Monday, June 6, 2016

Catching Up with the Eugene Emeralds

Last summer I went on an incredible baseball trip. Yes, I know, now I'm just bragging. I hit 2 Cub games (one road, one home) and home games for the four highest minor league Cubs affiliates. But the furthest west I went was to see the AAA Iowa Cubs in Des Moines, Iowa.

Well, 1800+ miles west of that is the Class A short season Eugene Emeralds in Eugene, Oregon. Considering my 6 games in 6 days road trip was less than 45 hours of driving, tacking on an extra 54 hours roundtrip just wasn't in the itinerary.


The Emeralds joined the South Bend Cubs and Myrtle Beach Pelicans as first time Cubs affiliates for the 2015 season. Actually, that's not entirely true. Prior to being the San Diego Padres affiliate from 2001-2014, the Emeralds did spend 1999-2000 in the Cubs organization.

There's no obvious Cubs connection with the Emeralds logos as the team recently redesigned them prior to the affiliation change. I probably wouldn't have wanted to spend a whole bunch of money again for a short season team after recently making changes either. Despite that, I do kind of like them. The Sasquatch theme matches what I think of when I think of Pacific Northwest.

 
Around the same time I was posting the details of my trip last summer, Zenus from over at The Prowling Cat was bragging about witnessing a no-hitter at PK Park, home of the Emeralds. I left a comment about how jealous and I was and he followed up with an email offering me a couple of souvenirs he had picked up.

 
Again, with the Pacific Northwest theme, Field Guide is a clever title for the team's programs.
The programs courtesy of Zenus feature some of the players that are on the Wroad to Wrigley. I did eventually pick up the 2015 team set from the team store so that will be featured on an actual Wroad to Wrigley Post soon. Covering 5-8 days apiece, they seem to be updated each homestand.


A quick glance at the magnet schedule that was also included confirm that suspicion. The emeralds were indeed playing home games on the dates listed on the programs. As you can also see on the schedule, the short season runs from mid-June to early September. Which means the 2016 season is right around the corner! With extended Spring Training about to break and the MLB draft coming up quickly, that makes sense.
 
Thanks Zenus for the souvenirs! And I'll take a look at the Emeralds team set next Wednesday after the South Bend Cubs this week.

3 comments:

  1. As far as minor league teams go, it might just be my Cubs bias talking, but that Sasquatch imagery makes for some of the best team logos in the sport!

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    Replies
    1. I know, right? No Cubbie red, white and blue or a bear anywhere in sight but still pretty cool.

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  2. We are hitting three games late this month, and the July 3rd game a few weeks later. If you're interested I can send you more Emeralds stuff in July again.

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