La Grande Spuds

The La Grande Spuds were La Grande, Oregon's club in the 1913 Western Tri-State League, and they lasted about two months. The name was in use by April 21, 1913, alongside Spudlets, and no explanation, contest or sponsor has been found. The year before, the club had played as the La Grande Pippins and finished last at 31-67.

The Spuds opened on April 22 at North Yakima and won 2-1 on Phil Nadeau's eighth-inning home run, and playing manager and catcher Karl King wired home: "Tell the Spud fans we will take the series." Nadeau, a 41-year-old from Montreal, homered in three straight games and led the league in batting early on. Before radio, a telegram like King's was how La Grande followed its club, and it needed to: the team did not come home until May 12, after three weeks on the road, at 6-12. Bert Fitchner, born in Portland, hit .345.

League president W. N. Sweet's schedule gave La Grande only 12 home games in two months. The club lost more than $1,300 in ten days on the road, the players went two days unpaid, and Pat Foley, who ran the club, could not collect $600 of the roughly $1,000 pledged at the start of the season. When Caldwell, Idaho, offered to take the team, the directors said no on June 23 and the Spuds disbanded with a record of about 16-31; sources differ on the exact mark.

The Western Tri-State League was a Class D circuit in Oregon, Idaho and Washington from 1912 through 1914, called Western to set it apart from a Tri-State League back east in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. Boise was declared the 1913 champion at 72-45 after a split season ended with no playoff, and the league could not raise the money to play in 1915.