Celebrating a century of swings in Greeley
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This story is part of production for an episode of “Colorado Experience” about the impact of baseball on different communities across the state. The episode is slated to air in October.
GREELEY, Colo. — Peanuts, cracker jacks and rooting for the home team make for a perfect summer day. It’s one the Greeley community has experienced for 100 years.
This summer marks the 100-year anniversary for the Greeley Grays, a baseball club born out of northern Colorado’s once-booming sugar beet industry. For many who attended the June 8 anniversary game, this team is more than that — it’s family.
“This is so big to my heart because my great-grandfather was one of the first 1925 baseball players,” said general manager and secretary for the team, Kim Lopez-Barnhill.
The Lopez family has been a mainstay for the Grays. Lopez-Barnhill’s great-grandfather and grandfather both played for the Grays, as did her great uncles, uncles and even her son.
But it’s Lopez-Barnhill’s father and mother who are the Grays’ historical experts. Since 2000, Gabriel and Jody Lopez researched and interviewed about 180 people about Mexican-American life in the first half of the 20th century in northern Colorado.
They have also presented the information countless times, helped develop museum exhibits locally and in Cooperstown, New York — home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum — and published two books on the subjects: “White Gold Laborers” and “From Sugar to Diamonds.”
“You see the photos and you can see how proud they were to play. Their chest was out, and they knew they were entertainers. They knew that they were making the community, the colony, just enjoy something in their lifetime, outside of working from morning till night in the fields,” said Gabriel Lopez.
In the 1890s, Colorado suffered an economic depression as the mining industry slumped. Entrepreneurs started looking for new industries.
Along came the sugar beet. Discovered by Charles Boettcher on a trip to Europe, the sugar beet could easily be grown in Colorado’s climate. Different from beetroot, the crop has a pale, tan color and can grow much bigger and is composed of about 20% sucrose. Once harvested, the top is cut off and sent to a factory to be processed into sugar.
Former mining owners transitioned to sugar beet farming and opened factories along the front range in the early 1900s. Great Western Sugar Company became the largest producer of beet sugar, opening factories in Fort Collins, Greeley and Loveland, to name a few.
Sugar beets require intense manual labor, including hand-thinning and harvesting techniques. During the early 20th century, Great Western Sugar aggressively recruited Mexican-Americans from southern Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas. The company also recruited Mexican nationals, especially after WWI.
Gabriel Lopez’ family was part of the wave of workers who came up from New Mexico. His dad was just six months old when the family moved to Greeley in 1919.
In 1923, Great Western Sugar established five acres of land north of Greeley that would later become housing for all of its workers. The company provided instructions and enough money for families to build their own adobe homes in the area, which became known as the Spanish Colony.
Soon after that, Lopez said a man named Demas Salazar came to the colony from Trinidad and started teaching the young men the game of baseball. Great Western Sugar saw a benefit to their workers to have a day off, so Sundays became all about baseball. People loved it.
“Baseball played a major [role]. It helped the colonies to continue thriving through the week, working hard,” said Lopez. “It was just one of the community events that everybody enjoyed. It was like professional baseball, when there were two teams, two rivalries that played, it was like filling up [with] blocks and blocks of people so they could see the game.”
The Greeley Grays were founded under the name the Greeley Spanish Colony in 1925. The team changed names to the Greeley Grays in 1936. Lopez’s grandfather played in those first few years followed by his father.
“When my dad was playing, he was considered the Babe Ruth of the Spanish League. He hit whatever he wanted to hit. He didn't show off... But whatever needed to win the game, he'd hit,” said Lopez.
The Grays often dominated the leagues they were in — first the Sugar Beet League in 1925, the Latino League in 1947, the Pan American league in 1949, and finally the Rocky Mountain League of the National Semi-Pro Baseball Congress in 1950.
The players and residents of the Spanish Colony sometimes faced discrimination. Businesses in Greeley and Fort Collins frequently placed signs in their windows reading “white trade only,” “no dogs or Mexicans allowed,” or “no Mexicans allowed.”
“Here in Greeley, there was a lot of prejudice. When we’d go play ball against a team in Wyoming, like Wheatland, and they had to have a police escort back home because they were threatened, because we'd beat them pretty bad. Same thing in Scottsbluff. They had to escort them back to Greeley,” said Lopez.
However in his mind, the stories of the love of the game and the community far outweigh the ones of discrimination.
Lopez said a Larmie team once traveled to play Walden, but couldn’t find the baseball field in the vast farmland. It turned out that the Laramie and Walden teams first needed to move a herd of cows, pick up the manure, assemble a backstop and install the bases before they could play. When the game was over, the players had to put everything back — all just to play one game.
“And that was their full day of playing baseball,” Lopez said.
The Greeley Grays played in the Rocky Mountain League until 1970. The team disbanded until 2005, when it was revitalized as a collegiate club. That is the team, former players and families of former players watched on Sunday, June 8 at the 100 year anniversary game.
The walkways at the field Sunday were decorated with posters full of old photos, tables with old trophies and a sign of all the Grays players who have passed away. A jersey with the number 13 draped over the chair in honor of a previous player who had just died the week before — Lopez’s brother.
This makes events like these even more important and special for Lopez-Barnhill. She was most excited to catch up with the “OGs”, the nickname for the original Grays players, and display the storied history of the team.
Previous players and family members of previous players threw out first pitches before the game. Now the Greeley Grays club also includes 7U to 18U little league travel teams and the Lady Greeley Grays 16U fastpitch softball team.
“It's amazing that we can still collect it and show everybody, and that it's easily accessible to show people the history that there is with the Grays. There's not a lot of teams that you can say have been around for 100 years. So for us to be able to have all of this stuff — it's just huge,” she said.
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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