Meet the characters from the first Spokane baseball team

1: Frank “Piggy” Ward

Imagine a noisier Pete Rose equipped with a thick, sagging mustache. Nearly shapeless at 5-foot-9, 196 pounds, Ward was a bundle of energy. He whistled. He shouted. He jumped about, cursing umpires and rival players. He stole bases. The switch-hitting Pennsylvanian played second base like a blacksmith, but he could really swing the bat, a skill that kept him employed for 21 seasons with parts of six in the major leagues. He still shares the big-league record he set in 1893, when he reached base 17 consecutive times for Baltimore. He won another Pacific Northwest League batting title while playing for Butte in 1902.

Powell had pitched in both alternative major leagues, the Union Association and the American Association, before joining New Orleans in 1887. He became the captain, a 20-game winner and part-time outfielder. In three seasons there, he invested in the team, and as verified by his great grandson, Gene Gomes III of Richfield, Minnesota, created the promotions of Ladies Day and the Knot Hole Gang, and also rainchecks and infield tarps. The Southern League had collapsed after Powell’s 1889 club, that included future Spokane players Piggy Ward, Happy Jack Huston, Tom McGuirk, and Mark Polhemus, started the year 34-5. After serving as Seattle’s playing manager in 1891 and 1892, Powell returned to New Orleans and bought the team. A member of the New Orleans Sports Hall of Fame, he lived to be 92.

A curve-balling right-hander, Borchers, a former Sacramento teen sensation, became the first native of the California capital to play in the major leagues. In his debut for Cap Anson’s fabled Chicago White Stockings, he shut out Boston 13-0 on May 18, 1888. But Anson released him in early September, and news spread that Borchers often fell apart under pressure. Reports of his alcoholic escapades, bad disposition and habit of signing contracts he failed to honor followed him from league to league. Referring to newspaper accounts of his misadventures, Linda Hannah, a great granddaughter who lives in Oregon, said “I didn’t want to be the one to officially call him a jerk, (but) I think he probably was.” Although Borchers had some good years, he appeared in only one more major league game.