After only three years in existence, the Gate City Grays can already call themselves a dynasty.
In their 2014 inaugural year, the Pocatello-based semi-professional baseball team had the best record in the Northern Utah League. The following year, the scrappy young players battled through an up-and-down regular season to win their first NUL title.
Then, as night fell on Pocatello’s Halliwell Park on Aug. 8, 2016, the Grays took home their second straight league championship. During that game, Gate City shut down the Providence Wolverines 5-0 in the second game of a best-of-three championship series.
“It means everything,” Gate City skipper Trent Seamons said after the decisive win. “We’re here for the city. We’re here for Pocatello, Chubbuck, the Gate City.”
Pocatello was a baseball hotbed in past decades, fielding Minor League teams from the mid-1920s through the early ’90s. Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda, who won three World Series with the Los Angeles Dodgers, managed the Pocatello Chiefs in 1965.
Since the Pocatello Posse’s lone season in 1993, the Gate City baseball scene had been limited to high school and American Legion games. But now with the establishment of the Grays, the Pocatello area can relive its baseball glory days.
The Northern Utah League spans from Pocatello into Utah cities Smithfield, Providence, Logan and Hyrum. But the Grays, who are now the longstanding semi-pro organization’s newest member, have taken the league by storm with a passionate fan base and a winning reputation few of their rivals can match.
Since their inception, the Grays have had no problem building a fan base. For home games at Halliwell Park, which is located at 978 W. Alameda Road, local fans consistently pack the stadium.
The team’s owners, Terry and Erica Fredrickson, pump personal resources into the club while helping area residents with disabilities, giving them employment opportunities with the Grays and New Day Products and Resources. They tabbed Idaho State student and former college baseball player Seamons as the Grays’ manager, and the roster is comprised mostly of area ballplayers with collegiate playing experience.
The end result: two league championships in three years and an ecstatic fan base.
“People like to be part of a winning tradition, and we’ve proven we can win,” Terry said at the beginning of the 2016 season.