Before 1958 Spokane's minor league history dates to 1890, when it fielded a team in the
Pacific Northwest League. The Spokane Club won the Northwest League pennant in its first season, overcoming teams from Portland, Seattle, and Tacoma, among others. The nickname Indians dates to 1903, when Spokane joined the
Pacific National League, a predecessor to the
Pacific Coast League and, at
Class A, an elite minor league of the period, equivalent to
Triple-A today. The Indians lasted only two seasons at that higher level before dropping to the
Class B Northwestern League, which folded during World War I. In 1937, Spokane became a charter member of the Class B
Western International League (WIL), the predecessor of the Northwest League. They played at
Ferris Field from 1937 through 1942 and 1946 until folding during the 1954 season on June 21. Spokane was a charter member of the Northwest League, which debuted in 1955 as a Class B league. These Indians also played at Ferris Field, but folded after just two seasons, and the city went without minor league baseball in 1957.
The 1946 Spokane bus tragedy In 1946, the WIL Indians were victims of the worst transit accident in the history of American professional sport. On June 24, the team was on its way west to
Bremerton by bus to play the Bluejackets. While crossing the
Cascade Mountains on a rain-slickened
Snoqualmie Pass Highway (then
U.S. Route 10), the bus driver swerved to avoid an oncoming car. The Indians' vehicle veered off the road and down an embankment, then crashed and burst into flames. Nine men died—six of them instantly—and seven were injured. Many of the injured had burn injuries. The dead were catcher/manager Mel Cole (age 32), pitchers Bob Kinnaman (28) and George Lyden (23), catcher
Chris Hartje (31), infielders Fred Martinez (24), Vic Picetti (18) and George Risk (25), and outfielders Bob James (25) and Bob Paterson (23). Despite a severe head wound, infielder
Ben Geraghty was able to struggle back up the mountainside to signal for help. Injured survivors also included pitchers Pete Barisoff, Gus Hallbourg and Dick Powers, catcher Irv Konopka, outfielder Levi McCormack, and bus driver Glen Berg. One player from the 1946 team, future major league infielder
Jack "Lucky" Lohrke, missed the tragedy because his contract was sold to the PCL
San Diego Padres on June 24 and he departed the ill-fated bus during a late lunch stop in
Ellensburg, not long before the accident, thus helping to earn his nickname. (Lohrke had previously averted tragedy when he was bumped from a military transport plane which later crashed.) Two Indians' pitchers, Milt Cadinha and Joe Faria, were making the trip to Bremerton by automobile and were not aboard the team bus when it crashed. won 94 of 146 games () in the regular season to win the northern division by 26 games, then swept the
Hawaii Islanders in four games in the PCL playoffs. The team included
Bill Buckner,
Steve Garvey,
Bobby Valentine (PCL MVP),
Tom Paciorek,
Davey Lopes,
Bill Russell, and
Doyle Alexander. Following the 1971 season, the club was moved south to
New Mexico and became the
Albuquerque Dukes. Spokane, which had been in the Northwest League for its first two seasons in 1955 and 1956, returned to the NWL in 1972 as a Dodger affiliate, but only for one season, as a new PCL franchise arrived in 1973 from
Portland, becoming the affiliate of the
Texas Rangers. The 1973 team, which included
Bill Madlock and
Lenny Randle, won the west division by eleven games and swept
Tucson in three games in the championship series. The following year's club successfully defended the title with another three-game sweep, this time over Albuquerque. The Indians' second stint in Triple-A lasted ten seasons and included affiliations with the Rangers, which changed to the
Milwaukee Brewers in 1976,
Seattle Mariners in 1979, and
California Angels in 1982. Taking their first division crown since 1974, the Indians defeated
Tacoma in the first round, but fell to Albuquerque in the championship series in six games. Soon after that season, the team moved south to
Las Vegas and became the
Stars. The team's general manager was
Larry Koentopp, former head coach and athletic director at
Gonzaga. He was the leader of a local ownership group that purchased the team after the 1978 season. The team was purchased for $259,000 in 1978 and was sold in 1993 for $6.1 million.
Northwest League (1983–2020) at
Avista Stadium A new NWL franchise was awarded to Spokane for the 1983 season and the Indians have won eight league titles; the first four were consecutive, from 1987 through 1990. The Indians won their seventh NWL championship in 2005, despite a 37–39 () record during the regular season. They became only the second team in league history (after the 1982
Salem Angels) to win the championship with a losing regular season record. Spokane won the east division, then beat league-leading
Vancouver on the road in games four and five of the championship series to win the title. In 2008, the Indians captured their eighth league title with a thrilling four-game series victory over the
Salem-Keizer Volcanoes. After dropping the first game, Spokane rallied to an 11–10 win in 10 innings to even the series. In game three, the Indians fell behind 10–2 before rallying for nine unanswered runs to win again 11–10. Spokane won the title with a 6–5 victory in 10 innings in the fourth game. The Indians were featured in the "Spokane Alphabet" reverse glass painting by Washington artist Melinda Curtin. They were the "I" in the alphabet, cementing their place as an important part of the city of Spokane. Following the 1985 season, the team was bought by the Brett brothers (John,
Ken, Bobby, and
George).
High-A West and back to the Northwest League (2021–present) In conjunction with
Major League Baseball's restructuring of Minor League Baseball in 2021, the Indians were organized into the
High-A West along with five other teams previously of the Northwest League. They qualified for the playoffs by finishing with a second-place 67–49 record, but they were defeated by the
Eugene Emeralds, 3–1, in the best-of-five championship series. The franchise was recognized with the
Minor League Baseball Organization of the Year Award. The High-A West was rebranded back to the Northwest League in March 2022, as MLB moved to revert all of its Minor Leagues to their historical names. ==Playoffs==