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| Portland Beavers Founded in 1903 Portland, Oregon |
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| Minor League titles | |||
| League titles | 1906 1910 1911 1913 1914 1936 1945 1983 | ||
| Division titles | 2004 | ||
| Owner(s)/Operated by: Shortstop, LLC | |||
| Manager: Randy Ready | |||
| General Manager: Merritt Paulson | |||
The Portland Beavers are a minor league baseball team, representing Portland, Oregon in the Pacific Coast League. It is currently the Triple-A affiliate for the San Diego Padres.
Although the name has been used by four distinct and separate franchises, the current club recognizes the history of all previous incarnations as its own.
Along with the Los Angeles Angels, Oakland Oaks, Sacramento Solons, San Francisco Seals, and Seattle Rainiers, a Portland Beavers club was a charter member of the Pacific Coast League in 1903. Along with Sacramento, Portland is one of two charter cities that still has a team in the PCL, the other cities having been taken over by major league baseball franchises.
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[edit] Team History
[edit] Early Portland Baseball: 1866-1883
The first organized baseball team on record in the Pacific Northwest was found in Portland, when on May 28, 1866 the Pioneer Baseball Club of East Portland was created. Known as a gentleman's group at the time, it was comprised of merchants, doctors, lawyers and farmers from rural Portland. [1] Professional players were not allowed to be part of the club, in fact, members had to pay dues in order to be a part of the club. Over the next year many clubs were created throughout the Portland area.
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 association consisted of five founding clubs, the Pioneers, the Portland Spartans, the Highland Baseball Club, the Clackamas Club of Oregon City and the Occidentals of Vancouver, WA, who adopted rules that were slightly modified from those approved by the National Association of Base Ball Players in 1863.
[edit] Professional Baseball in Portland: 1883-1901
In 1884 Joe Buchtel, a player/manager for the Pioneers who is regarded as being largely responsible for making baseball popular in Oregon during the 1900s, [2] started a new team in Portland, the Willamettes of East Portland. In 1890 this team became the Portland Gladiators who helped organize the first professional league in the region, the Pacific Northwest League. This league consisted of teams from Portland, Seattle, Tacoma and Spokane, and began attracting players from around the nation. [3] In 1891 the Gladiators won the league championship, even playing teams from the California League, including Sacramento, San Francisco and San Jose.
In 1896 a new team in Portland was started called the Monograms. This team was very successful, defeating teams from Oregon and the Washington State Championship team from Tacoma, earning them the right to go to San Francisco to play the California League Champions in a game called the Pacific Tournament that was sponsored by the San Francisco Examiner. The Monograms played two games against the California League Champions, tying the first 12-12 and losing the second 16-14. It was in the later part of 1896 that the Pacific Northwest League folded.
[edit] A New Era In Portland Baseball: 1901-1903
In the spring of 1901 a new baseball park was constructed that would become known as Vaughn Street Park. This year also saw the the return of the Pacific Northwest League. 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. This team included future baseball Hall of Famer Joe Tinker, and went on to win the League Championship in their first season. In 1902 the team finished fourth in the league.
On December 10, 1902, Henry Harris, the owner of the California League's San Francisco team announced that the Pacific Northwest League teams from Seattle and Portland were joining with the California League to create the Pacific Coast League.
[edit] Original Beavers: 1903–1917
The original Portland Beavers began play in the PCL in 1903, being known variously as the Browns, Giants, Ducks, and Webfooters (Oregon is associated with ducks due to the state's significant annual rainfall)[4] before deciding on the name Beavers in 1906. (Oregon is the "Beaver State".) At the end of the 1917 season, the original franchise was relocated to Sacramento, California. The Beavers played at 12,000-seat Vaughn Street Park, at NW Vaughn Street and NW 24th Avenue. They won their first PCL pennant in 1906, finishing 19½ games over runner-up Seattle. Portland also won pennants in 1910, 1911, 1913, and 1914.
After the 1914 season, the team went into a tailspin that lasted over a decade. With America’s entry into World War I, restrictions were placed on travel, such that the Beavers even withdrew from the PCL for the 1918 season, playing instead in the Class B Pacific Coast International League.
[edit] Second incarnation: 1919–1972
Portland re-entered the PCL a year later with the second version of the Beavers (now the Las Vegas 51s). It wasn’t until 1932, however, that the team won its next PCL flag, with an offense that led the league in hitting. The team won the pennant again in 1936, finishing but 1½ games over runner-up Oakland, then winning the postseason series to capture the crown.
