Portland Beavers

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Civil War Wounds; Baseball in Portland

March 29, 2009 in Sports | 1 comment

Oregon staring pitcher Bennett Whitmore

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

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.

Assorted Travels, Spring-Summer 2007

July 26, 2007 in Sports, Travel | No comments

Oh, the places I have been! Since I last graced this site with an update, I have experienced Spring Training, visited Denver twice, driven through Wyoming and into South Dakota, seen Albuquerque, flown into Las Vegas for the NBA Summer League and ventured into Montana, then Wyoming for a second time. (Technically, the Spring Training and Dakota trips occurred prior to the last post, but since I wrote the post before I took the trips, I’m counting it… sue me.)

In short, a lot has happened. So in lieu of making an in-depth post about each of the individual trips, I will burn through them at a rapid-fire pace so I can get on with making a real update… look at this as a sort of “here’s what happened last season on…” portion of a television show, except instead of some actor named Chris Pratt, you get me. Speaking of lawsuits, I’ve got to go after that guy.

Our journey begins on Wednesday, March 8, 2007 when I set off in my Honda Civic Hybrid for the sunny southwest and the six-week orgy of baseball that signals the actually new year – Spring Training. On the way I went through Idaho (Saw the Blue Turf), Utah (saw the Mormon Temple… impressive, and a little scary), Las Vegas (got frustrated by traffic, then gave up and went to Hoover Dam), and finally all nine Cactus League ballparks. Miller joined me on the 15th and stayed through the weekend. I caught a foul ball off the bat of Chicago Cub Ronnie Cedeno, while sitting in the first row of Tuscon Electric Park, and was horribly sun burnt. In addition, I saw the best scoreboard announcement ever – skeptics may say I only caught a small segment of scrolling text, but that’s why they are skeptics. Personally, I can’t agree more with the scoreboard operator.

Upon returning to Oregon, I was immediately sent off to South Dakota for work, after first flying into Denver and driving through Wyoming to reach my destination. While there, I visited Mount Rushmore, and the Crazy Horse Memorial, which has been under construction for a ridiculous 59 years I would have contributed to the construction effort with a donation had the visitor’s center been open when I arrived… instead, I simply stole a look at the sculpture… I’m sure that’s a theme the Lakota are used to. On my way back to Denver, I found myself stuck in the heaviest snowstorm I have ever experienced, complete with freeway driving in complete whiteout conditions. I have a feeling Crazy Horse intended on getting his revenge.

April was relatively quiet, consisting mainly of attempting to recover from the month of constant travel that March brought.

With May came yet another trip to Denver, this time for a meeting after which I took a few personal days, saw the Denver Mint and the Rockies beat the Giants, and ventured into New Mexico to catch an Albuquerque Isotopes game. While I did not enjoy a hot dog brimming with southwestern flavors, I did enjoy the victory the Portland Beavers achieved over the ‘Topes. Oddly though, I ended up being seated next to a Portlander who is currently living in Albuquerque, which meant that the two people wearing Portland Beavers garb in a crowd of several thousand were sitting right next to each other, and had never before met. It was a little strange, but it seemed to make sense. Isotopes Stadium was by far the best minor league facility I have seen yet in my travels, easily eclipsing the next night’s stop, Colorado Springs’ Security Service Field. My takeaways from this trip: Jesus is HUGE in Colorado Springs, as are many of the women; and the omnipresent hold the military has on this region is simply unbearable. I could never live there.

Early July saw a quick three-day jaunt to Las Vegas to witness the beginning of Greg Oden’s career as a Portland Trailblazer, facing off against the once-great Boston Celtics. In fact, I sat courtside for Oden’s first game, which would have been nice on its own. However, my attempt to slum-up the normal haunts of the beautiful people brought with it the somewhat surreal experience of sitting right next to the Celtics’ brain trust of GM Danny Ainge and head coach Doc Rivers, who were joined by onetime wunderkind Sebastian Telfair. In all, it was a little awkward when Telfair sat down… I mean, aside from maybe Pacman Jones, there really isn’t anyone with whom I have less in common. On top of that, he was absolutely swimming in some sort of cologne.

When he arrived, I simply gave him a welcoming “hey”, to which he responded with a nod. It was a good enough response for me. The Celtics ended up blowing out Greg Oden and the Blazers, but not before I exchanged comments with Telfair over a few horrible calls, and had a conversation with Rivers about Portland and how great the fans are, and how Rivers would kill to have two bigs like those gracing the Blazers’ roster. The guy sitting next to me caught the scene on my camera, but I think he had a case of the shakes, judging by the blurriness of the photo. Giovanni came down that evening and we spent the rest of the weekend taking in games, people watching, and losing a small amount of money in penny slots while stocking up on complimentary drinks.

