Eugene EMS Baseball Leaving Historic Civic Stadium

For the past 30 years players and families of Pleasant Hill Babe Ruth Baseball and other youth baseball teams of the Eugene Springfield have had a good friend in the Eugene Emeralds.  During the baseball season the Ems have held clinics and special events for the boys and girls in Babe Ruth, Kidsports, Little League, YMCA and other Oregon boys and girls involved in youth baseball.

With the start of the 2010 Northwest League season the Emeralds will be leaving Eugene’s historic Civic Stadium built in 1938. This stadium a bit rustic now but full of memories for many Oregonians has been the home of the Eugene Ems for the past 30 years.

The good news is that the team will still be the Eugene Emeralds as they will be making their home at the brand new PK Park stadium. The Ems have signed a 20 year lease to use the new University of Oregon baseball stadium during their annual 3 month  league season.

Now the news is not all good. Unless the city of Eugene and the University of Oregon is able to raise between 2 and 3 million dollars to make additions that meet minor league requirements including a locker room and manager’s office for the visiting team and an umpires’ locker room along with other improvements that include a walkway from the locker room to the field, two additional concession stands and a training room for the Emeralds the lease will be broken after a couple of years.

2009 Brought the Eugene area and the University of Oregon the return of Ducks Baseball. Not far away in Corvallis is the home of our Civil War rival the Oregon State University Beavers. It is my bet that even in these difficult times the money will be raised for the additions and improvements at PK Park. By the way if you are looking to donate keep the Pleasant Hill Babe Ruth kids on your short list. Pleasant Hill has a wonderful program for kids baseball. We have great family support, our kids love the game but we can certainly use financial help to make the program even better and available to more area youth.

Many youth that started out playing Babe Ruth Baseball have and will go on to play baseball not only for their high schools but also for teams such as the Ducks and Beavers. Don’t be surprised when you see some of them playing for semi pro teams such as the Emeralds and some making it all the way to the big leagues.

I guess we might say that kid baseball in Oregon’s beautiful Willamette Valley is blessed. Here so many youth of Babe Ruth Baseball and other kids baseball leagues have an opportunity to play the game from the time they are first introduced to TBall at the age of 4 or 5. By the time they move up through competitive youth baseball of Cal Ripken and Babe Ruth and are old enough to play on the Billies team at Pleasant Hill High School they have 9 or 10 years of youth baseball experience as do the youth from the surrounding areas of Eugene, Springfield, Cottage Grove, Creswell and outlying areas such as Oakridge.