March 29- Portland Beavers

The 2013 baseball season is only a few days away, and for some reason it doesn’t feel like it where I am.  Few weeks ago I wrote a post on my history with Portland baseball, and I can assure you that very little has changed to sway my opinion on the matter. Yes, there will be a new team moving in about three miles away from where I’m currently living, but it’s a short season-A club that relocated from Yakima, Washington. This isn’t a knock on the Hillsboro Hops; I’m honestly looking forward to watching them play. It’s just a mere observation in a city that houses two top-tier sports franchises (Trailblazers and Timbers) and yet the best it can do is attract, and hopefully maintain, a short season-A club when the Seattle Mariners reside 185 north of where I’m currently sitting and writing this piece. I think one of the more remarkable, and real eye-opening things about this move and the demise of the Portland Beavers all revolves around how I acquired this cap.

Despite the fact that the Beavers relocated at the end of the 2010 season, you can still find a few of their items all over Portland. What’s most insulting is that most of the shops are still charging full price for merchandise of a team that no longer exists. The Beavers hat that I wrote about on March 6 was one I had purchased from PGE Park (now Jeld Wen Field) in the concourse area during a game against the Sacramento River Cats. I think I paid about $30 for it. The one that I am writing about was one of two that I didn’t all ready own which happened to be sitting on the top row (not even mixed in with the other MLB or MiLB caps) collecting dust at the Lids in the Clackamas Town Center Mall in September. As soon as I saw them I said I wanted them as long as they had my size. Sure enough they did, and sure enough I was a bit shocked when they still rang up as $35 each. Granted, I do have a Lids Club card, but it was still a weird concept to have to pay full price initially for the hat of a Minor League team that no longer exists. Oh well. I’ll always be a little sad and upset over what happened.

This particular hat was introduced in 2008 when the Beavers changed their colors and logo from the traditional black/red/white that had been popular throughout the century. I remember thinking it was a bit weird, but I did like the new color scheme. I’ll be honest; I’m not that big of a fan of red. This featured logo served primarily on the front of the batting practice caps and batting helmets; however, those caps were all black. This cap was merely a random second style the team came up with the feature the logo on a different colored cap. The concept for a team to do that is quite genius actually. I’ve never been too much of a fan of mesh caps; however, there have been a lot of logos that only appear on the batting practice caps that I really enjoy; the 1999 Arizona Diamondbacks batting practice cap is the first that comes to mind.

Because this is the batting practice logo I figured it would be best to find numbers from a few guys who were big names with the Beavers, but most important, got the job done with their hitting.

#21- A lifetime pinch hitter and Minor League journeyman, Wily Mo Pena was originally signed as a free agent by the New York Mets back in 1998. Over the next 14 years Pena made a few half-of-a-season appearances at the Major League level whenever an extra power hitter was needed, but the other, longer half was spent in AAA. No matter who your team is, there’s a pretty good chance he was on the payroll at some point. In 2010, Pena never saw a second of action in the Majors as he was signed to an Atlantic League team called the Bridgeport Bluefish along with “One At-Bat” subject and current Baltimore Oriole Adam Greenberg. About midway through the season Pena got inked to a Minor League deal with the San Diego Padres which sent him to Portland for 40 games. During his time there he hit .324 with nine home runs and 24 RBI. From the few games that I saw I could never figure out why he never stayed up in the Big Leagues. The man can certainly hit. For the last season Pena played 130 games in Japan with the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks along with former Oakland Athletics prospect Brandon Allen and former/current MLB pitchers Brad Penny and Brian Falkenborg.

#29- I went to a lot of Beavers games in 2005 as they had a lot of talent on the squad back then. One player in particular received the most attention simply because of his last name. I imagine that he knew it and had been hearing it all his life, which I can, once again, only imagine how frustrating that might be. Nonetheless, Josh Barfield did a fine job of earning his way to the Major that season hitting .310 with 15 home runs and 72 RBI. He was called up before the season was over, rightfully so, and stayed with the Padres through the entire 2006 season, but was traded to the Cleveland Indians in the offseason for Kevin Kouzmanoff and Andrew Brown.

Barfield played 130 games for the Indians in 2007, but didn’t quite have the bat flair he showed in San Diego as he finished the season hitting .240 with three home runs and 50 RBI. Barfield was demoted to the Buffalo Bisons, the Indians AAA affiliate, and replaced by prospect Asdrubal Cabrera in 2008. When Cabrera went on a skid Barfield was called up to replace him, but Barfield sprained his finger within days of getting back in the Bigs and ended up on the DL. 2009 was primarily spent in Columbus with the Clippers, the new AAA affiliate of the Indians.