As was the case in March, immediately upon my return I was sent to the Mountain Time Zone on business, this time to Billings, Montana. While there, I took in my first Pioneer League games, first in Billings where the Mustangs beat the Orem Owlz (they should have had to spot the Stangs 10 runs for the Z in their name alone), then in Casper, Wyoming, where I saw the hometown Rockies get trounced by the Missoula Osprey. More importantly, I ended up with two Pioneer League baseballs as souvenirs that night – the first a homerun ball off the bat of Osprey second baseman Taylor Harbin that came sailing toward me while I was parking my trusty rental car beyond the left field fence prior to entering the ballpark, and the second a foul ball that apparently only I noticed land while standing in line for a bratwurst. While in Casper, I struck up a conversation with the guy who was sitting behind me after he had recognized the Isotopes hat I was wearing. It turns out he also went to Spring Training, and tries to see as many ballparks as he can while traveling, including the California League and the Pacific Coast League. It was a little comforting, and at the same time a little troubling, seeing as he was praising my dedication in driving from Billings to Casper, only to turn around an return to Billings after two and a half hours of Rookie League ball. Also, he was probably in his 60s, which made me feel a bit like an RV-ing snowbird, and less like a guy who just turned 27… failing that, I should at least bring a girl along next time, so long as I don’t find her in Colorado Springs.

The Wells Wedding

September 18, 2005 in Life, Sports | No comments

Fall is nearly here, and with it comes my yearly reflection on the summer months – the time when I invariably failed to regularly update this site. Which really commemorates the even more time-honored traits of procrastination and sloth, which have been part of the Pratt repertoire (or reprattoire, if you prefer) for a little over 25 years now (it’s our silver anniversary!).

This summer started with a sputter, finding me attending the occasional Portland Beavers game, renting movies here and there, and exploring Portland via Max. In all, it was relaxing, which was needed after what has been a year of essentially one family tragedy after another. Things sped up quick in July, with Wells’ bachelor party and subsequent wedding. The bachelor party was held at Safeco Field in Seattle, where about twenty of us pitched in to rent a luxury suite for a Saturday evening game against the Baltimore Orioles, narrowly missing Rafael Palmeiro’s 3000th career hit, which would have been great to witness, especially since that was in the days when we all simply thought he was on the juice. The evening was filled with memorable moments, from Miller’s antics to the appearance of the Moose, who subsequently mauled Wells, to a game winning RBI single by Mike Morse in the bottom of the ninth (himself a ‘roid casualty by early September). Most importantly, it was our formal send-off of Wells into the married world.

The actual send-off came July 23, 2005, when Wells married girlfriend Jessica on the grounds of her family’s ranch in central Oregon. I took a week off from work the week of the wedding, hanging out with Miller for the first few days before traveling with Wells and his cousin Jaeger to Redmond to help with setting up the wedding and reception site. It was a beautiful ceremony, with the backdrop of a canyon during the ceremony, and with the Three Sisters of the Cascade Range serving as background for the reception. As best man, it was my duty to eat my prime rib in the seat to Wells’ immediate left at the reception, as well as stumble through an ad-libbed toast to couple’s new life together, making delicate jabs at Wells’ many foibles over the years, while trying not to disparage him too much in front of the people who now found him to be a member of their family. I think I did ok, but I can really only remember bits and pieces of what I said. On the bright side, I didn’t freeze under the pressure, nor did I cry, so that’s always a plus.

A vacuum of sorts appeared in the wake of the wedding, and August was dedicated mostly to relaxation when not at work. I was able to get in some much-delayed reading, as well as a little writing – the fruits of this work will likely appear here in the next month or so, after some fine-tuning.

So after a brief August slumber, September is here, and with it comes one of the most eagerly anticipated happenings of the year – Oregon Ducks football. I once again have my season tickets (courtesy of my mom… I imagine I will someday have to actually spend money on tickets…). Through three games, all is seemingly good, with the Ducks undefeated, but staring tenuously at the upcoming home contest against USC, which has evolved into what is simply the most dominant college football program in decades. I will be in attendance this Saturday, expecting the outcome that most level-minded analysts are predicting, but hoping for another Michigan-like miracle, that is as long as Sports Illustrated promises not to put Oregon on its cover if the unthinkable happens.

In other news, after a false start last year, I am actually serious now about trying to buy a home. I am having a lender look into what I can be approved for, and hopefully, if all goes well, I will have a home of my own by December, when my current lease will expire. Hopefully, I will know what I can realistically spend within the next week or so – from there, the search should come to life. Currently, I’m looking as far west as Newberg, south to Woodburn, and north and east to their prospective sections of Portland. I guess we’ll see if anything turns up.

That’s it for now. As always, I’ll work on updating more regularly, but again, I probably won’t…