Walker Stadium
Portland, OR
Review by Mike
with Special Correspondent Bart Wilhelm
MIKE: Walker Stadium was built in 1956 on the eastern side of Portland in Lents Park. It wasn’t until the ballpark’s 60th year that it acquired a regular tenant by way of the Portland Pickles of the summer collegiate West Coast League in 2016. Sadly, I wasn’t able to see a Pickles game when I dropped by in May of 2025. The photos you see here are from a Men’s Recreation League game that conveniently allowed me to get inside. Luckily, Ballpark Brothers Special Correspondent Bart Wilhelm has attended a Pickles game and was kind enough to provide this report…
BART: The Portland Pickles have become one of the best fan experiences in the West Coast League. Portland is a large city whose only other major baseball draw are the Hops in the suburb of Hillsboro. The Pickles have spent a lot of resources on marketing the team to the city. Their mascot Dillon the Pickle is very visible throughout the city doing parades, school functions, even birthday parties. The Pickles annually field a competitive team and they won their first league title in 2024.
In 2016, Walker Stadium was renovated for the new Pickles team. Several hundred seats with chair-backs were added along with a new scoreboard, new dugouts, new grass, and a playground. Attendance is always near the top of the league. The game I attended had 3,697 people, and because it was almost a hundred degrees out, it seemed like at least half of those fans were either on the grass berm or sitting in the shade beyond the outfield fence at one of the 50 picnic tables (available for purchase for $99).
The theme of the ballpark is definitely Pickles. Concession stands sell them whole or by the spear. There's also lots of pickle juice available for whiskey picklebacks. Despite the hot day, most of the fans stuck around until the end and were treated to a come from behind walk-off home run that brought the Pickles' record up to 10-0.
MIKE: Thank you, Bart. While much of the stadium may be new build, it retains the feel of a nearly 70-year-old community ballpark. As a stadium, it’s a pretty basic affair, but there is definitely something here, an echo of the excitement of Pickles fans packing this little old stadium on an Oregon summer night. I really need to make a point to get back here during the WCL season catch a game.
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2025
278
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