Portland Awarded 2009 AAA All-Star Game
By Maury Brown
The Biz of Baseball

The Portland Beavers, PGE Park and the city of Portland will play host to the 2009 Triple-A All-Star Game and its surrounding events, it was announced today in a special news conference at PGE Park in downtown Portland. The multiple-day event will take place in July 2009 and feature elements that showcase the city of Portland and the entire state of Oregon on a national stage.

(Look for an interview with Portland Beavers owner Merritt Paulson tomorrow on The Biz of Baseball)

The Triple-A All-Star Game, which will be celebrating its 22nd year in 2009, features the top players from Minor League Baseball’s top two leagues – the Pacific Coast League and International League – in a head-to-head contest that is annually broadcast to a national television audience on ESPN2. In recent years, the game has evolved from a one-day competition into a week-long, city-wide celebration. Additional events planned surrounding the 2009 Triple-A All-Star Game in Portland include a home run derby and skills competition, All-Star Fan Fest and autograph sessions, All-Star Gala, All-Star Luncheon and several other events to mark the historic event.

“The 2009 Triple-A All-Star Game will be a national showcase for the city of Portland, our rich baseball tradition and our outstanding fans,” said Merritt Paulson, owner and president of the Beavers. “We are honored to be selected by Triple-A Baseball as the host city, and we are thrilled at the opportunity to showcase Portland and our wonderful ballpark during this prestigious event.”

Today’s announcement marks the first time the combined Triple-A All-Star Game has been awarded to Portland. The city played host to Pacific Coast League All-Star Games in 1945, 1956 and 1962 previously.

"It is an honor that Portland and PGE Park have been chosen to host an event of this magnitude," said Portland Mayor Tom Potter. "This is a wonderful opportunity for the City of Portland, as the all-star game will be played in front of a national television audience and will undoubtedly bring great benefit to our community for some time into the future."

Since its introduction in 1988, the Triple-A All-Star Game has attracted more than 250,000 fans to a host of premier cities and ballparks. The 2007 game was played in Albuquerque, N.M., as the International League defeated the Pacific Coast League 7-5 in a spirited game that drew 12,367 fans to Isotopes Park and thousands more to an impressive variety of city-inspired events. The annual game, which rotates PCL and IL host cities each year, will be played in Louisville, Ky., in 2008. Recent games have been held in Toledo (2006), Sacramento (2005), Pawtucket (2004), Memphis (2003), Oklahoma City (2002) and Indianapolis (2001).

“In choosing Portland, the Beavers and PGE Park for hosting the Triple-A All-Star Game, the Pacific Coast League and the International League continue a tradition of showcasing our classification, our best markets and our premier facilities,” said Branch B. Rickey III, president of the Pacific Coast League. “Given the widely known, successful turnaround by the Beavers, both leagues see the 2009 game as an expected shining example of the continued growth of our most glamorous Triple-A game.”

The original Triple-A All-Star format featured a game in which players from National League organizations played against those from American League organizations. The game took its current format in 1998, now pitting players from the Pacific Coast League against players from the International League in the midseason contest for Triple-A bragging rights. All 30 organizations that comprise Major League Baseball are annually represented in the game.

Major league stars who have played in past Triple-A All-Star Games include Derek Jeter, Pedro Martinez, Chipper Jones, Jim Thome, Todd Helton, Kenny Lofton, Alfonso Soriano, Mike Piazza, Garret Anderson, Bernie Williams and Brian Giles.

---

Maury Brown is the founder and president of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football and The Biz of Basketball (The Biz of Hockey will be launching shortly). He is also a contributor to Baseball Prospectus.

He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted here.

quote:

The 2007 game was played in Albuquerque, N.M., as the International League defeated the Pacific Coast League 7-5 in a spirited game that drew 12,367 fans to Isotopes Park and thousands more to an impressive variety of city-inspired events.

Exactly. Twelve thousand three hundred and sixty seven fans? So, basically a press conference for something that is about as relevant as a Thirsty Thursday crowd?

Yes indeed, we have a city of 2.5 million people and this will be about as impactful as a NightRanger concert at the Wooden Chicken.

Merritt Paulson-take a leap and do SOMETHING. This city needs NHL or MLS soon.

I am so excited that I think I will go take a nap.

That's cool. I know when Sac hosted it, the city generated plenty of MLB buzz and baseball buzz in general. Not bad considering he's only been in charge for a few months. Paulson is definitely a step up compared to other ownership groups we've had in the past.

Now I was hoping to hear a bigger announcement (related to MLS and/or new baseball stadium), but hey, Rome wasn't built in a day.

quote:

Originally posted by Oil Can Kelly:
Yes indeed, we have a city of 2.5 million people and this will be about as impactful as a NightRanger concert at the Wooden Chicken.

Dude.... 1983, Sammy Hagar and Night Ranger rocked the MC... Sweeeeeeet.... ahhhhh, the memories.

The incrdible part of the announcement was not that we are getting the All-Star Game, but that Mayor Potter was there and made a POSITIVE statement about baseball in the city! (Wonder how much coercion it took to get him to bite the bullet and do THAT?) He threw out the first pitch and then left the game early ... Why does that not surprise me?

The only problem - for me, anyway - about hosting the All-Star Game is that such games are a scorekeeper's nightmare. Imagine multiple double, triple, even quadruple switches throughout the game as the managers try to get everyone in the game, with a poor communications system that will leave me having to guess where all the subs are in the batting order ... Oh well, I'm sure I'll sort it all out and still have a great time.

Without trying to be a smart ***, is it a given that "you" will be one of the scorekeeper's?

quote:

Originally posted by BC in Newberg:
The only problem - for me, anyway - about hosting the All-Star Game is that such games are a scorekeeper's nightmare. Imagine multiple double, triple, even quadruple switches throughout the game as the managers try to get everyone in the game, with a poor communications system that will leave me having to guess where all the subs are in the batting order ... Oh well, I'm sure I'll sort it all out and still have a great time.

I have heard announcers (who are trying to score the game) say the same thing.

quote:

Without trying to be a smart ***, is it a given that "you" will be one of the scorekeeper's?

I wouldn't have thought of you as being a "smart**" for asking it - it's a perfectly reasonable question. The answer is "yes", the local official scorer handles the All-Star Games, and as I am the Portland Beavers' primary scorer (I handle about 60-65 of their 72 home games a year), I will be the scorer for the All-Star Game. I do not know if they use additional scorers from other cities for such games or not. I do know that, in the MLB playoffs and World Series, there ARE three scorers for each game, one from the host citym, one from the visiting city, and one from a third city to provide an impartial tiebreaker if needed.

Very cool!

I love how Tom Potter penned a piece in the Oregonian a week or two ago that preached avoiding apathy...Pottah is the poster child for apathy it seems to me, doing nothing having no vision, and basically letting PDX run itself, as if that were possible and/or preferrable...I also love how Potter referred to the AAA MINOR League All Star Game as 'The Games'...did PDX get awarded a special minor league olympics I'm not aware of?