One last ballpark before heading home: PK Park in Eugene, home to both the Eugene Emeralds and the University of Oregon baseball team. Tonight we saw the Emeralds defeat our favorite Northwest League team, the Vancouver Canadians, 2-1 in a brisk ten-inning game. I’ve now been to four of the six ballparks in the league.

Dylan and Leigh and I went to the game and we let Jude stay back at the hotel to read and relax; he’s definitely ready to be home lol. It’s possible this alone time, without having to tour a college campus or go to a minor league baseball game, was his favorite part of the entire trip .

It was Pride Night in Eugene and definitely a fun, festive environment. A pretty nice crowd was on hand, and lots of vendors had tables ringing the concourse: they were providing pride buttons and fanny packs and, I think, tequila tastings. A good number of fans were dressed in their pride night best, so the park was plenty colorful!

We also got to see the Portland Pickles ballpark earlier in the day, although it was very much an unofficial visit; we essentially just snuck into the stadium while the workers were getting ready for a game that evening. We were hoping to buy some Pickles gear but we were there so early that they weren’t even set up to sell merch. So we wandered a bit and then decided to drive down to Eugene instead of sticking around for another day in Portland. We definitely gotta get back for a Pickles game though! On our way out of Portland, we stopped for the requisite Voodoo Donuts too.

Because my student Josh was able to get us tickets (again!), we sat in a section of mostly Vancouver families, including my new friends Greg and Jeff, who are, respectively, the father-in-law and father of Vancouver’s bullpen coach Austin Bibens-Dirkx, who pitched briefly for the Texas Rangers over a long minor league career (his claim to fame? Beating Max Scherzer head-to-head in a 2017 game!). Greg, an Oregon State alum and former high school teacher, really wanted to wear his OSU gear to the game, which was basically on the Oregon Ducks campus. The rest of his family, all Oregon grads, nixed this idea, so Greg instead went with a more neutral Canadians t-shirt.

You could tell that the two friends were having a fun time getting on each other’s case about the big rivalry; it seems pretty clear that Greg has to good-naturedly put up with plenty of guff from his Duck family, but as he pointed out with a smile, the Beavers got the best of the Ducks in the most recent football battle. It was a blast to be able to share this game with such a great family!

Speaking of other sports, Oregon has some great facilities. PK park is right next door to Autzen Stadium, where the football team plays. The next day as we toured around the Oregon campus, I was sure that we were looking at the other side of Autzen but it was actually Hayward Field, a world-class track and field facility. It’s THAT impressive, that you can pretty easily confuse it for a big-time football stadium.

It sounds like the Emeralds are looking to build a new ballpark at some point down the road so that they don’t have to share with the Ducks college team, but this is a really nice stadium with lots to offer. As for the game, the normally big-hitting Canadian bats were mostly quiet in this one. Emeralds reliever Ben Madison (2018 9th round pick of the Giants) got the win after striking out six over the final three innings. Madison is somehow 8-1 this season without having started a game. I have no idea how that’s possible. The Emeralds ended the game by celebrating a 2-1 walk-off win and we got ready to head back home.