Anaheim Aces

The Anaheim Aces, based in Anaheim, California, were a charter member of the California League when it was founded in 1941 as a Class C circuit, alongside teams in Bakersfield, Fresno, Merced, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, and Stockton. Playing at La Palma Park, the Aces finished fifth at 55-82 in the league's inaugural season.

That one season was all Anaheim got. America's entry into World War II after Pearl Harbor gutted minor league rosters, and the Aces folded rather than attempt a 1942 campaign; the league itself shrank to four teams that year and then suspended entirely until 1946. Anaheim would not host professional baseball again until the California Angels arrived from Los Angeles in 1966.

Among the players who wore an Aces uniform was Bert Shepard, who later lost a leg when his fighter plane was shot down over Germany, then returned to pitch in a major league game for the Washington Senators in 1945 with an artificial limb, one of the most remarkable comebacks in baseball history.