Dog World Redux

I've added a segment about Multnomah Stadium to my baseball history. I'll probably use this photo in the book.

The Beavers played here from 1956 onward, after the sale and razing of Vaughn Street Park.

This picture was taken in 1926 as the Multnomah Athletic Club expanded its original (1893) sports field on land leased in the Tanner Creek Gulch neighborhood adjacent to Goose Hollow.  This was a huge, privately funded project.  It brought the seating capacity high enough to make major-college football an annual event in Portland for decades.

The Oregon Ducks (Webfoots) and Washington Huskies clashed here often.

In 1931, the Oregon Legislature legalized parimutuel betting in Oregon and the Multnomah Kennel Club started a regular program of greyhound racing at the stadium, which lasted until the Beavers moved in and the dog racing moved to Portland Meadows.

Multnomah Stadium became Civic Stadium when the city of Portland purchased it in 1966 for 2 million smackaroos.  In order, it has subsequently been renamed, in the indiscreet art of corporate advertising, PGE Park, Jeld-Wen Field, and Providence Park.

Here is what has happened.  PGE was purchased by Enron and ripped off many Portland retirees.  Jeld-Wen is in bankruptcy.  Providence is a major HMO that rips off health consumers, which begs the question: How do you like it that your health is a commodity?

Tonight, the Portland Timbers are warming up in the stadium for their futbol match with Vancouver.  I can hear the 20K-plus futbol-crazed crowd, already chanting.

Portland remains a minor-league town, despite what is sold.

The Timbers wear the name "Alaska Airlines" on their jerseys, like that'll make them as good as a Euro team--or in some of our eyes, a joke.

For more on the history of, er, Providence Park, read this.  Be sure to read up on the time Elvis performed there.  It's quite rock 'n'roll.


TS