I’ve never considered buying a baseball cap or shirt from a team not associated with the Mets until now. The Yakima Bears will relocate and become the Hillsboro Hops, who nail it with the name. Oregon is the second biggest hop producing state in the country and hop, as in short hop or bad hop, is a common baseball word as well.
That’s the Oregon mountain, Mt. Hood, above the Hill in Hillsboro, which coincidentally is also the name of a hop grown in the region. I can’t wait to see what the mascot looks like, who very easily could be named Hood.
Because it’s single-A baseball, they presumably will have some silly in-game entertainment. Maybe a mascot race between hops, barley, water and yeast that ends in a collision…and a beer?
The new park hasn’t been named yet, but supposedly there are no breweries currently in the running. That’s disappointing, because having the Hillsboro Hops play at Deschutes Field would double down on awesome.