Portland Rosebuds Win Wild Wild West League CHAMPIONSHIP IN first season since 1946

In a wild underdog story, the Portland Rosebuds secured the hardware in their very first season, defeating the Willamette WIld Bills 6-4 at Walker Stadium last night. The scrappy Rosebuds, being the #3 seed entering the playoffs, took down the Portland Gherkins on Saturday night, followed by an impressive team performance Sunday. Full stats here.

The Rosebuds were introduced this season as the 3rd member of the Wild Wild West League, which is composed of 4 teams (The Portland RoseBuds, Willamette WIld Bills, Portland Gherkins and Gresham Greywolves) all operated by the Portland Pickles Organization. The Rosebuds were inspired by the Negro league team of the same name that played a season at Vaughn Street Park Portland in 1946. The Portland Rosebuds are an often overlooked, but important part of Portland’s baseball history, now completing their first season back as a franchise and winning it all.

Last night's contest concluded the Wild Wild West League, which in its second year in existence and a birth child of the COVID-19 Pandemic, continued to break ground as a league that promoted fan experience and technologies. 

PickleBot, which served as the league's umpire, called balls and strikes the entire year. Fans and players alike were able to anticipate and hear the balls and strikes together over the PA system. PickleBot wasn't just over the speaker, a physical model was at every game as well.

The Wild Wheel also was used during the season, which was filled out with 10-15 different exciting rules that were a mixture of fun and situational rules that may forever change the game. The rules that were spun were applied to both teams for the duration of the innings. Rules included “Every Count starts 2-1” and “If a player catches a fly ball barehanded or with their hat, it counts as 2 outs”. Over 20 rules were interchanged throughout the season.

The Wild West League plans to return in 2022.