THE STREAK

Author

Matthew Garringer
October 15, 2023

Good evening. This is Dead Legends. The daily newsletter that loves baseball as much as Stan Musial loved shredding on the harmonica.

Let’s dive in.

Today’s story is about a group of minor-league misfits who put together the longest winning streak in professional baseball history.

The Salt Lake City Trappers had a magical summer in ‘87.

They would beat up on MLB prospects by day, and crush beers at Duffy’s (the local dive bar) by night.

Despite being the only unaffiliated team in their league, the undrafted outcasts from Utah managed to win 29 games in a row that year - a record that still stands.

There’s even a display at the Hall of Fame paying homage to the ‘87 trappers.

Rightfully so, because everything about their team was straight out of an 80s baseball movie.

Here’s a quick history lesson on the team to get you up to speed:

  • They started out as the Ogden A’s in ‘79; the Triple-A affiliate club for the Oakland A’s.

  • In ‘81 they were bought and relocated to Alberta, Canada. The team was renamed “The Trappers” and they became affiliated with the Chicago White Sox.

  • A few years later, the Trappers moved back to Utah and became unaffiliated.

Once they became independent, they couldn’t get players from the draft, so the Trappers decided to host open tryouts in Florida, Texas, and Southern CA.

In order to have a good team, they had to find the diamonds in the rough - guys that were high-level ballplayers, but had been overlooked or passed on for one reason or another.

One could argue that they were executing the Moneyball strategy before Moneyball was even a thing.

These were some of the key players on the squad:

  • Frank Colston: The bad-boy catcher, nicknamed “Shady.” Colston was known for crushing baseballs and breaking curfew; he hit .397 over the course of 52 games for the Trappers.

  • Anthony "Vacuum" Blackmon: Suspended during the ‘87 intercollegiate season by the NCAA after responding to racial epithets from Mississippi State fans by dropping his pants and mooning the crowd during a game.

  • Yasuhiro Hiyama and Koichi Ikeue: Two Japanese pitchers that the Trappers got from an NPB team called the Kintetsu Buffaloes.

The entire team was filled with characters - just look at this footage from one of their road trips in the middle of the streak.

Even the ownership group was made up of colorful personalities that included Angels Owner Art Moreno and Actor Bill Murray.

Oh and the Assistant Coach Barry Moss actually went on to manage in the minors, scout for the Dodgers, and act in The Natural and Moneyball.

You couldn’t have scripted this thing any better, and honestly, there’s just too many good stories about this team to fit them all into one email.

In addition to the streak, the Trappers beat the Helena Brewers and their nine future big leaguers to win the Pioneer League for the third time in a row.

Not a single one of the players on the Trappers made it to the show, but for one epic summer - they were America’s favorite minor league baseball team.

If you've ever wanted to grip a two seamer while cracking a cold one, your dreams are about to come true.

Check out this beauty.

Created by the good people over at Dugout Mugs, “the cutter” is designed to obliterate bottle caps and make baseball fans happy.

They’re usually $29.99, but if you use the code CUT it’ll get you a $20 discount.

WHAT TO WATCH

The Best Last Best Plane Ride Ever is a short film by James Blagden and Victory Journal about the time the ‘86 Mets totally f**ked up a plane.

Streams on: YouTube

Why It’s Awesome: The animation is top-tier and it includes commentary from players who were actually there: Kevin Mitchell, Lenny Dykstra, Darryl Strawberry, and Dwight Gooden.

STRANGE NAMES

If you're just joining us, we play this game every day where we try to find the weirdest names throughout baseball history.

Why? Don't ask us, it's just something we like to do.

If you've been rocking with us for awhile now, you know what time it is.

Today's winner is:

Thorny’s full name was Thorndike.

Not sure if that was a popular name back in 1852, but I don’t think it’s coming back anytime soon.

Hawkes’ career in the Major Leagues was short lived, and his numbers were nothing to write home about, but his name was one-of-a-kind.

THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE

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