Pocatello, Idaho minor league baseball teams

Pocatello, Idaho, has been home to baseball teams who have competed in 35 seasons of Minor League Baseball, between 1926 and 1993.^[1][2]

Timeline

History

The Pocatello Bannocks played in the Utah–Idaho League from 1926 to 1928. Pocatello's teams since then have played in the Pioneer League. The Pocatello Cardinals, an affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, played during the seasons of 1939–1942 and 1946–1951, as the league paused for three years during World War II. The Cardinals two Pioneer League titles, in 1942 and 1949.

Hall of Fame Manager, Tommy Lasorda, 2010

A new version of the Pocatello Bannocks started up in 1952, originally as a St. Louis Browns affiliate for the first two years. In 1957, they changed their name to the Pocatello A's to reflect their new connection to the Kansas City Athletics, and then in 1960 to the Pocatello Giants as the San Francisco Giants took over as their affiliate. After a final season as the Pocatello Bannocks in 1961, they changed their name to the Pocatello Chiefs in 1962 and remained under that name until they moved to Ogden, Utah, to become the Ogden Dodgers in 1966. Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda managed the Chiefs in 1965.

In 1984, baseball returned to Pocatello for two seasons, when the Lethbridge Dodgers relocated as the Pocatello Gems. This was the same team that had left in 1966.

Walt Weiss, 1988 AL Rookie of the Year

The Pocatello Giants were affiliated with the San Francisco Giants for the 1988 and 1989 seasons; prior affiliation was with the Oakland A's. The home stadium was Halliwell Park, located on Alameda Drive. After the 1989 season the Giants ended their farm team affiliation with the franchise. The franchise became an independent/co-op team and was renamed the Gate City Pioneers for the 1990 season; that team featured players from the Montreal Expos and Chicago White Sox farm systems as well as minor league players from the Hiroshima Toyo Carp of the Nippon Professional Baseball. For the 1991 season, the team changed its name to the Pocatello Pioneers. The success of the franchise was hampered by a series of ownership and front office staff changes, including one season (1988) where the out-going management and ownership left numerous debts to local businesses; the new, out-of-state ownership of the 1989 franchise severely under-funded the front-office management; and the purchaser (from California)of the franchise in 1990 attempted to move the team to Utah, incurring bad relationships with the city government & parks management, who owned the ballpark and had spent money to upgrade the facilities. Added to the difficulties for the franchise was a feeling by a vocal group of citizens, mainly the parents of local high school players, that Halliwell Park should be the domain of the two Pocatello high school baseball teams and the local American Legion team, rather than a professional team run by "outsiders." The last ownership group returned the franchise to Lethbridge, Alberta, where they became the Lethbridge Mounties.

Wally Berger, 1933 Goudey card

The town had one more team when the Salt Lake City Trappers - forced out by the move of a Class AAA Pacific Coast League team to the city - moved to town as the Pocatello Posse in 1993. After one season, the team moved to Ogden, Utah, to become the Ogden Raptors.

Semi-pro team

A new team, the Gate City Grays, was formed in 2014 as part of the Northern Utah League. They were undefeated in their first regular season and won the league championship the next two seasons.^[3] The Grays are a semi-professional team not associated with MLB. Games are played at Halliwell Park.