Portland's Almost Certainly Not Going to Get an MLB
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It’s time to bump up the likelihood that Portland will be home to a Major League Baseball team in the future from .0001 percent to .001 percent. Things are looking up!

“Portland would be on a list” said MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred on Wednesday at a press conference in Seattle, answering questions about potential cities that could get a franchise if the league somehow decided to expand from 30 to 32 teams. “Yeah, I think Portland’s a possibility. We would need, if we were going to go to 32, we’d need a western time zone team. We’d need at least one more.”

KGW is excited about this.

But, like when there’s any speculation about a professional sports franchise coming to a city, it’s important to take it with a very large grain of salt. Portland’s name only came up because a Seattle-based reporter specifically mentioned Portland—”our neighbors to the south, would Portland be on the short list?”—and Manfred didn’t initiate the city’s mention himself.

The way Manfred responded, it’s very likely the commissioner would have said the same thing about any west coast city. Say, for example, If I asked Manfred “our neighbors to the south, would Klamath Falls be on the short list?” It’s entirely likely that he’d respond “Klamath Falls would be on a list,” in that it’s city that also exists in the Pacific Time Zone.

But, still, it’s fun to dream, I guess.

3 replies on “Portland’s Almost Certainly Not Getting an MLB Team, But Let’s Speculate Anyway”

  1. Take it from a Washington, DC, native: Portland is just the latest scam that the MLB is trying to run on various cities around the country who are refusing to play along with various stadium plans. Every time a municipality would balk at the cost of either refurbishing an existing facility or building a new one from scratch, the DC sports news reporters would be fed stories about “Baseball’s imminent return to our Nation’s Capital!” Didn’t happen until Montreal gave MLB a hard no, and just like that, the Expos migrated South and became the Nationals.

    So, don’t hold your breath. Just jump on the Bolt bus and head up to the Emerald City to watch the Mariners.

  2. Portland absolutely does not need MLB. I used to go to Beavers/Rockies games as a kid, and the stands were never more than 1/4 full. It would be a boondoggle for the owners, and a money pit for the city, just like every giveaway stadium deal for a major sports franchise.

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