Originally posted on Yahoo! sports on July 15th, 2002.

Portland considers Major League Baseball team
By Jake Schubert OSU Daily Barometer

(U-WIRE) CORVALLIS, Ore. -- With the recent success of the Seattle Mariners, the Pacific Northwest has fallen in love with baseball.

The Northwest has a chance to get a second Major League Baseball franchise, which would play in Portland.

"It is not illogical that Portland could host a Major League franchise next year," said Dr. G. Lynn Lashbrook.

Dr. Lashbrook came to Portland six years ago from Kansas City.

While working to save Civic Stadium, now known as PGE Park, and after realizing that Portland is bigger than Kansas City, he began researching and bringing in outside consultants.

The process developed into a full-fledged campaign to bring Major League Baseball to Oregon.

The idea originally started with the Portland Baseball Group.

Dr. Lashbrook didn't particularly care for the way the Portland Baseball Group was dealing with stadium issues, so at that point he started the Oregon Baseball Campaign.

He started the Oregon Baseball Campaign to be more of a statewide referendum, rather than just a Portland issue.

Currently, Portland and the Oregon Baseball Campaign are targeting a number of Major League teams for relocation to the city of Portland.

These teams include the Montreal Expos, Florida Marlins and the Oakland A's to name a few.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig recently said, "There's no doubt in my mind that relocation is coming ... much, much soon than later."

Corey Bush, a relocation specialist from Major League Baseball, has been sent to Portland on four separate occasions to access Portland as a possibility for relocation.

Portland is currently the largest city in the country with only one professional sports franchise.

It has been said that with the exception of April and May, Portland has the best baseball weather in the country.

For a number of years Dr. Lashbrook has been teaching an Intro to Sports Management class at Oregon State University.

For more information about bringing baseball to Portland see oregonbaseballcampaign.com.



© 2002 OSU Daily Barometer via U-WIRE