In 2010 the Padres signed Barfield to a Minor League contract in which he played 78 games in the Rose City. If I remember correctly I caught him in four or five games that season. From what I could tell, very little had changed in his swing and side-to-side motions on the field. Granted, it had only been five years since I last saw him and he is only two months older than me. That year he hit .294 with five home runs and 36 RBI, but he never got called up on account of David Eckstein being the everyday guy. Barfield bounced around through the Philadelphia Phillies and Orioles organizations over the last two years, but has yet to see any MLB action since 2009. It’s a damn shame.

March 6- Portland Beavers

I’ve been in an especially feisty mood today, which has certainly helped fuel this blog post. Take warning. It’s going to get ugly.

Portland, Oregon is a horrible baseball city. Yah, that’s right, I said it. When I moved to the Pacific Northwest (specifically Vancouver, Washington) I was regaled by stories and banter from hardcore Portland sports fans about how amazing it would be to have a Major League Baseball team within the confines of the city. For years I was told that Portlanders would give undying support if a team was ever relocated, because after all, “we’re huge sports fans.” I bought that bullshit for years. The illusion of seeing a top tier in the city I called home was brought on by this…

a more than clever bumper sticker which I first saw in the manager’s office at the Just Sports (@JustSportspdx) location at the Lloyd Center Mall. For those who don’t know, Lloyd Center is the state’s largest indoor mall and it sits roughly 10-12 blocks away from the Rose Garden, the home of the Portland Trailblazers of the National Basketball Association. It’s not very becoming of me to mention other sports within my baseball articles; however, the important thing to know about Trailblazers fans is that they are extremely loyal, more so than most other franchises. I know that seems like a “homer” thing to say, but you should probably take into consideration that I’m a huge Indiana Pacers fan. In fact, the one thing to prove my assertion true is that the Trailblazers hold the record for most consecutive sell-outs at 814 from 1977 (the year of their only championship) through 1995. Oh yah, and by record, I don’t mean NBA record. I’m talking about most consecutive sell-outs in American sports history. The next closest streak? The 2003 through present Boston Red Sox at 712 games. For those doing the math at home, the Trailblazers record will more than likely be broken in 2014. Now, with that logic, one might think that the validity of Portlanders supporting a baseball team might be true. Think again.

In 2000 Portland all ready had a professional baseball team, the Portland Rockies. What was incredibly shocking about this is that 1. They were a short season-A squad in a major city. 2. They hardly drew anyone. Trust me on this one; I caught a few games at the old Civic Stadium and saw how empty it was. But… hope was just around the corner. What I didn’t know before moving North was that Portland was once a decent baseball city who housed a storied AAA franchise known as the Portland Beavers. From 1903-1917, 1919-1972 and 1978-1993 the Beavers came and went, but always seemed to find its footing anytime they set up shop. If you read my Salt Lake City Bees post from January 28 you’d know about the last run of the Beavers, and how then owner Joe Buzas cut and run at the end of the 1993 season to not only establish the franchise in Utah, but also had the balls to name the team after himself (Buzz). Every now-and-then when I get back up to Portland for a few beers with my friends Buzas’s name comes up in conversation. To this day I have yet to hear one positive thing about the man other than, “I’m glad he’s dead.”

Following the 2000 season, the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres swapped AAA affiliates. The Albuquerque Dukes (a charter franchise of the PCL in 1903 as the Los Angeles Angels) moved to Portland, becoming the Beavers, as the San Diego Padres affiliate. As part of the relocation agreement, Civic Stadium was renovated in 2000 and renamed PGE Park. Things were certainly looking bright. Like most new franchises, attendance was booming. The team brought up such budding talents as Sean Burroughs, Kevin Witt, Ernie Young and Ryan Radmanovich as well as brought down/rehabbed such stars as Jim Leyritz, Jeremy Powell, Jason Middlebrook and even Rickey Henderson. Popularity of the sport was certainly on the rise, and one moment I will never forget took place on March 29, 2002 as the San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners played one exhibition game in front of a sold out crowd. The Mariners, coming off their 116-win season proved to be the perfect draw. The Padres won the game 3-1 thanks to a two-run shot by Phil Nevin and six strong innings of pitching from Brian Lawrence. Attendance drew pretty well for the rest of the season and on into the 2003 season when the news “we all wanted” broke.

