Compared with other big cities, Portland isn’t exactly known for its profusion of sports teams. Yes, we have the Trail Blazers and two big name soccer teams, the Timbers and the Thorns, but we don’t have a football team or a major league baseball team. However, the Rose City does have a surprising history with baseball that most Oregonians are unaware of—the Portland Rosebuds.
In 2021, the Rosebuds became a baseball team as part of the Wild Wild West League, a collegiate summer wooden bat league with four teams all in the Portland area. The games are held at Walker Stadium in the SE neighborhood of Lents, and their emphasis is on a family-friendly and fun experience for the fans. However, though you may have heard of this current iteration of the Rosebuds, the legacy of the team goes back over 75 years into Portland history.
The first Rosebuds baseball team was formed in 1946 as part of an all-Black league and was owned by Jesse Owens. That’s the Jesse Owens of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, who won four gold medals for the U.S. that was a slap in the face of Hitler’s rising Nazi party.
The Rosebuds (commonly called the Portland Roses) were part of the West Coast Negro Baseball Association (WCNBA), an all-Black league that included six teams established by Abe Saperstein who was already famous for founding the Harlem Globetrotters. The league sprang up in the post-war years and was formed in response to the growing demand for jobs in west coast shipyards, and to make a space for Black athletes who were barred from joining other organized leagues. There were other prominent Negro Leagues at this time, but none that reached as far as the west coast.
The Rosebuds home field was Vaughn Street Park that was located on the corner of NW 24th and NW Vaughn St. This was the stadium that the all-white Portland Beavers played in, and the Owens made a deal to use it during their off-season. The stadium sat 12,000, but at the Rosebuds’ first home game against the Los Angeles White Sox (which they won), there were only 1,500 spectators.
Sadly, though the WCNBA had planned a 110 game season, it ground to a halt not even halfway through due to a lack of media coverage, issues with booking stadiums for away games, and less-than-desirable attendance. Owens would even try to draw crowds and build interest by sprinting against actual racehorses on the baseball field in front of fans. Unfortunately, because there was virtually no media coverage on the team back in 1946, we don’t know much about them and can only try to preserve the little we do know.
As you may guess by the general demographics of Oregon, the team today is mostly made up of white guys. However, they’re committed to educating the public about the Rosebuds’ history and aren't about to whitewash its historically important legacy. The new Rosebuds were so named to honor this noble experiment and make sure this fascinating piece of Portland memory stays alive.
