Baseball reunion: 1995 Posse team returns to Pasco this weekend

Jerry DeFabbia remembers being part of that first professional baseball team at the then-new stadium in Pasco in 1995.

That’s when Tri-Cities Baseball Stadium (now Gesa Stadium) opened with a team, the Tri-City Posse in a first-year independent league called the Western Baseball League.

“A lot of our guys played multiple seasons of independent baseball,” said DeFabbia, who was a middle infielder back then for the Posse. “We couldn’t believe when we came here that we had a brand new stadium. The clubhouse was fantastic. Unbelievable. I can’t believe it’s been 30 years.”

This weekend, DeFabbia and about 11 other former Posse teammates are gathering in the Tri-Cities for a 30-year reunion.

They’llbe introduced before the Dust Devils game on Saturday night, and perhaps play a little golf on Sunday before heading back to their homes.

The Saturday night game, against the Vancouver Canadians, starts at 7:05 p.m. The Posse introductions will happen around 6:30 p.m.

“The Dust Devils front office was very receptive, and they really put this thing together,” said DeFabbia. “We got in touch with about two-third of the roster. I’m hoping 12 guys are coming.”

DeFabbia and Greg Mucerino, a former outfielder for the team, have been working on this reunion for awhile.

“I played for the Erie Sailors in 1994 the year before Tri-City,” said DeFabbia. “We won the (independent) Frontier League title and had a 25-year reunion.”

A few of those guys on that Erie team would again be teammates at Tri-City.

DeFabbia, Mucerino, closer Richie Graham, first baseman Allen Thompson (the very first player drafted by the Posse), and outfielder Mike Hubel.

“We had kind of been talking about it,” said DeFabbia. “And really, the reason to do this is to see Trebelhorn.”

That would be Tom Trebelhorn, who managed that first Posse team.

“He has been an important part of our lives in ways he had no idea,” said DeFabbia, who went on to become the head baseball coach at his alma mater, Fairleigh Dickinson. He also was an assistant coach for Fordham University.

Western Baseball League

To really understand how important the Western Baseball League was at that time, a lot of big things had to happen.

There were only two independent leagues (meaning teams had no working agreements with a Major League Baseball team) at the time: the Northern League, and the Frontier League.

But a Portland businessman named Bruce Engel decided to start the Western League in 1994, with the first games set for May of 1995.

Geographically, the eight-team league was huge. In the North Division, teams were located in Surrey, British Columbia; Pasco; Bend, Ore.; and Hoquiam/Aberdeen.

The South Division had teams in California: Salinas, Long Beach, Palm Springs, and Rohnert Park.

It all made for some long bus rides.

Those long bus rides became important to DeFabbia and his teammates. It was where they’d have long conversations about everything. Players began to bond and ended up having lifetime friendships — long after their playing careers ended.

And if the league was looking for a name to give it some credibility, it couldn’t have done better when Trebelhorn was named the Tri-City manager.

Just a few months before that, he’d been the manager of the Chicago Cubs.

Trebelhorn, now 77, was one of the most interesting people I have ever met. I could sit in his office and listen to baseball story after baseball story after a game — or a business story — until I realized I had to hurry back to the office to make my deadline for the game story.

Building a ballpark

This all could not have happened without the City of Pasco.

In the fall of 1994, there was no ballpark in the area to host pro baseball.

The last team this area had was the Northwest League’s Tri-City Triplets, who played at Richland High School — a great high school ballpark, but not ideal for a pro park. That was 1986, and after the season the team was moved to Boise.

So for eight years, local minor league fans had no summer plans here.

It was Pasco, with then-City Manager Gary Crutchfield and the city council leading the way, pushing for a ballpark to be built.

In September of 1994, the local media drove out to an empty field near Road 68, where dignitaries shoveled dirt and let everyone know baseball would be played there in eight months.

How was that possible?

Every now and then, I’d drive by on I-182 to watch the progress of the park being built. But it happened. Things were still being put together when that opener happened in May of 1995, with an overflow crowd packed into the stands.

Making history

The start of that opener was delayed, as a heavy stream of cars kept coming in. The P.A. system kept playing the theme from The Natural over and over until it was time to start.

Every now and then, I take a look around that stadium and marvel at what’s been built since. Back then, that park was the only thing there. Nothing else but fields and farmland.

But then the housing subdivisions came in. The large number of businesses on Road 68. The TRAC Center. It all came in around the stadium.

And that 1995 season? The Posse was a meager 45-46. But the team saved its best for last. It tied the Bend Bandits for first in the Northern Division second-half standings. The team jumped on a bus to Bend for a one-game playoff, which it won.

Then the Posse had to get back on the bus and go up to Surrey to start a best-of-3 semifinal series.

Damned if the Posse didn’t win the opener. Game 2 was finally at home, and Trebelhorn’s crew won again to sweep the Surrey Glaciers.

The Posse would meet the Long Beach Riptide in a best-of-5 championship series. The Riptide would win, 3 games to 1, to take the title.

But that first Posse team had set the bar high, as over 98,000 fans came out to watch the team play an exciting brand of baseball.

John Weglarz was a standout starting pitcher with an 11-5 record, tossing 10 complete games. Kevin Booker led the team with a .304 batting average and 6 home runs. Shawn Scott stole 42 bases. Graham had 19 saves.

The Posse would play six more seasons in the WBL before the Northwest League came calling in 2001, and the Dust Devils have been here since, with working agreements with the Colorado Rockies, then the San Diego Padres, and currently with the Los Angeles Angels.

Those players from that 1995 team, they’re now in their 50s.

They were the ones that got this going. They brought summer baseball life back into the region.

It will be nice to see them again.

Jeff Morrow is former sports editor for the Herald.

This story was originally published August 1, 2025 at 11:24 AM.