The Double Play, located at 16th and Bryant streets, whose walls were crowded with a treasure of baseball memorabilia dating to when Seals Stadium sat across from it, caught fire last month, severely damaging the building and closing the bar.
The ground floor was totally lost, but no injuries were reported, according to the San Francisco Fire Department. The cause of the conflagration is unknown, but it apparently didn’t start in the kitchen.
The bar has been in business for more than a century. Until 1959 Seals Stadium was across the street, now the Potrero Center mall. The ballpark, built in 1931, was home of the Pacific Coast League San Francisco Seals, and, from 1958 to 1960, the San Francisco Giants.
Katie Hernandez, whose father Rafael Sr. has owned The Double Play Bar and Grill since 2009, is trying to raise $100,000 to help “rebuild my family’s dream” by reopening the restaurant and “pay employees while they are able to find another job as we work to rebuild.”
