By Kinen Carvala

Where in San Francisco is baseball still played following rules from 1886?

“Recreation Valley” was the term in the 1893 annual report of the Park Commissioners of San Francisco to the Board of Supervisors used for 20 acres north of Fifth and Sixth avenues near Golden Gate Park’s southern edge. The report stated that people started playing football in Recreation Valley before people started playing baseball there, so football players got dibs to play there. The valley had been recently graded and covered in 12 to 18 inches of loamy soil.

The festival grounds of the 1894 California Midwinter International Exposition covered 160 acres in Golden Gate Park, including the recreation ground of Recreation Valley later called “Big Rec.” The San Francisco Chronicle reported on Nov. 22, 1893, that the Exposition executive committee aimed to “make the recreation ground famous on the continent” with athletes from every state of the Union invited to compete on cinder tracks for running and bicycles, polo and football grounds and a regulation baseball diamond. A grandstand 300 feet long and 100 feet wide would have seating capacity for 9,000 people.

The April 28, 1912 San Francisco Chronicle reported 30 baseball games played in Golden Gate Park the previous Sunday with Big Rec as “one large panorama” of men and boys playing baseball.

Tom FitzGerald reported about a game of “vintage base ball,” under 1886 rules, played at Big Rec on April 19, 2009, with the San Francisco Pacifics home team defeating the Fremont Aces 15-5. Spitball pitches were allowed, but wearing sunglasses were not.

Bay Area Vintage Base Ball continues to play by 1886 rules. Sunday, June 4, will be the next day to host vintage matches at Big Rec, starting at noon at both diamonds, according to the online schedule at bavbb.com/2023-schedule.

Though the 1893 Park Commissioners’ report anticipated that police would not be necessary on the recreation grounds, the Western Neighborhoods Project (WNP) pointed out that the 1902 minutes of the Park Commission featured a request for “more careful police patrol” on weekends in response to “profane and obscene language indulged in by the ball players in the park on Sundays and weekdays in the presence of ladies and children.”

Baseball players at Big Rec ranged from self-identified “park bums,” who insisted on playing in old clothes, to semi-professional players, according to WNP. The American Legion, a veterans organization founded after World War I, started its own baseball league in 1925 to teach sportsmanship to teenagers.

Charles H. Graham was the unpaid president of the Association of Professional Baseball Players of America for several years until his death in 1948 at age 70, according to the San Francisco Examiner. Graham was varsity catcher at the University of Santa Clara before his graduation in 1898. After playing and managing in the minor leagues for a few years, Graham got a chance to enter the major leagues, playing for the Boston Red Sox in 1906; that year’s earthquake and fire in San Francisco spurred Graham to return to the West Coast to care for his ill wife. Later, Graham returned to baseball, eventually becoming the manager and part owner of the San Francisco Seals in 1918, overseeing the Seals becoming a successful team in the Pacific Coast League, winning seven pennants from 1922 to 1946, according to Graham’s alma mater.

Big Rec Field’s west diamond and a $40,000 concrete grandstand were dedicated to Charles H. Graham on March 27, 1949, with Harvey Teller, president of the park commission and Supervisor John J. Sullivan among those in attendance. Sunset Post 400, a local branch of the American Legion, was also represented at the dedication by Judge Milton Sapiro who named Graham and his friend James J. “Jim” Nealon as “two outstanding men who dedicated themselves to the boys of our community” in organizing sandlot baseball. The plaque for Graham reads:

To the memory of

Charles H. Graham

for his untiring efforts

and support of baseball

dedicated by

Sunset Post 400

The American Legion

City and County of San Francisco

Honorable Elmer E. Robinson, Mayor

The Park Commission

Harvey E. Teller,

President Peter Bercut

Wm. M. Coffman

Hugh Gallagher

Fred D. Parr

1948-1949

Nealon had his own plaque and east diamond at Big Rec dedicated to him on March 20, 1960. Three-thousand-five-hundred fans watched a game played in his honor with 49 men taking their turn playing for the San Francisco Old Timers during the match and 27 men representing Oakland. Bob Preston of the San Francisco Old Timers Baseball Association was chairman of the Nealon dedication while former state senator Tommy Maloney was master of ceremonies, according to the SF Examiner. The plaque was donated to the City by Supervisor Clarissa Shortall McMahon, daughter of baseball fan and sponsor Judge Edward P. Shortall.

Graham worked with Nealon, president of the Northern California Baseball Managers Association for more than 25 years, in establishing a fund that cared for more than 4,000 injured semi-professional players by 1960. Nealon received offers to play professional baseball but was forced to reject them by his guardian uncle, according to Graham, as reported in the SF Examiner after Nealon’s death in 1948. (Jim Nealon is not to be confused with his cousin James Joseph “Joe” Nealon who played baseball in Pittsburgh and the Bay Area before his death in 1910.) The plaque for Nealon reads:

Dedicated to the memory of

James J. Nealon

for years of service to

semi-pro baseball

Old Timers Baseball Assn.

of San Francisco

Northern Calif. Baseball Mgr’s Ass’n San Francisco 1960

Authorized by the S.F. Recreation and Parks Commission

Plaque donated by Supervisor

Clarissa Shortall McMahon

In honor of her father the late Judge Edward P. Shortall

The two adjacent baseball diamonds at Big Rec Ball Field are north of an entrance to Golden Gate Park at Seventh Avenue and Lincoln Way. The baseball diamond to the west is dedicated to Charles H. Graham; the plaque is on a raised pedestal on the walkway along the top of the bleachers overlooking home plate. The Lowell High School baseball team uses the west field.

The baseball diamond to the east is dedicated to James J. Nealon; the plaque is on the retaining wall below the fence facing the diamond close to first base. The George Washington High School baseball team uses the east field.