Back in June 2001 a story was released, but very few people knew about it. Bud Selig had sent one of his representatives, Corey Busch, to Portland to attend a Beavers game as the Montreal Expos were considering playing a few home games at PGE Park as, a Montreal Gazette article mentioned, the Expos were looking for a temporary home until a new stadium in Montreal was built. At the end of the 2002 season the possibility of a new stadium in Montreal was looking rather bleak, but the possibility of the Expos moving to Portland was looking promising. As a long-time Expos fan, I was champing at the bit with just the thought. Another thing that most people didn’t know is that Lynn Lashbrook, the founder and President of Sports Management Worldwide, had been rallying for a Major League team in Oregon for the previous six years, and made sure to head the committee to try to bring the Expos westward. For almost the entire winter on into spring of 2003 I helped work in the campaign. Well, as much as they would let me do: hand out fliers, make calls, send emails; you know, bitch work. At the end of January 2003 things were moving at an incredible pace. Only Washington, D.C. and Portland remained in the running for the team. Then Portland Mayor Vera Katz was in great support of it as she met with representatives from MLB in New York despite criticism from Republican politicians who didn’t see the benefits of allocating $350-400 million for a new stadium, especially with unemployment rates being one of the highest in the country at the time at 7% (the rate went as high as 11.6% in 2009, but is now around 8.3%). At the same time; however, Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos was protesting the move to D.C. as the Orioles had territorial rights. Oddly enough, the Mariners tried to pull the same move with Oregon with little merit. Even more interesting is that the Oakland Athletics and Florida Marlins names were being tossed around as other possibilities of relocation if Portland lost the Expos bid by the end of 2003.

On into 2004 very little seemed to be moving forward. The Expos and their fans in Montreal were well aware of the fact that the team would be playing its last season in Canada, but no one knew where that would be. All appeared to be going well for Portland as one of the Native American tribes even offered to front $250 million to build a new stadium as long as they were allowed to build a casino within the city limits. Mayor Katz balked at the idea and somehow around September 29 the announcement was made that the Expos would be moving to D.C. And I mean, it was really out of the blue. We were all dumbfounded, and we especially wanted to throw Katz out of office for not accepting the offer. But in the end, there wasn’t much that even Katz could do. Angelos had back off from his previous comments (more than likely paid off) and D.C. was getting their THIRD team throughout MLB’s history (because the first two panned out so well).   

As the years progressed attendance figures for the Beavers dwindled. Every game I attended from 2005-2007 seemed to be a jab to the ribs. I would have thought that in lieu of everything going to Hell that people would support the team in protest to MLB which would hopefully pave the way to luring another team to the city. Nope!

Years continued to roll on with little hope. The Beavers weren’t all that successful on the field which deterred a lot of people from going to the games. I had moved to Eugene in April of 2007 which made going to games on a regular basis a bit of a challenge, but I always made sure to catch the Sacramento River Cats (the A’s affiliate) when they visited.

In 2009 the AAA All-Star game was held at PGE Park. I was one of a little over 16,000 of the possible 18,000 it could fit to attend. Not too long after that the Portland Timbers were promoted from the United Soccer League to Major League Soccer under the stipulation that PGE Park be converted into a soccer/football specific stadium. The Beavers were forced out, but were given a slew of possible locations in which to build another stadium… at which ever possible site was protested. Without a home to play in, Merritt Paulson, the then owner of the Beavers sold the team to a group headed by Padres owner Jeff Moorad before the end of the 2010 season. Ever since that day I've had a lingering hatred of Portland and its residents. 10 years of boasting itself as a great baseball town went right out the window.

On September 6, 2010 the Beavers played their final game at PGE Park. The game ended with a 6-5 win over the Las Vegas 51s. I didn’t know it until today, but that was only the third sell-out the Beavers had since returning in 2001. The other two games were their first game back on August 30, 2001 and a July 4 fireworks night in 2009. I happened to attend all three.

For years I had kept this hat blank, even after I established my marking system. Today I finally set on one…

9/6/10- The Beavers wore this hat on their final game, a thought that still brings me to tears even as I write this two and a half years after the fact. It served as their home hat from 2008-2010. A lot of my other hats have specific dates, but I will wait to feature those on their specific anniversary. In the case of this hat I made an exception for the sake of my depression on this matter. When I went to Montreal this summer and visited my friend Dave Kaufman, all the heartbreak and sense of loss came rushing back anytime we talked about our teams. With Dave it was something deeper rooted as his beloved Expos were ripped out of the hands of the fans in Montreal despite their best efforts to hold on. I felt awful for all of the hours I put in to try to bring the team here, not really seeing both sides of the coin at the times.

