The Golden Game: Baseball in Sacramento
The “heart and mind” of Sacramento can be found in its 150-years of baseball history, from the countless Little Leaguers with big league dreams, to those who lived the dream and made it to majors. The father of modern baseball, Alexander Joy Cartwright, in all probability brought the game to Sacramento, when he came to California to search for gold in 1849. On Sunday, October 12 at 9:30 PM public television WKYU-PBS will debut the high-definition documentary, “The Golden Game: Baseball in Sacramento.”
Based on the book “The Golden Game” by Kevin Nelson, “The Golden Game: Baseball in Sacramento” examines Sacramento’s long baseball history. The documentary looks at the region’s first clubs and teams, including the Gilt Edge, Senators, Solons, and today’s River Cats. The documentary recounts the day the first official ball game was played in Sacramento. Learn about the greatest players who came through the city, including Stan Hack who played 16 seasons with the Chicago Cubs; Solon Joe Marty, the first Sacramentan to hit a home run in the World Series; Tony Freitas possibly Sacramento’s greatest ball player ever; and Kenso Nushida who is thought to be the first professional baseball player of Asian descent.
Through biographies, life-lessons and tragedies, dramatic moments and classic confrontations, baseball fans, along with some former players, recount what makes our country’s national pastime so special. Individuals interviewed for this program, include historian Francis Pendleton; former “Sacramento Bee” reporter Stan Gilliam; author of “The Golden Game” Kevin Nelson; U.S. District Court Judge and historian William Shubb; 1956-60 Solons announcer Lou Coppola; historian Alan O’Connor; Tim Armstrong, Grandson of Tony Freitas; the Knot hole kids (who traded foul balls for Solons tickets) from Solons 1942 Championship Series; River Cats’ President Alan Ledford and manager Tony DeFrancesco; Cuno Baragan, Bud Watkins; and Wally Westlake. In the 21st Century we take a look at the success of the Sacramento River Cats, and how they’ve brought in fans both new and old.
Production of “The Golden Game” is made possible by a grant from the Irvine Foundation and through an editorial partnership with Heyday Books.