Goldpanners Add Another Milestone

The Alaska Goldpanners are boldly going where they've never gone before.

The renowned collegiate summer baseball team that has been entertaining Fairbanks for a half-century will play in front of a Montana crowd for the first time tonight (7) when they take on a Treasure State All-Star team in a nine-inning game at Edward S. Medina Field in Belgrade.

Then they'll be pitching a tent in the outfield grass upon the game's conclusion and shacking up for the night.

"We've never done that either," Goldpanners general manager Don Dennis said.

And once they get a taste of Belgrade Bandit head coach Johnny Graham's pancakes the following morning, they may never do it again.

"Hey," Graham said. "I told them I wasn't a great cook."

It's all part of the experience, Dennis said. In commemoration of the team's 50th anniversary, the Goldpanners are making their way to the National Baseball Classic tournament in Wichita, Kan., the way they started doing it in 1962.

Every last detail has been sweated, including digging up the old school bus the team used to travel in.

"We tore out all the seats and put recliners in it a long time ago," said Dennis, who has been with the team since 1967. "But for this trip we splurged and added air conditioning."

The old bus has seen trips through places such as Bellingham, Wash., Eureka, Calif., Ogden, Utah, and Grand Junction, Colo.

"We took different routes during different years," Dennis said. "Back in the early years we would always play tournaments in Canada so that's the route we decided to take again this year."

This year's barnstorm dropped the Goldpanners in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, Thursday night - their final stop before Belgrade. After leaving Belgrade, the team will make its way to Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and the Kansas - states that all house historic programs in the National Baseball Congress.

But why Belgrade?

"It was pretty much the first place we looked in Montana," Dennis said. "It had a lot to do with mileage and it just so happened that one of our people knew Johnny in Belgrade. It all worked out pretty perfectly."

Graham would have to agree. As luck would have it, Belgrade's head coach received the autobiography of Bill "Spaceman" Lee from one of his students at Chief Joseph Middle School last summer. Lee, who went on to pitch for the Boston Red Sox and Montreal Expos in the early 1970's and 80's, happens to be one of the Goldpanners' most colorful alumni.

"It's one of the funniest biographies I've ever read," Graham said. "He talked about the Goldpanners a lot in that book. ... I never imagined they'd call me for anything, though."

It turns out Jim Dietz, the Goldpanners head coach, was talking with one of his contacts in Oregon about trying to find a good spot in Montana to play. That contact was Chad Angel, a Legion coach whose Albany Rockets had played in Graham's Boys of Summer Tournament a season ago.

Then Dietz called Corey Bridges, another Legion coach from Couer d'Alene who happens to count Graham as one of his pupils. And after two positive recommendations about a man nicknamed Moonlight - derived from Archibald Wright "Moonlight" Graham, who played for the New York Giants before being immortalized in the novel "Shoeless Joe" and the film "Field of Dreams" - Dietz knew who he needed to call next.

"I pick up the phone and it's Jim Dietz," Graham said. "He says, 'Moonlight Graham?' I said, 'Yeah.' He said, 'Two guys gave me good recommendations and your nickname is Moonlight. You think you'd like to host my baseball team?'"

When a man who was named coach of the decade for the 1970s asks you to host his baseball team, Graham said, you listen, especially when he gives you a chance to host a game of this magnitude in Montana.

"I'm really hoping that the community fills up the stands Friday night and realizes what they're coming to see," Graham said. "But shoot, this game could be in front of zero people and still be one of the biggest amateur events in state history."

Aside from historic alumni like Tom Seaver, Barry Bonds, Dave Winfield, Brett Boone and Lee, the Goldpanners have produced major league stars like Jason Giambi, Bobby Crosby, Jose Cruz Jr., Travis Lee, Jacque Jones, Adam Kennedy and Michael Young in recent years.

"They've sent over 100 guys to the big leagues, they have a couple hall of famers and they sent one guy to the NFL (quarterback Dan Pastorini) for crying out loud," Graham said. "They've got the history."

The Goldpanners also have a filmmaker on board with them for their tour who is making a documentary that he hopes to sell to a major network.

Which stop is he most excited about?

"He thinks Belgrade is going to be one of the best stops on the tour," Dennis said. "We're staying in tents on a ball field for Pete's sake. I think it oughta be pretty fun, too."

Will Holden can be reached at wholden@dailychronicle.com and 582-2690.