Hillsboro

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The week of Baseball continues as I just got back from a road trip up to the new ballpark in Hillsboro and a game between the Spokane Indians and the Hillsboro Hops. This is my third new ballpark in a little more than a week, and the amount of travel has left me a little road-weary, but the experiences over the past weekend, coupled with the events of last week in Southern California, could pretty much take up an entire season's worth of blog posts.

First, this road trip was originally scheduled to be a little more elaborate. If you have kept up with my blogs over the past few years, you may remember that Old Time Baseball was more of an "event" than a game because it was an exhibition, at Fort Vancouver, of baseball from the 1880's. It was a hoot of an experience the last time I went, so when I saw it on the calendar, I knew that I had to make a trip up. Seeing as how Hillsboro was in town, I figured that I could make it a bona fide Baseball Road Trip with all the quirks of a Puget Sound or California League.

Just as I was packing up, I went to double-check the schedule on the Fort Vancouver website for the start of the game, and I couldn't find it. I called Fort Vancouver and they said that Old Time Baseball had been cancelled because of the Sequester. Now, this is a baseball blog that is supposed to be a positive essay on my experience, so I will leave politics out of it. However, I have to ask, What the Hell?!?!?! That's all I'll say on that...

Even with the cancellation, I decided to still go up on Saturday, spend the day with some friends, visit the zoo, do the Portland thing, and try and enjoy myself even though there wasn't any baseball going on. My girlfriend came up with me, and we met up with our friends in Portland about mid-morning on Saturday.

I had wanted to do the zoo early on as there had been some new additions and some brand-new baby animals born. I absolutely love zoos, and I always try to incorporate them into road trips. The Oregon Zoo is a great time, it was surprisingly cheap as they only charged us half price, and it put me in such a good mood. I could have spent hours just watching the different animals.

My favorite animal had to be the crocodile exhibit. It is located in a dark and damp room that is intentionally done up that way to mimic the African Rainforest. The stickiness just heightened the authenticity of it all, and smack dab in the middle of it is a ten-foot crocodile with jaws that would snap a limb like a small twig. Only a few centimeters of glass separated me from this wild creature and I literally would have had no problem enduring the sweltering conditions just watching this animal. Fascinating stuff, to say the least.

After the zoo, we took the MAX into downtown, grabbed a drink at my favorite Portland watering hole, got some Voodoo Donuts, and called it a night.

We woke up a decent hour on Sunday to meet up with another mutual friend for brunch at a restaurant in Multnomah Village. I had never been to this part of Portland before, but it was an ecclectic neighborhood that had a real hip vibe to it. One of the most interesting parts of it was a small bar that was all decked out in Cubs logos and regalia. We went in, and despite the half dozen or so people drinking at 10am, it was a total Chicago Cubs bar that had memorabilia, Old Style beer on tap, and every tv tuned into the Cubs game. If only the Cubs were decent, I'm sure this would be a happening place to watch a game.

After brunch, we made our way out Highway 26 to the brand new Hillsboro Ballpark. Located in the sprawling tech suburb of Hillsboro, the Ballpark still has that new-car shine to it. It was built in less than a year and is next to the 10,000 seat Hillsboro Stadium. It is smack dab right next to the freeway and has no public transportation or walking options to it. I did see that they run a shuttle from the MAX stop in Hillsboro to the stadium, but that is it. We drove up there, so I can't really tell how well it worked or how popular it was. Something to remember the next time I come up.

To be honest, there wasn't too much I was impressed with at Hillsboro Ballpark. First of all, the seating goes from foul pole-to-foul pole and aren't angled towards the infield. From where we were sitting, past the third base line, I had to crink my neck just to watch the pitches being thrown. By the end of the game, my neck hurt. Second, the stadium seating bowl isn't very high or at a steep angle meaning that people walking in front of you blocked your view. Third, the ticket prices were way too high by Single-A standards. Fourth, the all field turn infield and outfield just looks horrible and makes the whole atmosphere hotter, which kind of stinks when you're sitting in the metal bleachers. All in all, I don't think it's the worst Northwest League park, but it doesn't even come close to Vancouver or Spokane. Heck, even Everett is better, in my opinion.

The Hillsboro Hops tied the ballgame up with two-outs in the bottom of the ninth and eventually outlasted the Spokane Indians in 12 defeating them 6-5.

If there was one nice thing about the ballpark, and definitely sparked some passionate conversation, was the display they had put up in homage of the old Portland Beavers. Being that the Hops are the first professional baseball team to set up in the Portland metro area since the Beavers left town in 2010, the display had a little bit of history and had a case filled with old scorecards, the original homeplate from PGE Park, a bat signed by all the Triple-A All Stars from when the Beavers hosted the Triple-A All Star Game, and a brief history of baseball in Portland. In addition, of the 4,002 people in a sell out crowd, I must've counted 100 or more people wearing old Beavers hats and jerseys. It was nice to see such homage paid to their roots, but, now this where I started my passionate conversation, where were all of you people back in 2010?

I think I might save that for another blog post because I could go on-and-on about the travesty it was that the Portland Beavers left. However, for the sake of this particular post, I wanted to let all of you know that this was present, I certainly have an opinion on it, and that you can expect me to write about it. However, to sum up, I wasn't too thrilled with Hillsboro, but since it is an easy road trip, and whether or not I can figure out the public transportation, I probably will go back next year.

It's going to be hard to believe, but I have a free weekend coming up! No travel or baseball related stuff, and I'm actually kind of glad. I'm a little tired, and it'll be good to take a week off. Just by the sheer amount of blog posts, I've been really busy. I know that I'm making a trip up to Salem-Keizer in about two weeks, so I'll be sure to keep you updated with anything leading up to that.

Always take on a 3-0 pitch ;)