The Portland Beavers was the name of separate minor league baseball teams, which represented Portland, Oregon, in the Pacific Coast League (PCL). The team was established in 1903, the first year of the PCL.
Franchise history
Many baseball teams have been known as the Portland Beavers; the most recent club, which began operating in 2001, recognized the history of all previous incarnations as its own, stating it was established in 1903, the same year the Pacific Coast League was established. The "Beavers" originated in 1906 following a newspaper contest to rename the existing Portland team that had been created in 1901 when a group of Portland businessmen founded the Portland Baseball Club.
Along with the Los Angeles Angels, Oakland Oaks, Sacramento Solons, San Francisco Seals, and Seattle Rainiers, a Portland Beavers club was a charter member of the Pacific Coast League in 1903. Portland and Sacramento were the only two charter cities that had a team in the PCL as of 2010, the other cities having been taken over by Major League Baseball franchises.
Following the 2010 season, the Beavers were placed for sale and relocation because of the lack of a suitable stadium in Portland, as PGE Park was being remodeled into a soccer-only configuration for Major League Soccer's 2011 expansion Portland Timbers. In 2010, the Beavers were sold to Jeff Moorad, owner of the San Diego Padres. The team temporarily moved to southern Arizona and became the Tucson Padres while awaiting a new purpose-built stadium in their planned future home of Escondido, California. After the 2013 season, the Padres instead moved to El Paso, Texas and became the El Paso Chihuahuas.
Establishment of a Portland team: 1903–1918
On December 10, 1902, Henry Harris, the owner of the California League's San Francisco team announced that the Pacific Northwest League team from Portland, the Portland Webfoots, and a new team from Seattle were joining with the California League to create the Pacific Coast League (PCL). Before the Portland franchise joined the PCL, the president of the Pacific Northwest League, Henry Lucas, was adamant in keeping the Portland franchise in his league. A team in the Pacific Northwest League was formed called the Portland Green Gages, which folded early in its first season. When the Portland PCL team first started playing, they were known as the Portland Browns. In their first season, classified as an independent league, the PCL featured six teams including the Browns. The Browns finished their first season fifth in the PCL. During the 1904 season, the Browns finished with a record of 79–136. The 136 losses still stands as a record in the PCL for most losses by a team in a single season. Other records for that season include the most errors in a season (669), and the lowest single-season team fielding percentage (.929).
Before the 1905 season, professional baseball player Walter McCredie and former Republican U.S. House member from Washington Judge William Wallace McCredie purchased the Portland franchise. The team was then renamed the Portland Giants and Walter McCredie was named the player-manager of the team. During the 1905 season, the PCL was re-classified as a Class-A league in minor league baseball. In 1906, the team was renamed the Portland Beavers after a newspaper contest was started to decide the new name of the team. That season, the Portland team won its first pennant in the PCL. Beavers player Mike Mitchell led the PCL in home runs with six, the fewest ever to lead the PCL. Mitchell also led the league in batting average. The 1906 Beavers were recognized as one of the 100 greatest minor league teams of all time.
The Beavers finished last in 1907, and second in 1908 and 1909. In 1910, Portland won another pennant behind the pitching of Vean Gregg and Gene Krapp. Gregg finished the season with a 32–18 record and 14 shutouts while Krapp had a 29–16 record for the season. Portland repeated as PCL champs in 1911 fielding four 20-game-winning pitchers. In 1912, Judge McCredie helped get a new 12,000-seat grandstand built at Vaughn Street Park. His obituary later read that the ballpark was "the sensation of baseball, because it inaugurated a minor league precedent of providing individual grandstand seats, which fellow magnates called an extravagance and a dangerous innovation." The NAPBL made a change to league classifications in 1912, making Double-A the top tier. The PCL, and the Portland Beavers, moved into this new classification from the previous top tier Class A league.