Last week, Major League Baseball officially opened it's regular season. Last night, Minor League Baseball followed suit and threw open it's doors for what is hoped to be a banner 2011 season. However, this annual glee is tempered, at least here in Oregon, by the conspicuous absence of Triple-A baseball in Portland. The Beavers have left Portland and PGE Park and moved operations to Tucson for the 2011 season as they await a new park to be built in Escondido, CA. Unlike Civic Stadium, PGE Park has been in the midst of a major renovation for the new MLS-franchise.
The past several years, I have taken a trip up to Portland as sort of a "kickoff" for the baseball season and baseball road trips. Occurring usually in early or mid-April, it was such an easy trip to get the excitement of baseball road trips going. Walking around cities, taking trains and public transportation and gearing my mind to watching professional baseball after the bleak months of winter were all honed during those early season trips.
Now that the Beavers are gone and baseball has vanished from the Willamette Valley in the spring, I'm a little perplexed at what to do with myself. Sure, I could make a trip up to Seattle or Tacoma, but that type of trip doesn't have the same effect that Portland did. You don't realize how good of a thing you had until it is gone. Kind of like an empty house. This year started out with the Cactus League, which was awesome in it's own right, but here it is in early/mid-April, and there is no baseball to go see. It is really weird.
The only real, concrete, plan for a baseball road trip is down to Southern California at the end of June. That leaves a few potential weekends for a trip including Easter and Memorial Day. I'm still researching out some possibilities for trips on those dates. I will let all of you know what happens with that.
Always take on a 3-0 pitch ;)
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