Following Friday’s game, fans are welcome to join the Raptors on the field for a screening of the 2024 documentary “The Streak: The Story of the Salt Lake Trappers” on the big screen at Lindquist Field.

In 34 years since the Trappers folded – relocating to Idaho as the Pocatello Posse in 1993 and returning to Utah as the Ogden Raptors in 1994 – the Raptors have memorialized the team’s history and record of 29 consecutive wins during the landmark 1987 regular season.

The documentary tracks the Trappers, a team chock-full of overlooked prospects and hopeful underdogs – Frank Colston, Koichi Ikeue, Jon Leake and Ed Citronnelli among others – as a Utah rookie ball club managed professional baseball’s longest winning streak of 29 games by the end of the 1987 regular season.

It’s an opportunity to learn about one of the game’s more astonishing and lesser-known phenomena, Raptors general manager Trever Wilson said.

“Utah has a big history of baseball, but not a lot of people recognize it,” Wilson said. “Not a lot of people recognize what our level of baseball was. The Trappers, in essence, were the 1990s and 1980s version of what the Raptors are today. They just happened to have a group of guys that came together and pulled off an incredible feat and a record that still stands today as the longest (win) record across all of baseball.”

The story of the Raptors began in Canada, when the Calgary Expos, an affiliate of the defunct Montreal Expos (now the Washington Nationals), uprooted and moved to Salt Lake City beginning with the 1985 season. A 17-person ownership group included actor and comedian Bill Murray, who owned a 5% stake in the franchise.

In a brief eight seasons, the Trappers won four league titles and another six division titles before leaving town for Idaho despite an existing offer from Ogden to land the club. The Triple-A Salt Lake Bees, then known as the Salt Lake Buzz, arrived in 1994.

That same year, in 1994, current Raptors owner Dave Baggott, who played for the Trappers and later worked in the team’s front office, purchased the Pocatello team alongside partner Johnny Lindquist and placed it in Ogden, where professional baseball continues today.

“We decided, if there’s nothing else, we can pay homage to our forefathers, and essentially our organization is that franchise reincarnated,” Wilson said of the idea behind Trappers Night. “This is our second year doing a Trappers Night, and it’s something we’re going to continue annually.”

First pitch for Trappers Night is slated for 6:30 p.m. at Lindquist Field.

By the numbers

• In the second half of the season, Ogden, entering its latest homestand with Idaho Falls fresh off a series win over the Glacier Range Riders in Kalispell, Montana, is currently third in the PBL standings and eight games back of league leader Long Beach Coast.

• As of Tuesday, the Raptors are averaging 11.2 runs per game in July as Kyler Stancato (.451) battles Billings outfielder AJ Shaver (.460) for the league’s top batting average. Right-hander Nico Saltaformaggio (5.55 ERA) leads PBL pitchers with seven wins and is top-10 with 50 strikeouts this season.

• Entering Wednesday night, Raptors infielder Chase Valentine trailed PBL’s stolen-base leader, Glacier Range outfielder Alex Fernandes (36), by four bases; Outfielder Colson Valentine ranked top-5 with 16 home runs.

Connect with Standard-Examiner sports reporter Conner Becker via email at cbecker@standard.net, X @ctbecker and Instagram @standardexaminersports.