The Las Vegas Wranglers: The Team That Couldn't Beat the House
In the spring of 1958, minor league baseball in the Bay Area began dying in plain sight, and everyone knew exactly what was killing it. The major leagues had come to California: the Giants were playing their first season in San Francisco, the Dodgers their first in Los Angeles, and the Class C California League's northern outposts suddenly could not make the math work. In San Jose, the JoSox had drawn a respectable 40,000 fans in 1957 and still lost $11,000. A Reno columnist reported the club's people in a state of shell shock ever since the Giants' westward move landed on their doorstep. In Salinas, the Packers were drawing crowds as small as 171, against the 600 a game...