Former Indian Pete Jonas dead at 89

Pete Jonas, among the enduring figures in the history of Northwest minor-league baseball, died Saturday in Spokane, but not before building a legacy of on-field accomplishments, amusing anecdotes and community service.

Born Wilfred R. Jonas in Walla Walla, the pitcher-outfielder was among the oldest surviving players from the Western International League (1937-52) and the second oldest living former Spokane Indians player. He was 89.

His father, Joe, had pitched almost a century ago in the almost-forgotten Western Tri-State League.

Pete Jonas played nine seasons, despite chronic elbow problems and two years of military duty. Although a right-handed pitcher, he batted as a left-hander.

After leaving pro ball, he became an optometrist and devoted almost a half-century to his practice in Davenport.

Short, sturdy, cheerful and intense, Jonas primarily played for Spokane and Vancouver of the WIL and for the Seattle Rainiers of the Pacific Coast League. Following two seasons with the Indians, he won 13 games for Vancouver in 1942 and 12 more with Seattle in 1943. After splitting 1946 and 1947 between Seattle and Vancouver, he quit to attend optometry school in Oregon. While there, he coached the Pacific University baseball team for three seasons then concluded his career as player-manager for Medford of the Far West League in the summer of 1950.

Although his pitching success was limited by his aching elbow, Jonas batted .361 for Spokane in 1940. In 1942, pitching for Vancouver, he defeated Spokane twice, hitting a home run each time. He hit above the .300 mark in both 1946 and ‘47.

While playing for the Indians, Jonas was involved in two memorable incidents at Ferris Field.

On May 9, 1939, while he was coaching third base, teammate Al Marchi hit a low pop fly just outside the foul line. Jonas instinctively ran over and caught it. As the capacity Ladies Day crowd howled with laughter, Tacoma third baseman Jack Colbern, according to Jonas, sprinted after him, hollering “I could’ve had it. I could’ve had it.”

On June 10, 1939, with Jonas on his way to a 3-1 victory over Salem, big-bellied slugger Bill Harris of the Senators lofted a soft fly ball right at Indians centerfielder Dwight Aden. Aden, who hadn’t done so in four years of pro ball, dropped it. The next day, Aden got the headlines while his good friend fumed, with a twinkle in his eye.

“He don’t have to run for it. He don’t have to do nothing. But here he is … he drops it,” Jonas said during a 1986 interview. “Sonofagun, the next day in the paper, it says ‘Aden Drops Fly Ball.’ Didn’t say one damn word about whether I pitched a good ballgame.”

A Willamette University graduate, Aden, 90, and Jonas were college rivals before they became teammates and spent more than 60 years as friends and fishing pals.

“I remember that we went to the hospital when the boys, his son, Mike, and my oldest boy, Buck, were born a couple days apart,” Aden recalled Monday. “Pete was looking at him (Mike) and talking through the window to him, saying ‘Don’t ever get tangled up with that Aden kid over there playing baseball because, sooner or later, he’s going to make an error behind you and get all the headlines.’ “

After graduating from high school in Milton-Freewater, Ore., Jonas played for Spokane high school athletic legend Nig Borleske at Whitman College. In Pete’s four seasons, the Missionaries won three Northwest Conference championships.

Jonas turned pro early in the summer of 1938, not long after pitching a no-hitter for the semipro Walla Walla Elks in an Idaho-Washington League game at Ferris Field. In his debut for the Seattle Rainiers, with future Spokane stars Levi McCormack and Edo Vanni as teammates, Jonas pitched two scoreless innings against Portland.

He met his future wife, Lorna, after joining the Indians the next spring.

He, Aden, catcher Ted Clawitter and outfielders Wes Schulmerich and Bob Hornig lived in a boarding house operated on West 8th Avenue by Lorna’s mother, Gertie Jacobs.

Jonas was very active in the Davenport Lions Club, and he once served grand marshal of the annual Pioneer Days parade.

The memorial service has been scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday at Zion Lutheran Church in Davenport. Jonas is survived by a son, Mike, of Orcas Island, Wash., and daughters Vicki Schafer of Spokane and Laurie Walker of Kent, Wash. Lorna Jonas died in 1994.