Is Spokane the outfield of Washington baseball? Seattle might have you fooled into thinking so

Spokane has often played the role of little brother to Seattle since the cities were founded in the 1800s. Arguably, the disparity between Spokane and Seattle has never been wider than in today’s world of professional sports.

Seattle, thanks to a much larger population base and far more big-bucks corporations, has the financial means to support “major league” teams in all four of the so-called major sports: football, baseball, basketball and hockey. As for Spokane … not so much.

The fiercest pro sports rivalries between Spokane and Seattle began in 1958, when Spokane joined Seattle in two top-level minor leagues: Baseball’s Pacific Coast League and the original (pro) Western Hockey League. Previously, Spokane and Seattle baseball and hockey teams tangled only sporadically in lesser leagues, with one notable exception.

In 1916-17, legendary pro hockey pioneer Lester Patrick brought major league hockey to Spokane in the form of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. Back in the day, the PCHA champions played for the Stanley Cup, and Seattle downed the Montreal Canadiens to win the Stanley Cup in 1916-17. Spokane finished last in the PCHA and folded after drawing only a smattering of fans to its outdoor arena.

Spokane played in the PCL from 1958-71 and 1973-82, and in the pro WHL from 1958-63. Seattle was a charter member of the PCL in 1903 and spent most seasons in that league until 1969, when the Seattle Pilots brought major league baseball to the Emerald City.

Mind you, the term “major league” must be used loosely with the Pilots, who failed miserably on the field and at the turnstiles before moving to Milwaukee after one sad season. Big league baseball returned to Seattle with the arrival of the Mariners in 1977. Spokane, meanwhile, has often flourished on and off the field since returning to the Northwest League in 1983.

Now that another season of Mariners and Indians baseball is upon us, it seems like a good time to study some interesting baseball links between Spokane and Seattle. Answers for the following quiz appear at the end of the article.

1. True or false: The Indians drew more fans in their first PCL season (1958) than any of the three future major league cities that fielded PCL teams that year (Seattle, San Diego and Phoenix).

2. I am the former Indians standout who started at second base on the 2001 Mariners when they tied the major league record of 116 wins. Who am I?

3. True or false: Former Spokane managers have managed more World Series champions than past Seattle managers.

4. Maury Wills spent eight-plus seasons in the minor leagues (including 1957 with Seattle in the PCL) before the parent Los Angeles Dodgers promoted him from Spokane early in the 1959 season at the age of 27. Three years later, Wills set a major league record for stolen bases (since broken). How many bases did Wills steal in 1962, when he was Most Valuable Player of the National League?

5. Kim Allen, a longtime minor leaguer like Wills, stole 84 and 50 bases for Spokane when he split time with the Indians and Mariners in 1980-81. Did Allen steal more bases in his 118 PCL games (all with Spokane) in 1980-81 than Wills stole in his 329 PCL games (with Seattle and Spokane) from 1957-59?

6. True or false: Spokane won more PCL championships than Seattle when both cities were playing in the Class AAA league at the same time.

7. Were the Indians ever the PCL farm club of the Mariners?

8. True or false: Spokane produced more Minor League Players of the Year in 24 seasons in the PCL than Seattle did in 54 years in the league.

9. Name the outfielder who led the 1959 Indians with a .345 batting average and led the National League with a .346 batting average for the 1962 Dodgers. Hint: He played for the ill-fated Seattle Pilots in 1969.

10. Seattle pitcher Rube Vickers set PCL single-season records that seem destined to last forever when he won 39 games (with 20 losses), struck out 411 and threw 518 ⅔ innings for the 1906 Seattle Siwashes. Did any Indians pitcher approach any of those marks last season in the High-A Northwest League?

11. Who was the Indians and Mariners catcher who earned the nickname “Scrap Iron” for his hard-nosed play?

12. True or false: The MLB career leaders among ex-Seattle pitchers in wins, saves and strikeouts rank ahead of ex-Spokane pitchers in all three categories.