In the case of the Beavers it became an oversight; something that only true baseball fans were affected by including then owner Paulson who regretted not doing more to keep the team in Portland. In an open letter following the last game Paulson predicted that the Beavers would make a return to Portland in the future. I guess we’ll wait and see.

January 5- Tucson Padres

Believe it or not this hat turned out to be one of the hardest hats to track down over the last year. Even more unusual was where I ended up buying it. The story really dates back to 2008, long before the Tucson Padres were even a glint in anyone’s eye. I was a regular attendee of the then Portland Beavers, the AAA franchise of the San Diego Padres, while at the same time I was a season ticket holder for the then-USL Portland Timbers. Having moved to Eugene the previous year to attend the University of Oregon full time, it became a bit difficult to make the trip north to a lot of games. Yes, I realize we’re talking about summer sports; however, I was taking summer classes, so in your face! 2008 proved to be the last year I attended either team’s games at a high frequency as the hit my wallet was taking due to gas prices was becoming a bit crazy. It was also around this time that the Timbers were being considered for a call-up to Major League Soccer, something I really didn’t think would have such a major impact on the baseball market in Portland.

The AAA All-Star game in 2009 was the last time I attended a game at, then-PGE Park. Something that big was pretty hard to resist. The most notable part of that game was that Oklahoma City RedHawks infielder Esteban German was named one of the “Top Stars” of the game. This was personally amusing to me as I had a brief encounter with him back in 2000 when he was playing for the Modesto A’s and I was the bat boy for the Bakersfield Blaze. (That story will come in another post.) The really interesting thing about the game being played in Portland; however, was that it was supposed to be THE large stepping stone to keep the team in Portland and prove how big of a baseball town Portland actually was. Well, a year after that, the team played its final season as the stadium was now going to be renovated to a soccer-specific park for the Timbers as their promotion was approved.

Since October 19, 2010 the Beavers/Padres have been in a weird state of limbo. The team was supposed to move to Escondido, CA in 2013, thus making their home in Tucson temporary; however, as of May 2011 the plans for said move were put on indefinite hold. On July 30, 2012, after a large legal battle, the team was purchased by a group in El Paso, Texas which will move the team there by the start of the 2014 season once a new stadium has been constructed.

Now, as far as acquiring and marking the hat: I was a bit stewed after the team was sold and moved out of Portland, but not terribly upset as I still had the Eugene Emeralds to visit anytime I wanted only 2 miles away from my house. One night toward the end of the 2011 season I combed through the assortment of Minor League caps that Lids had to offer and came across the Tucson Padres. Needless to say, I was impressed. I’ve always loved the swinging Padre logo, hence why I hat it tattooed on my body. Also, I the color scheme was quite impressive so I put it on my “to get list.” I had all ready placed a 6 hat order a few days earlier so I was in no rush to scoop it up. My size (7 3/8) was available to so I didn’t worry too much about it. About 2 weeks later when I was ready to final get it, my size was gone. Seeing how the season had just ended, I was a bit screwed in hoping that there would be a restock in the near future. So I waited…. an entire year!

Almost everyday I checked Lids’ inventory for a restock with no success. The only other time I came across one was when I went to San Diego to catch a Padres/Reds game with my fellow MLB Fan Cave Top 50 finalist and friend Andy Bishop, at which the stadium store was asking $45 for the hat. Hell no! Months would pass, and still no restock available. I kind of figured the hat would be popular, but not like this. It wasn’t until late August when I was traveling between Pittsburgh, PA, Cleveland, OH and Buffalo, NY that I finally came across it. Having met and made a few friends with New Era, I was invited to their home office in Buffalo for a tour by retail marketing coordinator Seth Ehrenberg and events marketing manager Jim Wannemacher. At the end of the tour I took a peek inside the Flagship store they had set up. I spent a good 20 minutes canvassing the joint when I finally came across the “holy grail.” I was especially shocked when they had my size in stock. I tried it on and quickly threw it up on the counter. There was no way I was letting that bad boy go.

I really didn’t have any plans on marking my Minor League caps as players come and go too quickly to really add something of note; however, in this case, adding 2011 (their first year) seemed like a good fit. I put a – next to that to mark their final year played, but won’t put the exact date until their move to El Paso becomes a reality. The significance of this also marks one of the shortest stints for an AAA team in any location; something that really surprised me as Arizona is a hot bed for MLB talent. I guess it really shows what I know about the business of baseball.