Sam Lynn Ballpark

Sam Lynn Ballpark in Bakersfield, CA, was the home of Bakersfield affiliated baseball from 1941 through 2016. After that, the Bakersfield Blaze effectively moved from the California League to the same-level Carolina League as the Buies Creek Astros.

Opened in 1941 for the Bakersfield Badgers, the park once reported 8,175 - more than twice its seat count.

Coca-Cola bottler Sam Lynn popularized semi-professional and youth baseball in the San Joaquin Valley, then joined San Francisco Seals President Charlie Graham to form a new pro league. Its April 1941 debut was made bittersweet by Lynn's December 1, 1940, death.

The ballpark's center-field wall is unusual in two ways: it lies just 354 feet from home plate, and its batters faced the setting sun - the last place hosting affiliated ball where that was so. This forced either later start times or sun delays. The club tried to solve the problem during the 1993-1994 off-season by building a "sun wall" - but measurements taken in November didn't compensate for the sun's in-season path. From the perspective of the plate, the summer sun sets beside the wall rather than behind it.

A Blaze cap was among five Cali League ones that became clues to solving a murder in TV's Life (2007-2009).

Teams in Organized Baseball that have played here

• Bakersfield Badgers, 1941-1942
• Bakersfield Indians, 1946-1955
• Bakersfield Boosters, 1956
• Bakersfield Bears, 1957-1967
• Bakersfield Dodgers, 1968-1975, 1984-1994
• Bakersfield Outlaws, 1978-1979
• Bakersfield Mariners, 1982-1983
• Bakersfield Blaze, 1995-2016

External Link

• Historic Sam Lynn Ballpark