San Jose Prune Pickers
The San Jose Prune Pickers, based in San Jose, California, carried one of baseball's great occupational names through the 1899 California League and the outlaw California State League of 1903 through 1909. In the club's early years the name itself was genuinely unsettled; San Jose papers in 1904 called the team the Prune Eaters and the Prune Pickers almost interchangeably, and only over the following seasons did Prune Pickers win out, becoming virtually the only name in print by 1907. Either way, the point was the same: the Santa Clara Valley was the largest prune-producing region on earth, and the ballclub was named for the harvest that defined it.
Revived in 1903 under manager Michael Steffani, the Prune Pickers immediately became one of the circuit's steadiest clubs, winning the league pennant in 1904 and finishing third or better for seven consecutive seasons. Home was Cycler's Park and later Luna Park, San Jose's first amusement park, where baseball shared the grounds with the midway.
The 1906 season ended with a championship series against Stockton that shows how big outlaw-league baseball could get. With major leaguers moonlighting on both rosters, 7,000 fans jammed Oakland's Idora Park for one November game, with thousands more turned away. San Jose's lineup that day featured Hal Chase, already the American League's most famous first baseman, and pitcher Elmer Stricklett, the man credited with bringing the spitball to the major leagues, who shut Stockton out 7-0. Stockton countered with Chicago Cubs star Frank Chance behind the plate and took the series in five games for a $1,000 purse.
The club developed real major league talent of its own. Frank Arellanes, a San Jose native and one of the earliest Mexican-American players in the big leagues, repeatedly refused offers from eastern clubs out of loyalty to San Jose, accepting Boston's only after Prune Pickers manager Al Jarman advised him to take it in July 1908; he led the Red Sox staff in wins the following season. Harry Krause also passed through from St. Mary's College on his way to a brilliant rookie year with the 1909 Philadelphia Athletics.
The name's final season was its worst, a 34-55 finish in 1909 as the outlaw league collapsed under pressure from Organized Baseball. San Jose baseball barely paused, returning under new names within a year and eventually settling into the continuous tradition that still fills Municipal Stadium today.
