After 23 summers without minor league baseball, Yakima returned to the Northwest League in 1990.[1] The Salem Dodgers moved from Salem after the 1989 season, bringing with them their affiliation with the Los Angeles Dodgers.[2]
The Yakima Bears had been frustrated by the lack of progress on a new stadium that would meet minor league standards, even though a new stadium was built and opened in 1993 to meet similar demands, and a declining local economy.[3] The Triple-APortland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League had departed for Tucson after the 2010 season, so the Portland metropolitan area was without minor league baseball. In 2011, the city of Vancouver, Washington, presented a proposal on May 13 for a new ballpark to be built on the Clark College campus, ready to host the Yakima Bears franchise for the 2012 season.[4]
After that deal fell through, the team received an offer sheet from Hillsboro, a suburb west of Portland, in June 2012 with plans to start play there in a new ballpark in 2013.[5] Four months later on October 16, the team announced its upcoming move to Hillsboro and was renamed the Hillsboro Hops for the 2013 season. The Hops proceeded to win the 2014 and 2015 Northwest League championships.
Yakima entered the WIL in 1937 as the Yakima Pippins,[6] reflecting the local area's apple-growing heritage, lasting until the 1941 season due to World War II. In 1946, as the WIL resumed play, Yakima again fielded a team, this time named the Yakima Stars, with their own team airplane.[7] Renaming themselves the Yakima Packers for the 1948 season,[8] the team finally settled on the Yakima Bears in 1949, lasting through the reformation of the WIL into the Northwest League, as the Bears became a charter member of the seven-team Class B NWL in the 1955 season.[9] The team played at Parker Field, constructed in 1937 for the Pippins.[10][11]
The Bears' time in the early years of the NWL were fruitful, as they won six league titles in nine years (1956,[12] 1958,[13] 1959,[14][15] 1960,[16] 1963,[17] and 1964[18]). A fire in March 1962 destroyed the wooden grandstand at Parker Field,[19][20] which was quickly rebuilt.[21] In April 1964, the team was renamed the Yakima Braves,[22] due to an agreement with the Milwaukee Braves, their parent club since 1958. The team played as the Braves for three seasons, through 1966.[10][23]
The 1966 season was the first for the NWL as a short season league.[24]
Ballparks
The Bears played at Yakima County Stadium. The park still is in use today, located at 1220 Pacific Avenue, Yakima, Washington.[25] The stadium remains in use today and is the current home of the Yakima Pippins of the West Coast League. Prior to 1993 the Bears played at Parker Field, located at 1000 S. 12th Avenue.[26]
