California Baseball

Thousands of San Franciscans and Oaklanders celebrated the fortieth anniversary of California joining the Union with an Admission Day game at the Haight Street Grounds. Ladies entered free of charge; for gentlemen, tickets were twenty-five cents. Fans—or “cranks” as they were called—could take the cable car lines to the ballpark, which accommodated up to 15,000 spectactors and regularly hosted California League play. In the game pictured here, San Francisco, in white, delivered “the severest of drubbings,” defeating Oakland 5-1.