13. Name the Indians pitcher who no-hit Seattle twice in two weeks in 1967. Hint: He was a 20-year-old right-hander who posted a 48-63 record in 10 seasons in the majors.

14. Gorman “Stormin’ ” Thomas led the PCL Indians with 36 homers in 1977, and he led the Mariners with 32 homers in 1985. Did Thomas ever lead the major leagues in home runs?

15. Outfielder Paul Strand, who has held the single-season minor league record of 325 hits (in a whopping 194 games) since 1923, turned pro as a pitcher with Spokane in 1911. He also saw action with Seattle during a superb minor league career that never translated into success in the majors (.224 career batting average in four partial seasons; he fared better as an occasional relief pitcher). Can we safely presume that Strand hit over .400 for the PCL’s Salt Lake City Bees when he set the hits record?

16. True or false: Howie Reed won 19 games in the PCL with the 1963 Indians, as well as the 1966 Seattle Angels.

17. Two former Gonzaga University stars played for the PCL Indians in 1981. One of those players made his major league debut that season with the Mariners. The other fellow never made it to the bigs despite hitting .294 in seven years in the minors. Can you name these players? Hint: Both played for Spokane Falls Community College (now Community Colleges of Spokane in athletics) prior to their time at Gonzaga. One starred at University High School in what is now Spokane Valley, and the other excelled at Ingraham High in Seattle.

18. Spokane (then Spokan Falls) and Seattle fielded pro baseball teams for the first time in 1890 in the inaugural season of the Pacific Northwest League. Which team won the 1890 PNL pennant?

19. Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. holds the Mariners record for homers in one season with 56 in 1997 and 1998. Who holds the record for MLB homers in one season by a former Indian? Hint: His 53 long balls for Baltimore led the major leagues in 2013.

20. Can you name the former Indians second baseman who managed the first winning team in Mariners history? Give yourself an extra pat on the back if you can spell his last name correctly without looking it up.

ANSWERS

1. True. The 1958 Indians drew a league-leading 270,297 fans, more than double Phoenix’s total (122,748). Seattle (142,499) didn’t fare much better, and San Diego (233,681) also came in far behind Spokane. Phoenix and San Diego finished 1-2 in the PCL standings, and Spokane and Seattle tied for last.

2. Joey Cora. The older brother of Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora, Joey is the third base coach for the Detroit Tigers.

3. True. Former Spokane managers hold a 6-4 lead over ex-Seattle managers in World Series titles they won as managers. Bruce Bochy, who began his managing career with Spokane’s Northwest League champions in 1989, tied for fourth in World Series history when he won his fourth championship last year with Texas. Bochy’s other titles came with San Francisco in 2010, 2012 and 2014. Former Indians manager Tommy Lasorda guided the Dodgers to World Series crowns in 1981 and 1988. Ex-Mariners manager Lou Piniella (1980 Cincinnati Reds) and former Seattle PCL managers Chuck Tanner (1979 Pittsburgh Pirates), Bob Lemon (1978 New York Yankees) and Rogers Hornsby (1926 St. Louis Cardinals) all claimed one World Series ring as managers. Hornsby was a player-manager with the 1926 Cards. Lasorda, Lemon and Hornsby are Hall of Famers, and Bochy and Piniella are candidates for the Hall of Fame.

4. Wills stole 104 bases in 1962, which now ranks seventh in modern major league history (since 1900).

5. Yes. Allen stole 134 bases in 227 PCL games (all with Spokane) and swiped 12 bases in 42 major league games (all with Seattle). Wills stole 71 bases in 329 PCL games with Seattle and Spokane, and he had 586 steals in 1,942 MLB games with the Dodgers, Pittsburgh and Montreal. Wills hit .281 in the majors and Allen batted .222. You can’t steal first base, Kim.

6. False. Spokane (1960) and Seattle (1966) each claimed one pennant during the 14 years they spent together in the PCL. After Seattle left the PCL, the Indians won championships in 1970, 1973 and 1974.

