Hughes Stadium

Hughes Stadium is a football stadium on the campus of Sacramento City College in Sacramento, CA that served as the home ballpark for the Sacramento Solons of the Pacific Coast League from 1974 to 1976.

The ballpark had very unusual dimensions, as it was created for football and was oval-shaped. As a result, the left field fence was only 233 feet from home plate in its first season. While a 40-foot net was meant to compensate for the lack of distance, it only helped so much as the place was an absolute bandbox, leading to completely outrageous homer numbers, and giving pitchers the willies. The team tried to move the fences back the following two seasons, but there was only so much that could be gone, and the farce ended after three seasons.

Sacramento had a long history of minor league baseball until the early 1960s, but after the original Sacramento Solons had left town, their ballpark, Edmonds Field had been demolished, and when the Eugene Emeralds were transferred to the city in 1974, there was no place for them to play. In spite of the fact Hugues Stadium distorted the game in very obvious ways, attendance was excellent during the three seasons.

Bill McNulty hit 55 homers for Sacramento in 1974 (44 at home) while Gorman Thomas hit 51 homers that season.

Further Reading

• Chris Landers: "Meet the homer-happiest team in baseball history", mlb.com, April 15, 2020. [1]