Sacramento Gilt Edges

The Sacramento Gilt Edges, based in Sacramento, California, played in the California League from 1898 through 1900, and no team name in the league's long history better captures the era's habit of naming ballclubs after their sponsors: the Gilt Edge name came from a beer brewed by Sacramento's Ruhstaller Brewery. Sponsorship clearly agreed with them, as the Gilt Edges won three consecutive California League championships from 1898 through 1900, led in that first title year by a 49-27 record and the pitching of Charlie "Demon" Doyle.

Sacramento's baseball roots run as deep as any city in the West. The city fielded the Sacramento Altas in the league's first incarnation in the 1880s, and after the Gilt Edge era the franchise carried on as the Senators, becoming a charter member of the Pacific Coast League in 1903 and eventually evolving into the beloved Sacramento Solons.

In the first half of the 1900s, professional baseball reached into towns of every size across America, and the early California League circuits were among the most colorful, with brewery-sponsored champions, weekend doubleheaders, and Sunday crowds that made baseball the biggest show in town.