Vintage Oregon Shirts: Defunct Oregon Baseball Teams

Oregon's minor league history runs from the deadball era to the 1970s, and most of it was played in towns that had a club for a season or two and never forgot it. In 1903 Portland's Greengages opened at National Park in East Portland after a parade with a band and tally-hos, only to be moved to Salt Lake City on July 1. The next spring Salem, Eugene and Roseburg formed the Class D Oregon State League with Vancouver, Washington, and the circuit lasted until July 6, when four-game weekly series proved more than small-town gates could carry. La Grande tried again in the Western Tri-State League in 1913, and after World War II the Class D Far West League brought Eugene, Medford and Klamath Falls into a circuit that stretched into California and Nevada.

The names came from the people who paid to watch. The ladies of Roseburg named the Shamrocks days before the 1904 opener, Salem's club likely took its name from the brown raglan overcoats the players wore in the parade, and Klamath Falls chose Gems, a play on the Netted Gem potato, after its contest winner turned out to be taken. A carpenter named the Eugene Larks for the western meadowlark, the state bird, weeks before Medford briefly tried the same name, and a Prineville couple named the Bend Rainbows in 1970 for the rainbow trout of local waters and the club's Hawaii parent. Gus Triandos hit .347 for the 1950 Klamath Falls pennant winners, and Klamath Falls' wooden Gem Stadium still stands as Kiger Stadium. Our vintage Oregon shirts honor these defunct clubs with original designs grounded in real research.

Every team below links to its own collection, where you can read the full history and shop shirts, hoodies, and crewnecks for that club. Find your hometown team, or the one your grandfather used to talk about.