It was like Mother Nature was shedding her own tears at what was then called Telus Field in Edmonton.
More than 9,000 braved the rain, bundled up and shed tears as they said goodbye to their beloved Trappers one final time on Sept. 2, 2004.
Unfortunately for the crowd hoping to see a game, the deluge forced the game between the Trappers and Las Vegas 51s to be called after just one inning and a third.
“It’s just disappointing that we couldn’t play one final game and put on a show for them,” Trappers starter and Sherwood Park native Mike Johnson told the Edmonton Journal after the game.
“A lot of people came out and supported the team over the last 20-some years.”
The team that provided them with four Pacific Coast League championships, numerous memorable moments and glimpses of Major League Baseball with Fernando Valenzuela, Ron Kittle, Devon White, Gary Pettis, Tim Salmon, Jason Giambi and so many more was packing up and leaving town.
They had been sold to a group headed up by National Baseball Hall of Fame member Nolan Ryan in Round Rock, Texas, with the move to take effect after the 2004 season.
While the sale had been announced nearly a year earlier, the final game still sent shockwaves through Edmonton and the entire province, as the Trappers represented the final remains of MLB-affiliated baseball in Alberta.
TRAPPERS’ SUCCESS STORY
The Edmonton Trappers first burst onto the baseball scene in 1981 after local boosters had tried unsuccessfully to bring a Pioneer League team to the city.
Instead, Mel Kowalchuk and Peter Pocklington aimed higher and managed to convince the Triple-A Pacific Coast League for another move north of the border to join with the Vancouver Canadians.
Their first affiliation came with the Chicago White Sox in 1981-1982, where manager Gordy Lund guided the team to records of 62-74 and 70-74, respectively.
The MLB connection then moved over to the California Angels in 1983, leading to the Trappers’ first playoff appearance under manager Moose Stubing.
A year later, they celebrated the first PCL title to be won by a Canadian team as they swept the Hawaii Islanders in a best-of-three series.
The Angels stayed in Edmonton until the end of the 1992, setting off a series of affiliation changes including the expansion Florida Marlins (1993-1994), Oakland Athletics (1995-1998), Anaheim Angels (1999-2000), Minnesota Twins (2001-2002) and Montreal Expos (2003-2004).
Their most successful run came with the Athletics, capturing back-to-back league titles in 1996-1997 with future MLBers like Scott Spiezio, Izzy Molina, Matt Stairs and A.J. Hinch in the lineup.
They would win one final championship in 2002 with a young Justin Morneau and a solid core of Twins’ prospects playing major roles.
DANGER AHEAD
The tide started to shift under the Trappers and Minor League Baseball in Alberta when, in 2002, both the Pacific Coast League’s Calgary Cannons and Pioneer League’s Medicine Hat Blue Jays were moved.
Citing poor weather, escalating costs and a struggling Canadian dollar, the teams were finding it harder and harder to keep going.
The Trappers themselves had some tough times at one point, going into receivership before being purchased by the Edmonton Eskimos football club in January of 1999.
They persevered and even seemed optimistic heading into the 2003 season being affiliated with the soon-to-be-relocated Montreal Expos.
“They (the Expos) are owned by the league, and they have some issues, but (this move) shows that they’re dedicated to good, quality, baseball people,” Trappers assistant GM Dennis Henke told the Edmonton Journal on Nov. 21, 2002.
Nothing was said during the 2003 season about a possible relocation of the Trappers, as they finished the year 73-69 under new coach Dave Huppert, losing out in the first round of the playoffs.
SHOW ME THE MONEY
The bombshell hit on Oct. 23, 2003, when the Round Rock Express, owned by Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan and his family, announced they would be buying the Trappers and moving them to Texas for the 2005 season.
“Although we are sorry to part ways with the first-class operation in Edmonton, the PCL gains outstanding leadership and a very positive and successful atmosphere in Round Rock,” league president Branch Rickey said in a news release.
“There are also significant advantages to bringing in an Austin-area franchise which is much more geographically central to the league than is Edmonton.”
Rickey said the PCL’s players and teams had been “treated like kings” since 1981, but it simply wasn’t feasible to continue with the rising costs and lengthy travel for teams to head to provincial capital.
Another element of the deal was the price-tag: $10.5-million US.
It was a healthy profit after the Eskimos had bought the team out of receivership for $8-million Canadian just four years earlier.
“We’re not selling this only for money,” said Eskimos chairman John Butler. “We would rather keep the team because we’re non-profit.”
However, he said it had become almost inevitable for the final Canadian team in the minors, as the Vancouver Canadians had moved to Sacramento after the 1999 season.
