Today we were in the Portland area for two games, and first up were the Portland Beavers. The Beavers play their games at PGE Park, a really interesting park that is owned by the city and is built right downtown. It sits a few levels below street level, so it doesn’t quite standout when you drive past it. It opened way back in 1926, and has gone under a major $38 million renovation recently in 2001. The park mixes in a lot of new and old technology—the field is the first synthetic turf field we have come across, but they still use a manual scoreboard to keep track of the score during the game. Thanks to Keri and Katie for helping us out today!

Portland’s PGE park was also the site for one of baseball’s well-known bloopers featuring Rodney McCray chasing down a fly ball and crashing through the wall. Amazingly enough he only suffered some minor scratches, but didn’t end up catching the ball. The section of the outfield in right-center was recently renamed “McCray Alley” in honor of this play. Here is a short clip: