Seals Stadium was a minor league baseball stadium in San Francisco. Opened in the Mission District in 1931, it was the longtime home of the San Francisco Seals (1931–57) and the Mission Reds (1931–37), both of the Pacific Coast League. It was later home for the Major League San Francisco Giants for their first two seasons in the city, 1958 and 1959. Less than three decades old, the stadium was demolished in late 1959 after the completion of the baseball season.HistoryBuilt during the Depression, Seals Stadium opened on April 7, 1931. It cost $1,250,000 to construct, and Seals President "Doc" Strub described how laborers would leap onto the running boards of his automobile and beg for the opportunity to work on the project for $3 a day. The stadium was unusual in that it was built with three dressing rooms – one for the visiting team, and one for each of the minor league home teams, the San Francisco Seals and the Mission Reds, a.k.a. the San Francisco Missions. It was built for night games, with six tower banks which were described as the best in minor league baseball at the time. With a capacity of 18,600, the stadium had no roof over the grandstands because of San Francisco's lack of rainfall during the summertime and the fans' preference to sit in the sun. The stadium initially consisted of an uncovered grandstand stretching from foul pole to foul pole and an uncovered bleacher section in right field. In some years during its minor league days, a live seal was kept in a water tank underneath the grandstand. The field was oriented southeast, with the right field bleachers bounded by 16th Street.