“We’ve had a lot of pressure on us for more than two years to make it possible for the franchise to relocate,” Eskimos president Hugh Campbell said in the Oct. 24, 2003 edition of the Edmonton Journal. “Calgary was the final nail in the coffin.”
THE POLITICS OF BASEBALL
Following the announcement about the sale, some turned to Edmonton city hall in hopes they might be able to persuade the PCL to change its mind.
While it was addressed, officials were quick to pour cold water on any last-minute hopes.
“Putting it simply, the league is calling the show,” Mayor Bill Smith told the Journal. “If they want to move, they have that right.”
Less than two weeks later, council officially voted to release the team from its lease at Telus Field, which was a deal that would have had the team remain until 2020.
Only one councillor, Michael Phair, voted to block the sale.
“There’s no history that (the league) has ever forced a franchise to move or sell,” he said. “I think we need to call them on that. It’s not responsible on our part to remove the influence the city has.”
While his colleagues called it a “sad day,” they agreed with the team that the hurdles were too high to clear in making the team a viable long-term option in the minor leagues.
A question was asked about what would happen if Calgary re-entered the conversation with a new stadium, as the state of Foothills Stadium was a factor in the Cannons shipping off to Albuquerque.
Smith said he spoke with Rickey about that possibility and learned all he needed to know about the potential of keeping the Trappers in Edmonton.
“He said, ‘If they built the best stadium in the world in Calgary, we won’t be back.’”
“That really said everything to me that this thing is finished,” said the mayor.
Long-time baseball advocate and city councillor Ron Hayter said it was a bitter pill to swallow, but understood that it was a good offer.
“I think the loss of Triple-A baseball is a major loss to the city,” he said. “It’s one step up to the bigs and once you lose the franchise, you’ll never get it back.”
FULL CIRCLE MOMENT
With the sale looming over their heads, the Trappers played out the 2004 season as best as they could.
They finished with a 69-74 record, missing the playoffs despite having some seasoned MLB veterans on the roster including Pat Mahomes (the father of current Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes III), Scott Downs, Pedro Borbon and Maicer Izturis.
The final game at Telus Field was a full-circle moment for one of those veterans: Randy Knorr.
The catcher started his professional baseball career with the Medicine Hat Blue Jays in 1986 and played in 1,423 games over 19 seasons including 253 in MLB.
His last 171 games came with the Trappers in 2003-2004, where he was made an honourary Canadian in his last season.
“It’s an emotional time for them,” Knorr said of the fans. “It’s an emotional time for me being the last start and everything.”
While the team had one more series to go against the Fresno Grizzlies, the backstop was content on being able to say he started and ended his pro journey in Canada.
On Sept. 6, 2004, the Trappers lost their final game ever to the Grizzlies 9-2.
The Round Rock Express, who had been a Double-A team from 2000-2004, are now into their 20th season in the Pacific Coast League, splitting that time as an affiliate of the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers.
BASEBALL IN THE VALLEY
Despite the loss of the Trappers in 2004, the dream of professional baseball in Edmonton hasn’t gone away.
Speaking with Journal columnist Paula Simons, Anna Altmann said losing the team left fans in mourning.
“It’s a heartbreak and it feels like a betrayal,” said Altmann, the director of the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alberta, who was also a member of the editorial board of NINE, an academic journal of baseball history and culture.
“We have this nice new stadium in the river valley and it’s a truly lovely place to spend a summer afternoon or evening, with the stands full of families, full of kids. It’s a beautiful park, it’s an expensive park and it’s too good a park to waste.”
Altmann’s fears of the park gathering dust were alleviated just 12 days later, as the Northern League announced it would be bringing a team to the circuit in 2005 to join the Calgary Vipers.
The Edmonton Cracker-Cats made their debut in 2005 and were moved to the Golden Baseball League in 2008.
The team was then sold to Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz in 2009 and renamed to the Capitals.
In 2011, the team played as a member of the North American League, where they won the championship that season before withdrawing from the circuit, which folded after the 2012 season.
Rumours have swirled over the years about possible interest in bringing a Minor League Baseball team back to Edmonton, but nothing substantive has ever come forward.
The Western Canadian Baseball League’s Edmonton Prospects called Telus Field, now RE/MAX Field, home for years before their lease wasn’t renewed after the 2019 season, opening the door for the West Coast League’s Edmonton Riverhawks to begin operations in the summer of 2022.
The summer collegiate team has now set league attendance records two seasons in a row, filling a void left behind by what was a key piece of Alberta’s connection to Major League Baseball for 23 seasons.
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