Although Portland is home to a professional basketball and soccer team, this Oregon metropolis was missing summers at the ballpark. That was until 2015, when the community got a taste, a pickle-y taste for baseball.
- Team: Portland Pickles
- League: Great West League, collegiate woodbat
- Park: Walker Stadium, located in the Lents Neighborhood of Portland
Food at the stadium- If you are feeling adventurous and don’t mind pickles, then Walker Stadium has a few options for you! By far the weirdest creation is the Portland Pickle donut, which was created by no other than Voodoo Doughnut. The crazy concoction is a savory mix of peanut butter, pickles, and sriracha. However, the Voodoo truck is only available at certain games throughout the season. You can check the status of the truck on Voodoo’s Instagram.
The park also sells pickles on a stick and pizza with pickles (and people thought pineapple on pizza was weird.) But, don’t worry non-pickle people! You can still find all of the ballpark basics, sans the preserved cucumbers.
Because of Portland’s brewery scene, Walker Stadium also offers a good selection of local beers.
Getting to the field- This is a community park, so the parking lot is small. We had to find street parking, which luckily there was quite a bit of.
The mascot- Dillon, is a bill dill…well yes, he is. But, he is also a big deal. Dillon dolls are known to make their way all around the country (and world) for photo opportunities at other fields. I didn’t get a chance to meet him, but he looks like my kind of dude; tall, dark and delicious.
Seating– In addition to the assigned bleachers and seats, Walker Stadium also has two large berms (grass areas). Each berm, which sits at the end of the right field and left field baselines, is first come first serve seating.
Speaking of…
You should know- The evening we were there, they gave away bobble heads. Dillon, the mascot (see above), was the muse. However, he wasn’t alone. He was holding a chair in the air. This, as we came to find out, is the story behind raising the chairs- “In 2016 pitcher Max Compton was hanging out in the bullpen. After the Pickles scored a run and ‘We like to Party!’ started playing, he decided to raise up his chair and start dancing for some reason. He says it was purely spontaneous, but it soon spread throughout the bullpen and then to the dugout.” Following this spontaneous burst of energy, fans started to bring in cardboard cut outs of chairs, thrust them into the air when the Pickles scored, and thus a tradition was born.
The Sports Passport 