Santa Barbara Saints

The Santa Barbara Saints, based in Santa Barbara, California, were a charter member of the California League, founded in 1941 as a Class C circuit, and were the league's first playoff champions. The Saints name was chosen in a popular contest that drew more than 200 different entries, announced on April 1, 1941, just weeks before the league's first pitch.

The Saints were a Brooklyn Dodgers farm club, and Brooklyn took the operation seriously; when the roster proved thin at catcher early on, Dodgers president Larry MacPhail personally wired catcher Stanley Wasiak to report to Santa Barbara from Georgia. Wasiak stuck around baseball for the next half century, becoming the winningest manager in minor league history. The investment paid off on the field: Santa Barbara finished second at 83-56 in the regular season, won the second half outright, then beat Bakersfield in the playoffs and defeated pennant-winning Fresno four games to one in the final round to claim the league's inaugural postseason championship.

The Saints returned in 1942 as one of only four teams to attempt the war-shortened season before the league suspended play entirely. When baseball resumed in 1946, Santa Barbara's club carried the Dodgers name outright, and the city remained a league fixture into the 1960s.