7. Yes. The Indians were Seattle’s No. 1 farm club from 1979-81.

8. True. For Spokane, outfielder-first baseman Frank Howard was honored in 1959, center fielder Willie Davis in 1960 and shortstop Bobby Valentine in 1970. Seattle’s Minor League Players of the Year were pitchers Fred Hutchinson (1938) and Dick “Kewpie” Barrett (1942).

9. Tommy Davis. Tommy and Willie Davis, who both starred in the outfield for the Dodgers in the 1960s, were often mistakenly identified as brothers. They were not related. Bonus info: Tommy played high school basketball in Brooklyn, N.Y., with Basketball Hall of Famer Lenny Wilkens, the former Seattle SuperSonics player and coach.

10. Of course not! Few pitchers at any level of professional baseball have challenged any of Vickers’ preposterous 1906 numbers (39 wins, 411 strikeouts, 518 ⅔ innings pitched) since World War II. Carson Palmquist led the 2023 Indians with just seven wins, and Jarrod Cande was the club leader in strikeouts (109) and innings pitched (105 ⅓). Vickers played five seasons in the majors and compiled a 22-27 record.

11. Bob Stinson.

12. True. Seattle leads in two of the three categories, but ex-Indian Don Sutton ranks 14th in career wins (tied with Nolan Ryan) with 324, and ex-Mariner Gaylord Perry leads former Seattle pitchers with 314 wins, good for 17th all-time. Former Mariner Fernando Rodney stands 18th with 327 saves, and ex-Indian Hoyt Wilhelm ranks 43rd with 228. Only Ryan struck out more batters than Mariners legend Randy Johnson (4,875). Sutton is seventh with 3,574. Sutton, Perry, Ryan, Wilhelm and Johnson are enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Sutton appeared in just two games with Spokane early in his career, and Wilhelm spent only eight games with the Indians late in his career.

13. Alan Foster won a pair of no-hit, 1-0 games against Seattle.

14. Yes. Thomas led the major leagues with 45 homers for the Milwaukee Brewers in 1979.

15. Nope. Strand led the PCL with a .394 batting average. Hall of Famer Paul Waner of San Francisco was a distant second at .369.

16. False. Reed posted a 19-7 record with the 1963 Indians and a 19-8 record with the PCL’s Oklahoma City 89ers in 1967. A major league journeyman, Reed went 5-2 in seven games with the PCL’s Seattle Angels in 1966.

17. Casey Parsons from U-High and Larry Patterson from Ingraham High.

18. Spokane came in first in the four-team league with a 61-34 record. Seattle took third at 48-46.

19. Chris Davis’ 53 homers – more in one season than ever mustered by such Hall of Famers as Lou Gehrig, Hank Aaron and Willie Mays – is tied for 29th in MLB history.

20. The Mariners finished with losing records during their first 14 seasons before Jim Lefebvre (Luh-FEE-vrr) guided the M’s to an 83-79 record in 1991. Naturally, the Mariners fired him at the end of the season. The two other ex-Spokane players who managed the Mariners – Bill Plummer (64-98 in one season) and Maury Wills (26-56 in two partial seasons) – struggled mightily, as did Rene Lachemann, the only manager to guide the Indians and Mariners. Lachemann, one of baseball’s all-time nice guys, kept getting hired despite managing 12 consecutive losing teams. That included both of his Spokane clubs (114-133 as the Mariners’ PCL farm club in 1979-80) and all three of his Mariners teams – including two partial seasons – in 1981-83 (140-180).

Howie Stalwick covered the Spokane Indians and numerous other sports subjects for The Spokesman-Review and dozens of other newspapers, online media, magazines and national wire services (often as a freelancer) before retiring in 2016. Occasional work for The Spokesman-Review since his alleged retirement has stretched Stalwick’s sports writing career past the half-century mark. He may be contacted at howiestalwick73@gmail.com.