The Untold Story of How Sacramento Lost Baseball

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Ownership crying poor and unable to get a stadium deal done. Wishy-washy local politicians. A baseball team leaving one town to go play in another city on a temporary basis before ending up in a third location. You probably think I’m talking about the Oakland Athletics.

I’m actually referring to their possible new home for a few seasons, Sacramento. Before the A’s bewildered baseball with their clueless relocation attempts, the Sacramento Solons lived it out first. Now, there are some key differences, and we’ll get those in due course. Just know that before the A’s bungled their way out of Oakland, the Solons did it first in Sacramento.

After plans from a developer to build a new baseball stadium in South Sacramento closer to Elk Grove were dismissed due to its inconvenient location and no one knowing how it would be financed, the Solons honed in on Cal Expo.

And the team felt as if it was making progress on plans by May 1976. Why those running Solons felt that way is a mystery. No funding or approvals were in place. Nor had the state shown it was willing to relinquish land.

No stadium would ever be built at Cal Expo for the Sacramento Solons. The would try at three other sites but with no luck. Worst yet, ownership was out of money and tried trading equipment to pay back rent.

Solons’ ownership had been pursuing parallel paths the entire season with San Jose. Joe Gagliardi got his wish of having a Triple-A team in San Jose, but it was only leased from Bob Piccinini, who still held onto plans that Sacramento would have a Cal Expo stadium ready in a few years.

Gregg Lukenbill, who would go on to become the first owner of the Kings, and Frank McCormack teamed up to finally deliver Sacramento a new baseball stadium that would hopefully solve all these issues. That never happened.

For anyone in Sacramento thinking the A’s playing here temporarily is a good thing, well, history tells is otherwise. Our team left triple A left and we wouldn’t see professional baseball for more than 20 years. San Jose lost the Triple A franchise and then couldn’t keep hold of its Single A ballclub which returned when the Missions left before going away a few seasons later.

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