THE SOLONS REVIVAL
Sacramento's baseball story doesn't start with the River Cats. It doesn't start with the Athletics either. It starts in 1903, when Sacramento became one of the founding members of the Pacific Coast League, at a time when no Major League team existed anywhere west of St. Louis.
The team had a few names in the early years: The Senators, The Sacts. By 1936 they had settled on the one that stuck: the Sacramento Solons. The name came from Solon, the ancient Athenian lawmaker who reformed Greek democracy. For years, journalists had used "solon" as everyday shorthand for senator or legislator. In California's capital city, the name wasn't a marketing decision. It was just true.
The Solons played at Edmonds Field, a ballpark at Riverside Boulevard and Broadway which served as the center of Sacramento's sporting life for a generation. They won back-to-back PCL championships in 1938 and 1939, drawing crowds who packed the stands on summer nights. They were a real team in a real league that mattered to real people in this city.
The PCL of that era wasn't minor league baseball in the way people think of it today. It was elite West Coast baseball, and Sacramento was a part of it. The Solons produced future major leaguers, such as: Joe Gordon, Ernie Lombardi, Tony Freitas, Joe Marty, and Sixto Lezcano.
The team competed against legendary franchises, and gave Sacramento something to root for decades before anyone in the national sports conversation paid much attention to the capital city at all.
On June 10, 1930, Sacramento hosted the first night game in Pacific Coast League history. Five years before any Major League team ever played under lights.
A Centennial Legacy
What Happened in 1960
In 1958, the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles and the Giants moved to San Francisco. Major League Baseball had finally come to the West Coast, and it changed everything for the PCL. The league lost its open classification status, attendance dropped across the board, and teams that had operated independently for decades suddenly couldn't survive in the same markets as big league clubs.
After the 1960 season, the Solons were sold and relocated to Hawaii. Just like that, the team was gone. Sacramento had helped build West Coast baseball for more than half a century, and when the major leagues finally arrived on the coast, the capital city got left out entirely.
A brief version of the Solons came back in 1974 and played two seasons at Hughes Stadium before folding. The name returned, but it didn't last. By 1976 it was over again.
The Long Gap
The River Cats arrived in 2000 and gave Sacramento professional baseball again. They've been a good franchise, a successful one, and the fans here have supported them. But it was still Triple-A. Sacramento was still waiting for the real thing.
In 2022, Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive bought the River Cats and Sutter Health Park. That was the first real signal that someone with serious resources was thinking about Sacramento as a major league market, not just a minor league one. Two years later he brokered the deal that brought the Athletics to Sacramento while their Las Vegas stadium is being built. Major League Baseball arrived in Sacramento, for the first time in the city's history, on April 3, 2025.
Sixty five years after the Solons left.
Where We Are Now
The Athletics are here through 2027. When they leave for Las Vegas, the San Francisco Giants will be the only Major League Baseball team in all of Northern California. More than 10 million people from the Oregon border down through the Central Valley will have no team to call their own.
That is the situation Sacramento finds itself in right now. Not waiting for baseball to notice this city. Not asking permission. Hosting Major League Baseball while building the case for why it should never leave.
Opening Day 2026 set an all-time attendance record at Sutter Health Park. The market is real. The fans are real. The history is 120 years deep.
Why This Project Exists
The Sacramento Solons Revival Project started because someone had to make the argument specifically and loudly before the window closes. Sacramento's MLB expansion case is strong, and it deserves to be treated that way.
In April 2026 we published a full civic research piece making that case because someone needed to make the arguement specifically, and loudly before this rare moment's window closes. Sacramento's MLB expansion case is strong, and it deserves to be treated that way.
This is not a nostalgia project. It is an active advocacy effort, built on the belief that Sacramento has already earned this, and that the work of making it happen belongs to the people who live here.
The Solons belong in Major League Baseball. They always did.