Lewiston Broncs

The parent organization was Lewiston Baseball Club, Inc., formed in 1952 by Lewiston businessmen Sam Canner Sr., Jack Lee, Billy Gray, George Thiessen, and others. Gray later sold his shares to Thiessen. Prior to its arrival in Lewiston, the team was the Tacoma Tigers, owned by William Starr of San Diego, and were affiliated with the San Diego Padres of the Pacific Coast League (PCL).{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Aa1eAAAAIBAJ&pg=1681%2C2494854 |work=Lewiston Morning Tribune |location=(Idaho) |title=Lewiston completes deal to buy Tacoma baseball franchise |date=November 30, 1951 |page=8}}{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ICdYAAAAIBAJ&pg=6726%2C7943250 |work=Spokane Daily Chronicle |location=(Washington) |agency=Associated Press |title=Lewiston ready to buy Tacoma team franchise |date=November 30, 1951 |page=11}}

The Broncs were a member of the Western International League ("Willy") from 1952–54,{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ScFeAAAAIBAJ&pg=3092%2C3771521 |newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune |location=Idaho |title=Bronc ability well-rounded for Willy League opening |date=April 16, 1952 |page=8}}{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=T8FeAAAAIBAJ&pg=1458%2C4292381 |newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune |location=Idaho |title=Broncs bring pro baseball back to Lewiston tonight |date=April 22, 1952 |page=8}} and its successor, the Northwest League, from 1955–74. The Broncs won the NWL championships in {{Baseball year|1961}},{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=o7JeAAAAIBAJ&pg=4034%2C1430846 |newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune |location=Idaho |title=Broncs beat Yakima 12-4, capture first championship |date=September 10, 1961 |page=10 }} led by catcher–manager John McNamara, the future MLB skipper, and again in 1970{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=UKBfAAAAIBAJ&pg=5786%2C101762 |newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune |location=Idaho |title=Broncs defeat Phils 6-4 in final game |date=September 1, 1970 |page=12 }} {{nowrap|and 1972.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=mYxfAAAAIBAJ&pg=3694%2C168599 |newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune |location=Idaho |title=Broncs beat Tribe to end season |date=September 1, 1972 |page=19 }}}}

The Broncs had two distinctions:

1. They played in the smallest town in America to have a professional baseball team (1960 census = 12,691^); and
2. They were the only professional baseball team to be operated without a business manager. During their entire existence, they were run by a board of directors centered on the stockholders.

The team colors were blue and white and the ballpark was Bengal Field; at 11th Avenue and 14th Street, it is now the football-only venue of Lewiston High School, with a grandstand on its west sideline. When it was a baseball stadium for the Lewiston Broncs, home plate was in the northeast corner of the property at 15th Street, resulting in an unorthodox southwest alignment (home to center field). (The recommended alignment is east-northeast.){{cite web |url=http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/official_rules/objectives_1.jsp|publisher=Major League Baseball |title=Objectives of the Game – rule 1.04|accessdate=November 2, 2015}} LHS played baseball there through 1983.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=1GpfAAAAIBAJ&pg=4791%2C4455341 |newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune |location=Idaho |last=Sahlberg |first=Bert |title=Home isn't what it used to be |date=April 15, 1984 |page=1C }}

^ Note: The Orchards area of south Lewiston was unincorporated until {{nowrap|late 1969.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=_JFfAAAAIBAJ&pg=4430%2C3300057 |work=Lewiston Morning Tribune |location=(Idaho) |last=Hollister |first=Hal |title=Orchards tracts now part of city |date=December 17, 1969 |page=14 }}{{cite news |url=http://lmtribune.com/northwest/old-grudges-are-slow-to-pass-lewiston-orchards-annexation/article_755e17d4-6606-5ed5-bff5-04e6618e4d20.html |work=Lewiston Morning Tribune |location=(Idaho)|last=Lee |first=Sandra L. |title=Old grudges are slow to pass; Lewiston Orchards annexation |date=January 1, 2005 |accessdate=October 21, 2017}}}}

The Broncs were affiliated with four major league franchises:

• The St. Louis Browns became the Baltimore Orioles in 1954.
• The Kansas City Athletics moved to Oakland in 1968.

