cal Eldred (1990)
• Mike Epstein (1965; led the league in batting (.338) and home runs (30))
• Keith Foulke (2008) MLB All-Star
• Zack Gelof
• Sonny Gray (2017) MLB All-Star
• Pumpsie Green (1955)
• Bobby Grich (1968) 6 x MLB All-Star
• Darryl Hamilton (1987)
• Dave Henderson (1978) MLB All-Star
• Geoff Jenkins (1995) MLB All-Star
• Davey Johnson (1962) 4 x MLB All-Star; 2 x MLB Manager of the Year; Manager: 1986 World Series Champion – New York Mets
• Doug Jones (1979) MLB All-Star
• Darold Knowles (1962) MLB All-Star
• Dave LaPoint (1979)
• Dave May (1963) MLB All-Star
• Jim Morris (1987) Subject of Movie: The Rookie
• Juan Nieves(1982)
• Jerry Remy (1972) MLB All-Star
• Merv Rettenmund (1965–1966)
• Addison Russell (2013–2014) MLB All-Star
• Ben Sheets (1999) 4 x MLB All-Star
• Gary Sheffield (1987) 9 x MLB All Star; 1992 NL Batting Title
• Kurt Suzuki (2005) MLB All-Star
• Dale Sveum (1983, 1989)
• Zack Thornton
• Brett Tomko (2010)
• Fernando Vina (1997) MLB All-Star
• Edison Volquez (2004) MLB All-Star
• Joey Wagman
• Brad Ziegler (2005)
• Ben Zobrist (2015) 3 x MLB All-Star; 2016 World Series Most Valuable Player
• Mudville Nine players

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. Vol. 179, no. 4. April 1991. {{cite news}}: 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.
5. Mayo, Jonathan (February 12, 2021). "MLB Announces New Minors Teams, Leagues". Major League Baseball. Retrieved February 12, 2021.
6. "Historical League Names to Return in 2022". Minor League Baseball. March 16, 2022. Retrieved March 16, 2022.

External links

• Official website
• Statistics from Baseball-Reference