History of professional baseball in Portland, Oregon
Among the members include Russell Wilson, quarterback in the National Football League, and Ciara the professional singer and songwriter.
Known as a gentleman's group at the time, it composed merchants, doctors, lawyers and farmers from rural Portland.
The Pioneers of East Portland invited clubs from throughout the region to a meeting in February 1868 to form what became The Oregon, Washington and Idaho Territories Association of Base Ball Players.
The teams adopted rules that were slightly modified from those approved by the National Association of Base Ball Players in 1863.
This league consisted of teams from Portland, Seattle, Tacoma and Spokane, and began attracting players from around the nation.
This version of the Pacific Northwest League folded in the second half of the 1892 season due to the onset of a nationwide economic depression known as the Panic of 1893.
A group of area businessmen, spearheaded by William H. Lucas, also created the Portland Baseball Club and put together a team to play in the Pacific Northwest League, calling them the Webfooters.
The new team in Portland that year, the Green Gages, only played until July 1 when they moved to Salt Lake City, and changed their name to the Elders.
The newly named Portland Beavers won their first PCL pennant in 1906, finishing 19½ games over runner-up Seattle.
His obituary later read that the ballpark was "the sensation of baseball, because it inaugurated a minor league precedent of providing individual grandstand seats, which fellow magnates called an extravagance and a dangerous innovation."
Though the 1915 Beavers featured Stan Coveleski, the team didn't fare too well, and started into a tailspin that would last for over a decade.
With America's entry into World War I, restrictions were placed on travel, such that the Beavers withdrew from the PCL for the 1918 season, playing instead in the Class B Pacific Coast International League.
The team was known as the Portland Buckaroos and finished their shortened season (play was stopped on July 7 due to the war) in second place 1½ games back of Seattle.
Klepper brought in Jim Thorpe who played with the Beavers for the 1922 season, paying him an unheard of minor league salary of $1000 per month.
Landis suspended Klepper until January 1, 1925, and declared Kenworthy ineligible to play or manage Portland until the 1924 season.
[4] According to the book "The Portland Beavers" by Kip Carlson and Paul Andresen, "The feisty Klepper went to court and had the decision overturned, supposedly the only time that Landis ever had a ruling reversed."
Despite having Duffy Lewis on the team in 1925 (winning the PCL batting title), Elmer Smith in 1926 and 1927 (leading the PCL in home runs in 1926 and all of minor league baseball in home runs in 1927) and Ike Boone in 1928, the Beavers continued to finish in the bottom half of the league.
The highlight of the Beavers last-place 1930 season was William Rhiel's unassisted triple play, the last recorded in PCL history.
Ed Coleman led the PCL in hits and runs batted in, and the team finished in third winning 100 games.
In 1943 William Klepper, with partner George Norgan buying a minority share, purchased the Beavers.
Oregon Governor Earl Snell presented a commemorative watch and gold and diamond ring to each player at the banquet.
The 1949 season began the integration of the Pacific Coast League as Frankie Austin and Luis Marques became Beavers.
Throughout most of the 1960s, the Beavers were the AAA affiliate of the American League Cleveland Indians, nurturing such future stars as "Sudden" Sam McDowell, Lou "Mad Dog" Piniella, and Luis "El Gigante" Tiant.
After 1972, in which the Beavers drew fewer than 92,000 fans for the entire season, the team left Portland for Spokane.
Though finishing fourth overall that year, the Beavers defeated the Edmonton Trappers to win the Northern Division title, then bested the Albuquerque Dukes in the finals to capture the flag.
Following the 2000 season, the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres swapped AAA teams.
In 2003, Dr. Lashbrook led the lobbying efforts that resulted in a $150 million construction bill for a new baseball stadium in Portland.
The team also brought back the name "Lucky Beavers" as part of a sleeve patch on their alternate jersey.
[10] Initial plans called for the new ballpark to be built at the site currently occupied by the Memorial Coliseum, which would have been torn down,[11] but public outcry about demolishing a Portland landmark led Portland mayor Sam Adams to propose a second site in the Rose Quarter area north of Memorial Coliseum.
On September 23, 2024, they announced that they had signed a letter of intent to purchase Zidell Yards to build a ballpark.
