The Wilted Rose City

Hello again followers!

The final baseball roadtrip is complete as Baseball Extravaganza 2010 comes to an end. This past weekend I went up to Portland and saw the Beavers play their last two games in the City of Portland and PGE Park.

Almost exactly twelve months ago, I wrote in the Baseball Extravaganza 2009 blog about the demise and exit of the Eugene Emeralds from Civic Stadium. If you recall, I was very hurt, emotional, and perplexed at the swiftness of the events which surrounded the situation. A year later, I have seen almost an exact situation play out in a different city. The comparisons between the two are eerily striking.

The first game I went to, on Sunday, I met up with a women who is a season ticket holder and devoted Beavers fan. We went out to lunch at a small bar/grill just steps from PGE Park. After common greetings, I asked her to take me through, step-by-step, what happened to the Beavers and why they are leaving. In a nut shell, she explained that the politicians in Portland refused to support the Beavers plans for a new ballpark. Without a ballpark, the Beavers are being forced to move from Portland. While sitting there listening to her explain the sequence of events, I detected a real distaste for elected officials, individuals with money and influence, and a tinge of agony of losing something so special. It really reminded me of what happened last year.

The Beavers won Sunday's game by a score of 6-2 over the Las Vegas 51s. Portland pitchers carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning.

The next day, I went back up to Portland to attend the final game. While walking to the park, I noticed the amount of Beavers supporters was enormous. I noticed the first fans almost a mile away from the park ducking into the numerous sports bars and restaurants that surround PGE Park. It reminded me a lot of the atmosphere around PETCO Park in San Diego. As we got closer to the park, the number increased and the sense of community and fandom really became apparent. Directly outside of the park, thousands of people lined up to get into the gates early. Whether it was a sense of nostalgia or the prospect of receiving the 2,000 coveted commemorative coins being given out, the jam of people made the camaraderie overflow inside me.

Nearly 15,000 packed PGE Park to see the final game. The Beavers did a wonderful job of making a pre-game ceremony worthy of a finale. The organization invited multitudes of former Beavers players and coaches, showed pictures of past Beavers teams on the videoboard, and, in a real sense of nostalgia, the Beavers invited the lady who threw out the first pitch at the FIRST Beavers game to throw out the first pitch at the LAST Beavers game. The little old lady walked out to the mound and heaved the ball into the mitt of fan favorite player Craig Stansberry. It was truly a wonderful sighe to see the history being appreciated like that.

The final game was a classic. The Beavers rallied from a deficit four times, taking the lead for good on a Nick Green two-run homer in the eighth to rally past the 51s 6-5.

After the game, the manager of the Beavers, Terry Kennedy, dug up home plate and gave it to about six kids who were representing youth baseball in Portland. They then opened up the field for all fans to walk around the bases.

The way the Beavers ended was very classy and well-thought of. Everything seemed a lot more formal and planned than the Emeralds last game. Everything from the pre- and post-game festivities to the between-innings retrospectives of the teams, it seemed so much smoother and personal. At Civic last year, there was massive looting and people were tearing up clods of grass and dirt. It was a sad sight to see a place that was so special to so many people be subjected to that type of abuse in it's twilight. That did not happen at PGE Park. The Portland fans composed and behaved themselves in very fine fashion. They knew that they were losing their team, but the memories they had from that team were enough.

I find it very hard to believe that Portland will ever get Triple-A baseball again. They have lost Triple-A franchises three times in the modern era. Now that they won't even have a ballpark with which to play at it makes the prospect of baseball returning even that much bleaker. It really is a shame, and I hope with all my heart that I am proven wrong. At the end of the post-game ceremony, Beavers manager Terry Kennedy remarked that if Portland wanted baseball back it would be through the efforts of the fans, not the politicians. If the fandom I saw on Sunday can organize and put together a movement to bring baseball back, they just might succeed.

It really is a shame what happened in Portland. The Beavers were a good thing for that city and provided many an hour of enjoyment for me. Going up to Portland was always such a practical roadtrip, and I did it so often that it became just as routine as going to an Ems game here in Eugene. It is just another example of how corrupt and short-sighted people with influence and power have become in this state. Whether it be politicians in Portland or wealthy donors here in Eugene, the vision of progress and community identity are becoming lost because of them. This is the main reason why citizens need to continually voice their opinions and demand that they be respected an heard. This is the reason why we need to elect people to public office that are honest and are willing to fight tooth-and-nail for the good things that all citizens benefit from.

The Portland Finale was the last baseball game I will go to for this year. For all intents and purposes, this season is over for me. I will, in the next few days, put together a Final Thoughts entry on this season. There is a lot to go over, so I want to make sure I put it together right.

Keep an eye out for the next update!

Always take on a 3-0 pitch ;)