Against All Odds

How the River Cats
Became Sacramento's Hometown Team 

Since 1960 when the Solons vacated Edmonds Field for Hawaii, Sacramento was left without its hometown team. That is until 2000 when the River Cats adopted the mantle and Pacific Coast League baseball returned to the River City.  

For the better part of 40 years some of Sacramento’s most esteemed entrepreneurs attempted to fill the void. For various reasons they came up short. That is until three men—all émigrés as PCL president Branch Rickey termed them—united behind one vision and coalesced a community around the team on May 15, 2000 at Raley Field. 

How the River Cats became Sacramento’s Hometown Team—Against All Odds—is the focus of this e-book. Far more than a “baseball” story, this is a modern-day case study in perseverance, tenacity, business acumen and plain old good fortune. 

When contrasted with valiant attempts by such visionaries as Kings’ owner Gregg Lukenbill, Modesto A’s owners Fred Anderson and Kevin McClatchy, and even Fred David —the last co-owner of the original Solons—we can more fully appreciate the success of Warren Smith, Bob Hemond and Art Savage who founded the River Cats on the west bank of the Sacramento River. 

This new e-book contains interviews with many of the principals involved in this success story, including Hemond, Smith, Rickey, McClatchy, Alan Ledford (former River Cats’ president and GM), Willie Connolly (Fresno Diamond Group chairman), and others allied with factions “across the river” who attempted to bring professional baseball back to the state capital.  

“Against All Odds” also features several new pieces to this 40-year puzzle, including: 

> The amount paid by Lucky Stores for Edmonds Field and why the city and county of Sacramento each passed on the opportunity to buy the ballpark; 

> How the Hawaiian Islanders wanted to return to Sacramento and a local liaison kept blueprints for the proposed Cal Expo ballpark for months in his trunk while waiting for a decision from the city of Sacramento; 

> Unannounced negotiations in 1985 between Bob Lurie and Gregg Lukenbill’s SSA to relocate the San Francisco Giants in Sacramento; 

> Fred Anderson’s attempt to purchase/relocate the PCL Portland Beavers to Sacramento; 

> How a second West Sacramento site was considered but passed up for the present Raley Field location; 

> How a financial services company tried to acquire the ballpark’s naming rights sponsorship but eventually was outbid by Raley’s. 

You’ll also learn how Kevin McClatchy’s failed attempt (in association with Fred Anderson) to buy the Oakland A’s led to his purchase of the Pittsburgh Pirates, and in the process passed the Triple-A torch to Hemond and Smith. Their five-year odyssey, in association with former NHL and NBA executive Art Savage, succeeded in establishing one of the most successful minor league baseball franchises in modern history. 

“Against All Odds” details their incredible journey. 

If you would first like to read the opening installment to the e-book, click through
to read Chapter One.

To purchase the e-book “Against All Odds” for $3:

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Updated 12/6/12

All contents © Rick Cabral 2011-12