A roster check in 1967 showed that 40% of the players and coaches of the Kansas City Athletics had been in Lewiston at one time or another. Reggie Jackson was perhaps the most famous Lewiston Bronc of all-time; Mr. October played 12 games at age 20 for Lewiston in 1966.{{cite web|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=jackso002reg|publisher=Baseball-Reference.com|title=Reggie Jackson – minor league statistics|accessdate=July 29, 2013}} which was the first year of the short season for the NWL.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=bcleAAAAIBAJ&sjid=eTIMAAAAIBAJ&pg=6128%2C247855 |work=Lewiston Morning Tribune |location=(Idaho) |title=Broncs get confirmation from A's on '66 working agreement |date=March 2, 1966 |page=13}} The Broncs' rosters included Rick Monday,{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VK1fAAAAIBAJ&pg=4693%2C1185993|newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune|location=Idaho|agency=Associated Press|title=Rick Monday, Jackson end holdouts, sign contracts |date=March 7, 1969|page=23}} manager John McNamara, Vearl ("Snag") Moore, Thorton ("Kip") Kipper, Antonio Perez, Ron Koepper, Delmer Owen, Dick Green, Bud Swan, Bert Campaneris, John Israel, Dave Duncan, Al Heist and as a player, later coach-manager Robert ("Gabby") Williams. In 1967, the Broncs started a four-year affiliation with the St. Louis Cardinals,{{citation|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=CLwSAAAAIBAJ&pg=3842%2C2119713|work=Spokane Daily Chronicle |location=(Washington) |title=Broncs land major pact |date=September 23, 1966 |page=13}} who went to the World Series those first two seasons, both going seven games; they won in 1967, but were a game short in 1968.

• Reggie Jackson (1966) Inducted, 1993
• Tony LaRussa (1964) Inducted, 2015
• John McNamara (1955), (1958–1962, MGR) Inducted, 2015

{{Div col|colwidth=25em}}

• Jack Aker (1961, 1963)
• Bert Campaneris (1963) 6x MLB All–Star
• Reggie Cleveland (1967)
• Chuck Dobson (1965)
• Dave Duncan (1965) MLB All–Star
• Bob Forsch (1969–1970)
• Dick Green (1961)
• Wayne Gross (1973) MLB All-Star
• Dave Hamilton (1966)
• Ted Kubiak (1963)
• Marcel Lachemann (1964)
• Hillis Layne (1956–1958, MGR)
• Steve McCatty (1973-1974) 1981 AL ERA Leader
• Rick Monday (1965) 2 x MLB All–Star
• Dwayne Murphy (1973) 6x Gold Glove
• Jim Nash (1965)
• Fred Norman (1962)
• Blue Moon Odom (1965) 2x MLB All–Star
• John O'Donoghue (1960-1961) MLB All–Star
• Tom Trebelhorn (1974)
• Gary Woods (1973)

{{Div col end}}

• Lewiston Broncs players   (1952–1974)

The Broncs and their parent company were dissolved in January 1975,{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Pa5fAAAAIBAJ&pg=3925%2C2445097 |newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune |location=(Idaho)|last=Barrows|first=Bob|title=Directors' vote kills Bronc baseball|date=January 10, 1975|page=B1}}{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Pq5fAAAAIBAJ&pg=5370%2C2666240 |newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune |location=(Idaho) |last=Barrows |first=Bob|title=Broncs' demise no sudden thing|date=January 11, 1975|page=B1}} after years of financial losses due to poor win–loss records, resulting in low attendance. Micromanagement interference from A's owner Charlie O. Finley, at all levels of the organization, was the cause. The result for the Broncs was lost games due to the best players being quickly moved up to other A's minor league franchises in Single-A (Burlington Bees) and Double-A (Birmingham A's).

