Civil War Wounds; Baseball in Portland

Oregon staring pitcher Bennett Whitmore

Today I attended my first full baseball game of the season, having previously seen pieces of three separate games, but no complete contests.  My family and I witnessed the reconstituted Oregon Ducks take on Oregon State Beavers in a Civil War contest at PGE Park.  After having split the first two games of the series, the Sunday rubber game showed exactly how far ahead in talent and experience the Beavers program is when compared with the Ducks (not surprising, given the Beavers are only one year removed from back-to-back NCAA titles).Oregon State pitcher Jorge Reyes (2007 College World Series Most Outstanding Player) was marvelous, giving up only one run in his seven innings pitched, while striking out six and allowing only two hits. The Beavers took advantage of every opportunity presented to them and displayed superb situational hitting in route to a convincing victory.

Beyond the 8-1 score, nine walks, three wild pitches, three errors, and several instances of puzzling defensive lapses surrendered by the Ducks, the day was not a total loss.  For the first time in my life, I was able to root for a Ducks team play my favorite sport - and despite the throttling they received, it was a pretty good day spent with my parents, Brandon, and 13,709 fans of baseball in the state of Oregon.

13,709 watch the Ducks get slaughtered

For me, this is what it is all about: over two days in Portland, over 29,000 fans attended (or at least purchased tickets for) two college baseball games. Granted, a large amount of the interest likely had to do with the rivalry between the two schools, but this goes to show once again how much interest in baseball there is in Portland, and in the state of Oregon as a whole. This comes at important juncture for baseball In Portland, as it was recently announced that a new stadium for the PCL’s Portland Beavers will be built to accommodate MLS’ expansion to Portland.

The stadium being proposed at this point in time is a roughly 9,000 seat park to be located either in the Rose Quarter (taking the place of Memorial Coliseum) or in SE Portland’s Lents Park (please let it be the Rose Quarter). The city of Portland should take into account the future of sports in Portland as plans are developed. Hopefully, they will build the park with a potential expansion and upgrade to Major League facilities in mind, regardless of Portland Beavers owner Merritt Paulson’s likely interest in preserving the market for his AAA club.

At some point in the next decade Portland will have a genuine opportunity to attract a Major League team, much like the one that was wasted in 2004 when the Montreal Expos chose to relocate to Washington, D.C. This opportunity may come sooner than expected, as it was recently announced (and has remained under the radar) that the Oakland Athletics will no longer negotiate with the cities of Oakland or Fremont for a new ballpark. San Jose is said to be interested in starting negotiations for an A’s ballpark, but the San Francisco Giants hold the MLB territory rights to Santa Clara County, which could prove problematic for such a move. If this cannot be resolved, Portland would become a natural relocation option for the team.

The only other serious candidates for relocation (Las Vegas and Sacramento) each have much larger obstacles standing in the way of actually attracting MLB – economics (Sacramento has fared worse than Portland in the recent economic meltdown, is smaller, and, let’s face it, just isn’t as attractive in general… sorry, Gio) and gambling (last time I checked, MLB was not a fan of gambling… ask Joe Jackson or Pete Rose). I know this is all a pipe dream at this point; and not a very realistic one given Portland’s unwillingness for bold action, but a guy can dream, right? Besides, as much as I love the Ducks, I’d much rather join 30,000 Oregonians in rooting for a Portland Beavers team to take down the Seattle Mariners in an AL West matchup.