Fond memories of Spokane

George Gross’ baseball career ended in Spokane twice but he doesn’t have a bad thing to say about his time here, though it could be said that was a painful time in his life.

Gross, drafted out of the University of Delaware in 1977, was a first baseman for Houston’s Triple A team in Tucson, Ariz., when he was hit in the face by a pitch in a 1980 game against the Indians. He ended up in a Spokane hospital for eight days and though he tried to return, his career ended in 1981.

Tucson general manager Jack Donovan made Gross his assistant in 1982 and in ’83 sent him to Spokane as the general manager. Donovan headed a group that bought the territorial rights and brought Single A baseball to Spokane after the Triple A Pacific Coast League team moved to Las Vegas.

“It was a wonderful experience, I met a lot of great people in the community,” Gross said. “There are some I stay in touch with, not as many as I’d like.”

However, the job Gross inherited was a far cry from the Indians that fans know today, and not just because his team went 23-46.

The first team, as Spokane adjusted to the lower classification, drew just 40,137 fans, less than half the total that has watched the Indians so far this season. The future major leaguers were pitcher Mitch Williams and, for a brief time, Ulises (Candy) Sierra.

“The first year was tough, we didn’t have a real strong team on the field. That makes a big impact on the attendance,” Gross said. “It was a shock coming from Tucson where we would see crowds of 12,000. In Spokane, on a good night, we might get 1,200, 1,500.”

Still, he enjoyed all the different duties he had to oversee, from selling advertising to the ballpark food to team travel.

“The second year was so much more rewarding,” Gross said. “We started to get more sponsorships, more people wanted to get involved. You could see it was gaining momentum.”

The team went 35-39 and drew 43,607 fans, who got the first professional glimpse of catcher Sandy Alomar Jr.

But, Gross, said, the majority of the ownership group “changed direction.”

So he decided to get out before they did. Through a friend, he landed a corporate sales job with a Phoenix billboard company operated by Arturo Moreno.

“It’s kind of funny,” Gross said from his New Jersey office, “he got into the baseball business and I got out of it.”

Gross helped new GM Les Yamamoto a little in 1985, when the team went 33-41 with future Seattle Mariners second baseman Joey Cora as the main attraction, before the Brett organization purchased the franchise. Attendance was 70,576 but has not dipped below 100,000 since.

“That’s great baseball,” said Gross, who follows the Yankees, Astros and Angels. “That was a great time in my life, the transition from being on the field to getting into the corporate world. That’s the biggest shock, leaving the game, the part athletes find most difficult.”

The billboard job took him from Phoenix to Houston to Phoenix and New Jersey in 1996.

He’s now a vice president, presiding over a large East Coast territory, for the huge company now owned by CBS. Moreno had taken the billboard company public and the success allowed him to buy the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim a few years back.

Gross joined Donovan and Moreno as a part owner of the Salt Lake Trappers in the 1990s.

“That kept us in the game, it was just a lot of fun,” Gross said. “I wish maybe I stayed in it, bought another franchise. It’s a good business. I never would have imagined the value of those franchises.”

Though there are just a few people he stays in contact with he does remain attached to the area. He had property in Kellogg and still owns a house he uses when he skis Silver Mountain.

“I have fond memories,” he said. “There are great people up there.”