A brief history of the Gate City Grays, who prepare to kickoff their playoff run Monday in Pocatello
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POCATELLO — Earlier this summer, Major League Baseball completely altered its record books by accepting Negro Leagues statistics. In one day, Negro League legend and baseball Hall of Famer Josh Gibson became the all-time leader in numerous offensive categories.
Gibson, who never played for a Major League organization, spent most of his professional career with the Homestead Grays — the namesake of Pocatello’s current semi-pro team, the Gate City Grays.
Terry Fredrickson, half of Gate City’s husband-wife ownership team, said that while there is no written history evidencing Homestead’s regular visits to Pocatello, there is spoken lore. Fredrickson has chatted with numerous Pocatello residents who have shared stories they heard from family members who attended games between Gibson’s Grays and the Pocatello Cardinals — then a minor league team affiliated with the St. Louis Cardinals.
Fredrickson pointed to the many baseball legends who made annual exhibition stops in Pocatello. Players like Gibson, Buck Leonard and “Cool Papa” Bell. Those barnstorming Negro Leagues teams, he said, did so much to grow the game and expand it west.
“Every day, it’s humbling to think … about the history that they brought to this game,” Fredrickson told EastIdahoNews.com. “To be able to play under that name is huge.”
Fredrickson and his wife Erica are both Idaho State University graduates and supporters of Bengal athletics. Their love for Bengal athletes and baseball had the Fredricksons driving to Smithfield, Utah weekly for years, to see former ISU athletes play for the Northern Utah League’s Smithfield Blue Sox.
During one of their trips, the couple decided that Pocatello needed its own team, and began the process of bringing NUL baseball to the Gate City. Their dream became reality in 2014, when the Grays played their inaugural season.
But those trips also brought an idea about the atmosphere for which Grays baseball is now known.
At the Blue Sox home field, Fredrickson explained, young fans play their own game of wiffle ball behind the bleachers. And those kids don’t imitate MLB stars. Instead, they impersonate their favorite Blue Sox players – their “hometown heroes,” as Fredrickson called them.
Now, attending a Grays game gives you access to two different games played simultaneously — the Grays on the diamond and a mass of children playing their own game behind the Halliwell Park bleachers.
“It’s awesome because that was a dream that we had — to have all these kids come out here and play,” Fredrickson said. “I would’ve killed to have this as a kid. Kids under 8 are free, for that reason, to get them out here and have fun.”
As for the product on the field, Fredrickson said the dream goes well beyond success in the win-loss column. Winning, he said, is the “byproduct of creating a good culture.” A culture of improving the players and advancing the game.
“The biggest win for Erica and I is when we have a kid come back and say, ‘Hey, I just got picked up at a four-year or a D1 (college). … Or having a guy come back and say, ‘I had a hell of a college season because I had some summer ABs (at-bats) and got some great work in.”
The Fredricksons have also been blessed by conversations with college coaches, who lauded their players and the growth they experienced during a summer with the Grays.
“I’m not going to lie to you though, it’s a rush to hold up a trophy in front of these fans,” Fredrickson added. “I’ve gotten to do it three times, and there’s nothing like it.”
The NUL playoffs begin this week, and the Grays will begin their quest for a fourth league championship at home, against The Lab — a Logan, Utah-based team. Earning home-field advantage for the first round was “super-huge,” according to manager Rhys Pope.
“We’ve got the best fans in the Northern Utah League. They pack this place every single night,” Pope told EastIdahoNews.com. “We’ve got a 10th man out there, because you’ve got to fight, not only us you’ve got to fight the noise and the crowd.”
Winning in the playoffs and earning that fourth banner will rely on Pope and his team relaxing and allowing the game to come to them.
“We need to get back to having fun,” the skipper said. “Sometimes, when you’re up and down and get on a little bit of a losing kick, you kind of lose sight that, we’re playing a baseball game. The first thing you’ve got to do when you’re playing a game is, have fun.”