Pocatello, Idaho minor league baseball teams

Pocatello, Idaho has been home to 34 minor league teams since 1926. Baseball Hall of Fame Manager Tommy Lasorda was the Manager of the Pocatello Chiefs in 1965.^[1]

Hall of Fame Manager, Tommy Lasorda, 2010

The Pocatello Bannocks played in the Utah–Idaho League from 1926–1928 but all the teams since then have played in the Pioneer League. The Pocatello Cardinals, an affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals played from 1939–1942 and 1946–1951, skipping the years of World War II. They won two league titles, in 1942 and 1949.

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 another season as the Bannocks in 1961, they changed their name to the Pocatello Chiefs in 1962 and remained under that name till they moved to Ogden, Utah to become the Ogden Dodgers in 1966.

In 1984, baseball returned to Pocatello 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 franchise ended their farm team affiliation with the San Francisco Giants. 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 where the out-going management and ownership left numerous debts to local businesses. Added to the difficulties for the franchise was a feeling by a vocal group of citizens 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, Canada where they became the Lethbridge Mounties.

Wally Berger, 1933 Goudey card

The town had one more shot with baseball when the Salt Lake City Trappers moved to town as the Pocatello Posse in 1993 but they moved again, to Ogden, Utah to become the Ogden Raptors after the one season.

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 NUL championship in their second season. The Grays are a semiprofessional baseball team not associated with the MLB. Games are played at Halliwell Park.

Hall of Fame Alumni

• Tommy Lasorda (1965, MGR) Inducted: Baseball Hall of Fame (1997)

Notable MLB Alumni

References

External links

• Baseball Reference