SF Giants to wear Sea Lions uniforms for third consecutive year
The SF Giants will be sporting a different, yet meaningful, look during Saturday afternoon’s game against Atlanta. In celebration of African American Heritage Day at Oracle Park, the Giants will honor the San Francisco Sea Lions by wearing their jerseys on the field.
Former SF Giants first baseman Brandon Belt wears the jersey of the San Francisco Sea Lions in 2021.
The Sea Lions competed in San Francisco for a sole season in 1946 as members of the West Coast Negro Baseball League. Despite adopting a Sea Lion as their team mascot, their uniforms displayed bears. This choice stemmed from the utilization of recycled uniforms from the now-disbanded San Francisco Cubs organization.
Toni Stone, believed to be the first woman to play major American professional sports, is easily the most famous Sea Lions player. However, according to Curveball, a biography written by Martha Ackmann that was published in 2010, Stone left the team after learning she was being paid less than the men and received a better offer from the owner of the New Orleans Creoles.
For the third consecutive year, the Giants will don the jersey, marking the fourth instance overall. The initial occurrence was in 2014 during an away game in Atlanta, where Atlanta sported their Atlanta Black Crackers uniforms, paying homage to the history of their town's Negro League involvement.
San Francisco again used the uniforms to pay homage on Juneteenth in 2021 for the 75th anniversary of the West Coast Negro Baseball League and again in 2022 for African American Heritage Day. While they handed away Sea Lions caps last season to fans, the Giants marketing team is taking it a step forward by providing replica jerseys for the first 20,000 fans to enter the ballpark.
Next June, the Giants are set to play a regular season game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama. Rickwood is the oldest professional ballpark in the United States and formerly the home of the Birmingham Black Barons, the old Negro League club that legendary SF Giants center fielder Willie Mays once played on.
