Hillsboro Hops
Dad and I drive west of Portland to Ron Tonkin Field in Hillsboro, Oregon, home of the Hillsboro Hops, the High-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks. We get a tour of the park, meet Hillsboro Mayor Steve Callaway, and get more Star Wars and more fireworks.
Dad and I pulled up to the entrance at Ron Tonkin Field, which features a large sculpture in its front plaza called Barometer. The stainless-steel structure depicts a baseball diamond — with figures of balls, bats, and other equipment — held aloft by three yellow pillars, with a handful of instruments collected at its base. It does indeed act as a barometer of sorts, measuring the atmosphere at the ballpark by lighting up in a colorful display that glows brighter as the crowd gets louder.
Ron Tonkin Field was built in 2013 for the arrival of the Hillsboro Hops, an Arizona Diamondbacks affiliate relocating from Yakima, Washington. But professional baseball in the Portland area has a much longer tradition, beginning with the Portland Webfeet, a Minor League affiliate from 1890-1892. The Portland Gladiators and Green Gages also played around the turn of the 20th century. But Portland baseball history is dominated by the Portland Beavers, a founding member in 1903 of the Pacific Coast League. The Beavers played off and on in the PCL through 2010, affiliated with 12 different Major League teams.
In 2010, the Beavers moved to Tucson, leaving a gap in the Portland area that was filled when the Yakima Bears of the Class-A Northwest League moved to Hillsboro in 2013 and rebranded as the Hops. Now playing at the High-A level, the Hops have been affiliated with the Diamondbacks since their inception and have won three Northwest League championships (2014, 2015, and 2019).
I met up with Seth Hoiland, who would be broadcasting the game on radio for the Hops that night, for a quick tour of the ballpark. He took me up to the broadcast booth and gave me a sense of some of the changes that would be coming soon for the home of the Hops.
Ron Tonkin Field cost $15.5 million to construct less than a decade before our visit. But it still does not meet Major League Baseball’s newly notched-up standards for its Minor League affiliates, even as the newest ballpark in the Northwest League. Hoiland said the team was expecting to replace the ballpark versus expanding the existing facility. Sure enough, early in 2023, the Hops and the City of Hillsboro announced a project to build an all-new ballpark in the same general location by 2025, expanding seating to 6,000 for baseball and 7,000 as a multi-event outdoor venue. Bigger suites plus better clubhouses and training facilities will come with the deal. That bill is estimated to be $120 million.
The current ballpark has a capacity of 4,500, with 3,534 seats. The Hops averaged 2,320 per game in 2022, third-best in the Northwest League. But on a beautiful Friday night with a Star Wars and fireworks promotion, the team expected a sellout. “Right now, we only have berm seating in the outfield, which is all GA (General Admission) tickets,” Hoiland said. “We can fit 1,500 into the GA berm, and we’ve sold probably 1,000 for today. It’s going to be our biggest crowd of the year — it’s not even close.”
My tour complete, I stepped up onto the concourse and ran into two icons of “The Tonk,” mascot Barley T. Hop and super-fan The Hippidy Hops Guy (Christian Trout), who can be found on most nights with his wife near the home dugout on the first-base side, festooned with Hops gear and paraphernalia.
On the first-base side, I found a part of the Hops team store focused on shirts; the team’s mother lode of stylish hats is sold in a separate shop below the stands.
It was Star Wars Night at The Tonk, our third such night in six games. This was easily the most impressive, with a very large cast of characters roaming the ballpark.
The Vancouver Canadians were in town for the game. The Canadians were very familiar with Ron Tonkin Field, having shared the ballpark with the Hops in 2021 while the Canadian border remained closed due to COVID-19.
Both teams had finished a little below .500 in the first half of 2022, won by the Eugene Emeralds. But the slate was clean for the second half as the game began.
The teams exchanged lineups under the supervision of Darth Vader and a squad of Stormtroopers. The National Anthem was then sung while a full complement of Dark Side forces looked on.
Hillsboro started Scott Randall, a seventh-round pick in the 2021 draft from Sacramento State. He rolled through the first three innings without giving up a hit or walk.
Vancouver went with Tariq “Ricky” Tiedemann, a third-round pick in the 2021 draft from Golden West Junior College. He had started the year in Single-A Dunedin in the Florida State League, and after eight games with the Canadians, he would be promoted to the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats. He began his night with four scoreless innings.
It was time to explore our options for dinner. Hillsboro has an extensive selection of ballpark food, with an excellent variety of hot dogs, sausages, burgers, and barbecue. The club works to bring local food vendors into the ballpark as well. The soft tacos at Tacos de Asada garnered the most attention, but I went with the Hops Change Up food stand, which cooks up unique items that rotate in and out on a regular basis. There I found a Star Wars-themed “Bo-Katan Beef Bulgolgi,” which was very good. Dad, who is more of a hot dog traditionalist, called his foot-long dog “Hall of Fame.”
In the third inning, I received a message from a surprising source — the mayor of Hillsboro, Steve Callaway. A huge Hops supporter, Callaway had heard about our trip and was at the game. He asked where we were seated, and a short while later, came by to chat with us about our travels. The mayor gave each of us city pins as a parting gift.
Determined to come away from the ballpark with another souvenir, I headed to the team store downstairs and admired the outstanding Hops headwear options. I came away with the primary object of my affection, a batting practice hat featuring Barley at the bat.
Hillsboro managed to push a run across the plate in the fourth, and both teams scored small-ball runs in the fifth. The Hops led it 2-1 after five.
I took a stroll around the outfield fence, beginning with the tiny grass berm in right field, where fans were splayed out on blankets enjoying the game.
The Hops bullpen abutted a bouncy house in the outfield kids play area. Gerald Ogando, a right-hander from the Dominican Republic, was there getting ready for his seventh-inning appearance.
Many more fans had set up camp on the larger left-field berm, getting relief from the sun in the late innings. The official attendance figure was 4,504 — four fans over capacity.
Ogando entered the fray, his team still leading 2-1. It would be the worst inning of his 19 appearances with the Hops in 2022. After getting the first two Canadians hitters to ground out, Ogando gave up a single, a double, a stolen base, and a walk, followed by a towering two-run double off the center-field wall by Vancouver shortstop Addison Barger. The Canadians led it 4-2.
Vancouver center fielder Garrett Spain hit a homer to right (below) in the eighth to pad the Canadians lead to 5-2.
The Hops scored one in the bottom of the ninth, bringing Hillsboro third baseman A.J. Vukovich to the plate as the potential winning run with two runners aboard. A fourth-round pick in 2020, Vukovich was the highest-rated prospect on the Hops squad that night, and #8 overall in the Diamondbacks organization. He would hit .274 with 15 home runs in Hillsboro before a late-season promotion to the Double-A Amarillo Sod Poodles.
The sellout crowd grew louder, anticipating some on-field pyrotechnics to precede the post-game fireworks show. But Vukovich could only muster a weak fly ball to center field off Canadians closer Will McAffer, and the rally fell short. The visitors took the game 5-3.
Afterwards, the crowd was treated to an accidentally spectacular fireworks show. It began with Star Wars music playing for several minutes without a single flare fired, followed by a frantic rush of fireworks shooting off in short succession. It was a thoroughly entertaining way to end another big night of Northwest baseball.