The 1936 title would be the last for the early PCL Beavers. For the following 36 seasons, the Beavers finished high enough to make the playoffs only six times. The team finished second once (1944) and third four times (1947, 1956, 1964, and 1967). Usually the team finished well into the second division.
In the 1940s and 1950s, the franchise was also referred to as the "Lucky Beavers", and Vaughn Street Park was known as "Lucky Beaver Stadium".
In 1956, the Beavers left the now-demolished Vaughn Street Park to move into 25,000-seat Multnomah Stadium, eventually renamed Civic Stadium. 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. Later major league affiliations included Minnesota and Philadelphia. After 1972, in which the Beavers drew fewer than 92,000 fans for the entire season, the team left Portland for Spokane. The Class A Portland Mavericks filled the void left by the departure of the Beavers. The Mavericks played in the short-season Northwest League, with a schedule running from mid-June through August.
[edit] Third incarnation: 1978–1993
A third version of the Beavers rejoined the PCL in 1978 and played in Civic Stadium through 1992. In 1983, the new Beavers won the PCL pennant, the first for Portland in 47 years. 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.
After the 1993 season, Beavers owner Joe Buzas moved the team to Salt Lake City, Utah, where they became the Salt Lake Buzz, and later the Stingers. Their current nickname is the Bees.
Once again, the departure of the PCL brought the return of the short-season Northwest League. Following their inaugural season in 1993, the Class A Bend Rockies relocated to the now available market of Portland in 1994. The Portland Rockies played in the Rose City for the next seven seasons and served an important role for the city, whose demand for a major league team was growing. Portland's support for the Rockies paved the way for the return of AAA baseball in 2001.
[edit] Fourth incarnation: 2000–present
Following the 2000 season, the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres swapped AAA teams. The Albuquerque Dukes (a charter franchise of the PCL under the name Los Angeles Angels) moved to Portland, becoming the fourth version of the Beavers, as the San Diego Padres affiliate. As part of the relocation agreement, Civic Stadium was renovated in 2000 and renamed PGE Park. The Dodgers took control of the Padres' Las Vegas Stars, who would be renamed the 51's. The Portland Rockies would move up the Columbia River to Pasco and become the Tri-City Dust Devils in 2001.
In 2007, owner Merritt Paulson announced that he was considering changing the name of the team[5] - to prevent confusion with the Oregon State University Beavers, whose baseball team won the national championships in 2006 and 2007. Possible new names and logos were unveiled, and a vote was staged on the team website. "Portland Beavers" won the contest[6], and the team unveiled new logos and colors on January 29, 2008.[7] The Beavers emphasized their connection to the three prior franchises with the notation "Est. 1903" on their primary logo. The team also brought back the name "Lucky Beavers" as part of a sleeve patch on their alternate jersey.
[edit] Logos
 2000-2008 |
2000-2008 |
2008-Present |
2008-Present |
[edit] Current roster
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Portland Beavers roster
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| Players | Coaching staff | ||||
Pitchers
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Catchers
Infielders
Outfielders
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Manager
Coaches
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[edit] References
- ^ pdxhistory.com. Portland Baseball. Retrieved May 4, 2008.
- ^ pdxhistory.com. Portland Baseball. Retrieved May 4, 2008.
- ^ Oregon Stadium Campaign. Oregon & Portland's Baseball History. Retrieved May 6, 2008.
- ^ Western Folklore, Vol. 11, No. 3, Oregon Number (Jul., 1952). The Constant Webfoot. Retrieved January 30, 2008.
- ^ Oregonian (2006). Merritt Paulson, new owner of the Beavers and Timbers, stages a "Grand Reopening" tonight at PGE Park. Retrieved July 20, 2007.
- ^ PortlandBeavers.com Headline News (2007). Beavers to keep historic nickname. Retrieved February 22, 2008.
- ^ PortlandBeavers.com Headline News (2008). Beavers unveil new logo, uniforms. Retrieved January 30, 2008.
- O'Neal, Bill. The Pacific Coast League 1903-1988. Eakin Press, Austin TX, 1990. ISBN 0-89015-776-6.
- Snelling, Dennis. The Pacific Coast League: A Statistical History, 1903-1957 McFarland & Company, Inc., Jefferson, NC, 1995. ISBN 0-7864-0045-5.
[edit] External links
- Portland Beavers web site
- MadFriars.com
- Collection of historical Beavers photographs, showing "Lucky Beavers" nickname
- Portland Beavers Roster, Splits, and Situational Stats
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| AAA | AA | A | Rookie |
| Portland Beavers | San Antonio Missions |
Lake Elsinore Storm Fort Wayne Wizards Eugene Emeralds |
AZL Padres VSL Padres |
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