Photo by Tim Clinton
The field at Cheney Stadium has been the home of Tacoma Class AAA baseball since 1960. It was remodeled in 2010.
Rainiers name has stuck since 1995
By Tim Clinton
It's been a mostly simple and consistent story for the Tacoma Class AAA Pacific Coast League baseball team since 1995.
The franchise has gone by the name of Tacoma Rainiers starting that year until this present day and has been an affiliate of the Seattle Mariners Major League Baseball team up the road.
But Tacoma has a prior modern history that started in 1960 and featured six different team names and six different affiliations.
The team started off as the Tacoma Giants under the affiliation of the San Francisco Giants from 1960 through 1965, with the players who passed through including future star Major League Baseball pitchers Gaylord Perry and Juan Marichal.
The Chicago Cubs took over for 1966 and stayed through 1971 with the team going by the Tacoma Cubs, then the Minnesota Twins took over from 1972 through 1977 with the team going by Tacoma Twins.
Tacoma spent 1978 under the affiliation of the New York Yankees and was called the Tacoma Yankees.
The Cleveland Indians stepped in for 1979 and 1980, with the team called the Tacoma Tugs in 1979 and changed to the Tacoma Tigers in 1980.
The name Tigers stuck through 1994, even though the Oakland Athletics took over in 1981 and stayed through 1994.
But after some tiles fell from the Kingdome ceiling in 1994, the Mariners worked closely with Tacoma to try to use Cheney Stadium for home games until the Kingdome was repaired.
Even though the Major Leagues decided not to allow that to happen and forced the Mariners to finish on the road until a labor dispute ended their season, working with Tacoma on the possibility led to the change in affiliation to the Mariners the next year.
Tacoma has captured six Pacific Coast League titles over the years, coming in 1961, 1969, 1978, 2001, 2010 and 2021.
The 2001 championship series was never played because of the September 11 terrorist attacks and the 2021 team was known as the Triple-A West because of COVID.
PCL conference titles were captured in 2001, 2005 and 2010, with division crowns racked up in 1969, 1971, 1978, 1981, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2016 and 2021.
Tacoma captured first-half titles in 1982, 1987 and 1990 and took the second-half title in 1981.
The team's home of Cheney Stadium was completed for its arrival in 1960 with parts coming from San Francisco's one time PCL Seals Stadium. It was remodeled to its current state in 2010.
Tacoma also briefly had a team known as the Tacoma Tigers in 1904 and 1905. It moved from Sacramento after the 1903 season and moved back during the 1905 season after winning the first half title.
Tacoma won the PCL title in 1904 after finishing first in both halves.
The Rainiers name came partly to honor the Seattle Rainiers PCL team that operated from 1938 to1964. That name was used again by a Northwest League team based at Sicks Stadium from 1972 to 1976.