SALT LAKE CITY — Twenty years ago this month, the Salt Lake Trappers won the last of its four Pioneer League championships.
A year later, it was announced that Triple A baseball — after a 10-year absence — would return to the city for the 1994 season, so 1992 was the final year for the rookie-league Trappers, who eventually lost in the league championship.
As a boy I watched Dick Stuart hit home runs into the left-field darkness. I even saw Willie Mays hit a 450-foot home run to dead center.
For me, the nostagia started around 1985 when Jack Donovan walked into my law firm and, even before the team had players, I was part of the Trappers.
Donovan was the genius behind the Trappers’ organization. He had pitched for Seton Hall and in the minors where he threw a knuckle curve that froze hitters. He was charming, outgoing, smart and full of energy.
Donovan enticed owners, secured the Salt Lake territory and evenually the franchise. Arte Moreno, current owner of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, was among those owners.
To find players, Donovan recruited Van Schley, who had developed a vast network of college and professional players. Schley was an amazing scout and craftsman of baseball lineups.
It seemed to me right from the start that Schley had a charmed life. He lived in Malibu and his best friend was Bill Murray. He had a stunning wife and beautiful daughter. As if that were not enough, he was really good at what he did. So good that the Trappers won and won. In 1987 the team ran off a 29-game winning streak that put The Salt Lake Trappers in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
We know it’s always fun to win, but for the Trappers, how and with whom they won was most of the fun. The players were marvelously talented, but they were baseball outsiders.
They really did play for the love of the game, making ridiculously small salaries and riding seedy busses into Canada. In 1990, one of the pitchers was a nuclear physicist in real life and drove over from Los Alamos, N.M., for the summer.
Willie Ambos, Benny Castillo, Eddie Ortega, Will Smith, Dave Marcon David Rolls and Rick Hirtensteiner are only a few of the names fans will remember from that year.
Derks Field had a rickety owner's box, and I was lucky enough to sit in it, although at best I was the least of the owners. There, I watched the games with the brilliant movie and television star who wrote "Caddyshack," Brian Doyle-Murray, a famous Manhattan artist and team owner, John Alexander, Huey Lewis and some of his “News,” and a steady stream of Major League scouts and former managers.
Every now and then — always unannounced because he really did not have a schedule — Murray would sit in that very box. He was right there, the biggest movie star in the world, yelling at the umpire. Sometimes he coached first base. The Trappers had to compete with movie stars, rock stars, famous artists and beautiful girls.
Nick Belmonte, an All-American at the University of Florida and a base-stealing wizard in the minor leagues, led the 1991 team. He had managed the 1990 team and I remember well that we were swept in the championship by Great Falls. In fact, we had not won a playoff game in four years. When the 1991 regular season ended, we were up against Great Falls in the championship again.
One might have felt impending doom when the Trappers lost the first game in Great Falls, 5-1. But back in Salt Lake, the Trappers eked out Game 2 3-2, setting up a nervous final game.
It was Tuesday, Sept. 3, 1991. Summer was over, school had started and by game time only about 2,500 fans had wandered into Derks.
Earlier that day, Doyle and Murray had hit the local TV news shows to rally a crowd.
It worked. Fans began to pour in and the energy soared.
The game was scoreless until the seventh inning when the Trappers scored two. We held our breath, and for good reason.
In the top of the ninth, with two outs, a walk and a throwing error put Great Falls runners on first and second. An RBI single made it 2-1 with two on.
An intentional walk loaded the bases.
Finally, Great Falls’ best hitter went down swinging. The Trappers and their fans celebrated together on the field. No one wanted to leave.
That was 20 years ago nearly to the day.
Mark Van Wagoner is a Salt Lake City attorney and a native of Heber City, Utah.