Search for a Missing Trophy
May 24, 2021 - International League (IL)
Omaha Storm Chasers News Release
The search for a missing championship trophy began with the renewal of a Triple-A rivalry.
At the end of May, the Indianapolis Indians return to Omaha for the first time in more than 20 years.
Back in the day, when they were in the same league, the Omaha-Indy rivalry was a good one. The Indians won four consecutive American Association titles from 1986-89, beating the then-Royals twice in the championship series. Omaha then ended the Indianapolis run by claiming the league crown in 1990.
In the last three seasons of that five-year stretch, the American Association champion went on to play the winner of the International League in the Triple-A Classic. Indianapolis won that title in 1988 and '89, then Omaha captured it in 1990. But neither team has hardware to commemorate those achievements.
In the Chasers office, there are trophies all over. The American Association ones from 1970, 1978 and 1990 welcome visitors to the front lounge. Their counterpart, from the team's inaugural season in 1969, sits atop a case in the nearby boardroom. A five-trophy display, featuring Omaha's Pacific Coast League titles in 2011, '13 and '14 and Triple-A National Championships in '13 and '14, highlight the same room.
A 1990 Triple-A Classic trophy, however, is nowhere to be found.
What happened to it? Did it even ever exist? Was it left behind at Rosenblatt Stadium?
The quest to find its whereabouts got underway, in earnest, after former Omaha broadcaster Frank Adkisson made a comment that provided a first clue. He couldn't recall what the trophy looked like.
That turned out to be the key to finding the trophy - its appearance. Fortunately, the 1991 Omaha Royals yearbook featured a photo of it on its cover. The trophy had a wooden base with 16 flags - representing the teams in the American Association and International League - on its top. Its main center display, which was topped with a bronze-colored baseball, read "Triple-A Alliance Champions."
But it was the nameplates on its base that provided a new direction in the search for its whereabouts.
Stacked in chronological order, they boasted the champion from each season of the Triple-A Alliance: 1988 Indianapolis Indians, 1989 Indianapolis Indians and 1990 Omaha Royals. The list of annual winners made it apparent that this was a traveling trophy, which was passed on to the new champion each year.
That explained why there was no trophy in Omaha. The Royals had to give it up the following year. But finding out where that trophy eventually ended up turned out to be the most interesting part of its tale.
Denver won the Triple-A Classic in 1991. And that was the final season that the American Association and International League competed in the Triple-A Alliance, which featured interleague play during the regular season in addition to the postseason championship series. The Zephyrs didn't give the trophy up.
And they only played in Denver for one more year. After the 1992 season, the Triple-A team relocated to New Orleans to make way for a Major League Baseball expansion team called the Colorado Rookies. The Triple-A franchise stayed in Louisiana through 2019. It is currently entering its first season in Wichita.
The Triple-A Classic trophy isn't in Kansas, however. And it wasn't left behind in New Orleans. Wichita broadcaster Tim Grubbs, who relocated with the team in late 2019, verified that and added that he'd never seen the trophy. He then suggested that, perhaps, the trophy had never left Denver to begin with.
Grubbs has been the with the franchise since 2001 and is well-versed on its history. He indicated that it was a Denver businessman named John Dikeou who relocated the team to New Orleans. Dikeou bought the team, and its territorial rights, in 1984 with intent of bringing a Major League team to Colorado. New Orleans was the largest U.S. city without a professional baseball club when the Rockies arrived in 1993.
Dikeou sold the Zephyrs to a group of local owners in 1995. But he still owns a piece of their history. During a recent phone conversation, he verified that he has the Triple-A Classic trophy from the '90s.
It still sits in his office at Dikeou Realty nearly two decades after the Zephyrs beat Columbus in a best-of-seven championship series to claim it. Judging by Dikeou's reaction to questions of its whereabouts, the trophy isn't something he's talked about regularly over the years. In fact, one of the first things he said about it was that he felt that Denver had better teams in 1986 and '87 that lost to Indy in the playoffs.
With the Rockies having their own milestones, the Triple-A Classic trophy will likely be a forgotten piece of history in Denver. And it will remain a missing piece for Omaha and Indianapolis, unless Diekou is open to giving it up to become a travelling trophy - named after him, of course - between those cities.
That conversation can be saved for another day. But at least it's a conversation that can be had, at some point, now that the search for the missing Triple-A Classic championship trophy has come to an end.
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