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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Pioneer League sets standard for unusual behavior

If there’s a suspension to be imposed or a rained-out game to be rescheduled in the Pioneer Baseball League, the decree is issued out of an alcove next to the kitchen at Taste, a comfy eatery at the corner of Howard and Second Avenue. Occasionally, the clang of pots and pans during the birthing of bobotie or farro salad gets to be too much, and league president Jim McCurdy – who owns the joint with wife Mary Ann – takes calls in the dining room instead. On Tuesday night, all-star teams from the Pioneer and the Northwest League meet at Avista Stadium in a first-of-its-kind friendly, and one of the tiny ironies is that headquarters for the league whose 95,000-square-mile footprint covers Montana, Colorado, Idaho and Utah is a café in downtown Spokane. But that’s OK. The NWL office is in downtown Missoula, where president Mike Ellis’ family owns a Pioneer franchise – and, yes, a diner, too. So at least we can rule out any scouting advantages for Tuesday’s game. Speaking of scouting reports, this would seem to be a good time for a primer on all things Pioneer for local fans unschooled in that league’s logistics and lore. The ABCs: The Pioneer is an “advanced rookie” league whose current configuration has teams in Missoula, Helena, Great Falls, Billings, Idaho Falls, Ogden, Orem and the newbie, Grand Junction, which got its team from up the road in Wyoming in 2012. Alas, the best nickname in minor league baseball was lost when Casper gave up the Ghosts. Like the Northwest League, the Pioneer had a previous incarnation as a full-season league (it’s actually the older of the two, dating to 1939) with rosters dotted more by Crash Davis types than rookies. McCurdy, a law professor at Gonzaga now in the emeritus bullpen, got his start in baseball 30 years ago schlepping kegs for former Spokane general manager Les Yamamoto. Two years later he bought the Pioneer’s Butte Copper Kings, but had to divest when he became league president in 1994, selling to Bill Veeck’s son Mike and comedian Bill Murray. “Bill was a silent partner in the Salt Lake Trappers,” McCurdy recalled, “but not so silent that they didn’t issue a Bill Murray baseball card.” That Trappers team won 29 straight games in 1987, still a minor league record. That’ll be on your midterm, as will these: —-The snow-out. On Aug. 22, 1992, a bizarre storm hit Butte in the seventh inning of a game with Idaho Falls that had to be suspended because the flakes were so big players couldn’t see the ball. Temperatures – 88 degrees the day before – dipped to 30, and the Gems scrambled for the bus. But the team’s Hispanic players, who had never seen snow, delayed departure for a snowball fight. —-Danny Tartabull, son of a major leaguer, hit 262 big-league homers and had a cameo on “Seinfeld,” but as a Pioneer rookie in Billings was sent home for pirating baseballs and bats. —-Missoula not only has the obligatory costumed mascot – Ollie Osprey – but real ones that nest atop a center-field pole at the team’s riverfront stadium. “The two osprey chicks this year are learning to fly – you can see them go up about a foot and come back down,” said Ellis. “It’s kind of fun to see the adults catch a live fish and kind of show it off.” —-Great Falls’ nickname – the Voyagers – isn’t a nod to Lewis and Clark’s paddle up the Missouri, but to alien space flight. In 1950, team general manager Nick Mariana was touring his empty stadium at midday when he saw two bright, rotating disks in the sky. Retrieving a 16mm camera, he shot roughly 16 seconds of film of the UFOs – footage that was analyzed and argued over for the next 20 years and now resides in the National Archives. —-In Billings in the late ’70s, a small group of fans calling themselves “the Animals” would bring a giant stuffed gorilla they named, for no apparent reason, Randolph Scott to every Mustangs game. They also drank prodigiously and saved all their cups – 4,000-some, which they stacked in display at the season finale. —-Ogden owner Dave Baggott is the Pioneer’s resident Barnum. When he operated the Trappers in 1992, part of the stadium was condemned and cordoned off. So he gave away hardhats on opening night. In 2000, he staged IOC Bribery Night, poking fun at the Salt Lake Olympic scandal. During the 2009 recession, he gave away a million general admission tickets. But he never pulled the trigger on his biggest brainstorm: Polygamy Night – all secondary wives half price. —-The rival Orem Owlz should take lessons. Earlier this season, they announced – and then retreated on – Caucasian Heritage Night and their radio announcer resigned in protest of the promotion. —-What else? Country music legend Charlie Pride pitched for the old Missoula Timberjacks in 1960. A couple years before, ’Jacks catcher Jack McKeon – longtime MLB manager and GM – chased a pop foul behind home plate and tumbled down the hole in front of the grandstand leading to the clubhouse because someone had left the trapdoor open. In Billings, retired cop Don Vegge shows up every year to play the national anthem – on a saw. Hope someone invited him to the all-star game.