The original San Jose Bees debuted in 1929 as charter members of a newly formed California State League, one of several early circuits that attempted to stabilize professional baseball in Northern California. The eight-team league included clubs from across the region, with San Jose representing the South Bay.
The Bees played their home games at Sodality Park, tucked in between the Guadalupe River, Bird and San Carlos Streets, on the site later occupied by an Orchard Supply Hardware store. The modest wooden ballpark anchored San Jose’s early professional baseball efforts.
San Jose quickly found success. The Bees captured a disputed league championship in 1930, giving the city its first professional baseball title of the modern era.
By the mid-1930s, however, conditions deteriorated. Sodality Park fell into disrepair, and the aging facility no longer met league standards. In an effort to stay viable, the Bees negotiated a plan to share a ballpark near Japantown with the respected Asahi baseball team. The proposed site, however, lacked a central location and failed to gain approval from city officials.
Without a suitable home field, the franchise lost its footing. League owners ultimately voted the Bees out of the California State League, ending San Jose’s first Bees era.
Though short-lived, the 1929–1935 Bees marked San Jose’s early commitment to organized professional baseball — a foundation that future teams would build upon in the decades that followed.
