NLB
San Francisco Sea Lions
Alongside the Los Angeles White Sox, Oakland Larks, Seattle Steelheads, Portland Rosebuds, and San Diego Tigers, the San Francisco Sea Lions made up the West Coast Baseball Association. It was the last of baseball’s Negro leagues. The season began on May 12 and was over by August. The league was organized, began play and failed, all in 1946. Why? Jackie Robinson, the Hall of Fame player who would integrate Major League Baseball had been signed by the Dodgers the previous November although he would spend the 1946 season with the minor league Montreal Royals. From then the decline of Negro Leagues baseball was assured.
The Sea Lions, ever budget conscious, wore the used uniforms of a minor league club, the San Francisco Cubs. From the stands the baby bear logo could pass for a sea lion.