Cowboys duo broke Pioneer no-no barrier

Thirty-six years have passed since the residents in the small town of Twin Falls, Idaho, have had a Minor League Baseball team to call their own.

But the real surprise is that remnants of the Twin Falls Cowboys, a fixture in the rookie-level Pioneer League from 1939-71, are hard to find.

A lot can change in 36 years.

Decades of Cowboys baseball have been reduced to a pile of newspaper clippings in the town's library. The Cowboys' home field, Jaycee Park, was razed in the late 1970s when it was deemed a fire hazard. All the baseball chatter is focused on the local college team, and the Cowboys have been reduced to a memory.

It's a good thing that memories, much like records and milestones, never truly fade.

One of those unforgettable milestones occurred 65 years ago on May 17, 1942, when Tony Jeli took the mound against the Pocatello Cardinals and pitched the first no-hitter in Pioneer League history.

Jeli, who finished the season with a 6-17 record and a 4.02 ERA, will always be the rightful owner of the league's first no-no, but it didn't stand as the only no-hitter in history for very long.

Jeli's teammate, Joe Feria, produced a no-hit performance of his own in a 3-0 Cowboys' victory over the Salt Lake Bees on May 26, 1942.

Elmer Orella, who pitched for the Bees during the 1942 season, was friends with Feria, who finished the year 12-2 with a 2.92 ERA.

"I used to see him five or six times a year," Orella said. "He was a good pitcher. He had pretty good stuff."

Almost good enough to record the first perfect game in Pioneer League history. But because the game was called after six innings, Feria lost his bid for perfection.

The Pioneer League would have to wait almost a decade to witness its first perfect game, when Idaho Falls' Ken Kimball blanked the Great Falls Electrics in 1951.

Since 1942, two no-hitters been recorded in the same season just 12 times, and in the 65 years after Jeli and Feria did it, 46 total no-hitters have been thrown in the Pioneer League.

Thirty-six years may have erased the Cowboys from Twin Falls cityscape, but the memories, and milestones, are far from gone.