The Best of the Best!

Greetings all you baseball lovers! I hope everyone is enjoying their respite from the baseball season that is known as the "All-Star Break." Rejuvenate yourself for one heck of a second half of the season!

I just got back from seeing the best of the AAA athletes in Portland competing at the Triple A All-Star game. Playing in front of nearly 17,000 fans at PGE Park, the International League squeaked out a 6-5 victory over the Pacific Coast League.

My travels have taken me all over the country seeing baseball games, but this one will always be remembered. This game is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I doubt that I will have the opportunity to see an event of this magnitude in baseball for a very long time, if ever. Seeing the collection of pure, raw talent gathered in one place was very awe-inspiring and very entertaining. The pageantry of the game and the symbolism of seeing all those different players from teams all over the country was incredible to say the least.

PGE Park and the Portland Beavers marketed the heck out of this event. Everywhere in Portland signs were plastered to walls, ads were spread in the newspaper, and promos were filmed on TV. The event, I would say, should be considered a success. The crowd of nearly 17,000 was the largest crowd to see a Triple A All-Star Game in almost twenty years.

Something is bothering me, though. As many of you know, Portland landed a Major League Soccer franchise earlier in the year. It was announced that this new team would play in a newly redesigned PGE Park that would be designated as a "soccer-only" facility. So, where does that leave the Beavers? The Beavers have been struggling to draw a modest amount to a very large venue for a very long time, and there is a lot of talk on message boards and on the streets of Portland about the team moving to a new ballpark on the outskirts of town or leaving town completely.

The prospect of losing another treasure of a ballpark is very unsettling to me. especially to sacrifice it to a sport that has no shot of matching the popularity of baseball. Here in Eugene, we are dealing with the potential loss of Civic Stadium. Now, I have to deal with the prospect of the same situation manifesting in Portland. I understand completely that professional baseball is a business, and that the goal is to make money, but should it come at the expense of the experience? Sure, the Beavers don't draw what they should, but the ballpark is great. When it was filled to capacity tonight, it created an ambiance that I haven't felt anywhere else in the country. It was unique in it's own way. Losing this treasure would be a devastating blow to not only Portland, but to the game itself. Funny how I have been saying the same thing about Civic...

The next roadtrip is to the hot and humid state of North Carolina. As laid out in my last post, I will be visiting ballparks in Greensboro, Burlington, Zebulon (Carolina), and Durham. So, boys and girls, get your countdown clocks rolling towards July 29!

Always take on a 3-0 pitch ;)