The A's maintained a presence in the Northwest League in 1975 with a new franchise in southwestern Idaho as the Boise A's, managed by former Bronc Tom Trebelhorn.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=y8ReAAAAIBAJ&pg=3737%2C4758136|newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune|location=(Idaho)|title=Pro ball returns to Boise after absence of 11 years|date=June 18, 1975|page=B1}}{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ZapfAAAAIBAJ&pg=6136%2C2229810 |newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune |location=(Idaho)|title=Former Broncs boss Trebelhorn takes over Portland Beavers |date=June 21, 1982|page=2C}} After two seasons in Boise at Borah Field, the team moved to Medicine Hat in eastern Alberta in 1977 and joined the Pioneer League.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=-VVOAAAAIBAJ&pg=6262%2C3399088|newspaper=Spokane Daily Chronicle |location=(Washington)|agency=Associated Press |title=Teams added for Pioneer|date=October 14, 1976 |page=34}} The Medicine Hat A's switched affiliations after one season to become the Medicine Hat Blue Jays in 1978. There was no A's affiliate in the NWL in 1977; in 1978 it was the Bend Timber Hawks, who moved south in 1979 and became the Medford A's.

Prior to the Broncs, Lewiston's first seasons in the minor leagues were in the 1921 Northern Utah League and with teams named the Indians, in the Class B WIL in 1937,{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gq9fAAAAIBAJ&pg=1296%2C1966890|newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune |location=Idaho |title=Lewiston to see first game under the lights tonight when Indians meet Spokane Hawks |date=April 27, 1937 |page=8}}{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=g69fAAAAIBAJ&pg=1530%2C2055697|newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune |location=Idaho |title=Spokane Hawks trim Lewiston |date=April 28, 1937 |page=13}} and in the Class C Pioneer League in 1939.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=TtZXAAAAIBAJ&pg=5209%2C1212060 |newspaper=Spokane Daily Chronicle |location=Washington |title=Lewiston ball club in first home game |date=May 5, 1939 |page=5 }}{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ippfAAAAIBAJ&pg=2002%2C2589756|newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune |location=Idaho |title=Join us in celebrating |agency=(advertisement) |date=May 5, 1939 |page=8}}{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ippfAAAAIBAJ&pg=1776%2C2600935 |newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune |location=Idaho |title=Undefeated Lewiston team will meet Boise Pilots tonight |date=May 5, 1939 |page=10}}{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Q71eAAAAIBAJ&pg=1757%2C4341350 |newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune |location=Idaho |title=Mel Marlowe whitewashes Indians as Salt Lake City takes series |date=September 1, 1939 |page=8}} The first night game at Bengal Field was {{Time ago|1937}}, the opening game in 1937 on April 27.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VwUVAAAAIBAJ&pg=6612%2C3827641 |newspaper=Spokesman-Review |location=Spokane, Washington |title=New W.I. League opens tonight |date=April 27, 1937 |page=13 }}

{{reflist|2}}

• [https://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/team.cgi?city=Lewiston&state=ID&country=US Baseball-Reference.com] – minor league teams – Lewiston, Idaho
• [http://natnotes.com/2005/08/23/past-northwest-league-champions/ Nat Notes] – Northwest League

• [http://www.milb.com/documents/2012/06/05/32796056/1/Final_2012_Northwest_League_Media_Guide.pdf Northwest League of Professional Baseball 2012 Media Guide]
• (Information on page 28 supports the fact that the franchise's official nickname was Broncs, not Broncos).

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Category:Oakland Athletics minor league affiliates

Category:Baltimore Orioles minor league affiliates

Category:St. Louis Cardinals minor league affiliates

Category:Kansas City Athletics minor league affiliates

Category:Philadelphia Phillies minor league affiliates

Category:St. Louis Browns minor league affiliates

Category:Defunct minor league baseball teams

Category:Defunct Northwest League teams

Category:Professional baseball teams in Idaho

Category:1952 establishments in Idaho

Category:1974 disestablishments in Idaho

Category:Baseball teams established in 1952

Category:Sports clubs and teams disestablished in 1974

Category:Defunct Pioneer League (baseball) teams

Category:Defunct baseball teams in Idaho

Category:Baseball teams disestablished in 1974

Category:Northern Utah League teams

Category:Western International League teams

Category:Lewiston, Idaho