Salt Lake Team Out to Repeat 1987 Win Streak

Barry Moss has no expectations that his Salt Lake Trappers can play “Can You Top This?” this season.

Last year, the Trappers put together a 29-game winning streak that brought fame to the Pioneer League team. Moss, who has replaced Jim Gilligan as manager, was a coach the past three years. He has the memories, but not thoughts of an encore.

“If there’s any pressure that goes with the winning streak and phenomenal record . . . I want it to be on me,” Moss said. “I don’t want them to feel they should be setting a record. But I want them to expect to win.”

All the players from the team that ran the streak are gone--they either signed with major league organizations or left baseball. Catcher Bill Fellows, who joined the Trappers after the streak, is the only returning player from the team that was 49-21 in 1987.

“I’ve told the players that the Trappers have established a winning tradition and it’s done by recruiting and scouting,” Moss said. “From that viewpoint, we expect to win again. I’m not going to put pressure on this club to live up to the clubs of the past, but I expect them to live up to the effort.

“I don’t want the players to feel pressured by the fans and the media. I want them to go out and play the best they can. From that standpoint, I want the pressure to be on me.”

Salt Lake won the league pennant in each of its first three seasons. As an independent team, it has no major league affiliation. It’s the last stop in pro baseball for prospects passed over in the draft.

The owners--who include comedian Bill Murray--try to give their players a shot at advancement but still watching their budget. Last year, 14 players signed with big-league organizations and 13 still play, Moss said.

Each first-year player earns $550 a month. The players are living a 2 1/2-month life of austerity, hoping to improve enough to impress the major league scouts.

“They’re not really getting many expenses paid,” Moss said. “They’re here on a proving ground--2 1/2 months to prove they should be with a professional organization playing baseball. They also understand that we won’t give them a lot of time if they’re not producing.”

Although all the players have played in college, there usually is good reason why they were not wanted. That’s where Moss takes over.

“We’re working to make them better pitchers, better position players and better hitters,” said Moss, who played eight years in the Cincinnati and Toronto organizations. “A great deal of our program is teaching. We get a great deal of help from the scouts.

“Usually, if a player comes out of our club, has a solid season and puts good statistics on the books, he has an opportunity to go with a professional organization.”

Fred Riscen’s concern isn’t the winning streak. For him, it’s his last chance.

“That’s why we’re here,” said Riscen, a left-handed pitcher from Texas A&M;, who said he was bypassed because of a shoulder injury.

He’s getting paid. But with the money, no matter how little, comes pressure.

“You’re not playing pro ball just to have fun any more,” Riscen said. “You can’t goof around. You have to take it like a business.”

Moss emphasizes that this is the players’ final opportunity.

“They have something to prove,” Moss said. “This is their last shot at getting recognition and they have to do it through performance.”

Fellows, who played for Lewis and Clark College in Oregon before joining the Trappers late last summer, said he must work to improve his skills.

“The pitching that I saw in four years of college wasn’t what I saw in the pros,” said Fellows, who batted .370 in college but hit only .227 for the Trappers.

Fellows signed about one week after the streak ended. He remembers the feeling.

“At that point, everybody was a little cocky,” he said. “It was hard from my point of view to come in after that. This year’s team, everybody’s got a good attitude to start with.”

The Trappers talk about winning 50 games this season, although Moss isn’t pressuring his team to do so. He talks about what happened after the streak, when the Trappers went 17-18. He wants this year’s team to be consistent.

“We all feel realistically we can be around the 50-win mark,” Fellows said. “We will try and do it by playing more consistent the whole year.”