Talk:Tri-City Dust Devils

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The Dust Devils cannot have been the Rockies' affiliate during the entire time-frame mentioned in the article. Ballparkwatch.com, on its Northwest League History page, indicates this best. Basically, following the second Portland Beavers' abandonment of Portland, the market was so desperate for professional baseball that it was willing to accept a Northwest League team for the first time in almost two decades. The Rockies, at the same time, did find themselves in need of a new Northwest League affiliate, having, if I recall, had a falling-out with the Bend city fathers. As a result, the Bend franchise was either relocated to Portland for the 1995 season, or dissolved, with a new franchise being established in Portland (I could research this to prove which, but would rather leave it, at this point, to an established article-creator. Very simply, I can't afford the fees to start digging through the archives of the Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post sports pages for every day between about August 1994 and June 1995, looking for the confirmatory data.  I know it exists, however, as I read the articles concerning the  Rockies' relocation in their original dead-tree forms). Whichever way holds true, it is unquestionable fact that the Rockies' Northwest League affiliate between 1995 and 2000 was the Portland Rockies, whose cap design consisted of a P and R interlocked atop a rose. The embroidery consisted mainly of the parent club's colours; the background was black, and the embroidery mainly silver-and-purple. The Rockies would still be in Portland had the third AAA franchise to use the Beavers name not claimed the territory from 2001. Ballparkwatch indicates that the Tri-City Dust Devils came into existence for the 2001 season, as well; while this would seem to indicate the same ownership and operations groups, I could swear this wasn't the case. Of course, I also thought I recalled there being a previously existing Tri-City franchise, so it may be that the Tri-City organisation is a continuation of the Portland Rockies. If this is true, though, there should be some information indicating the link, rather than the current suggestion that baseball's been played in Pasco for the past ten seasons. It may also be worth mentioning that the Tri-City franchise marked a shift in the Rockies' approach to their low-A farm clubs. Prior to the establishment of the Tri-City franchise, the Rockies were rather insistent about placing their team name on the short-season squads they fielded (and actually, their not-so-short-season low-A teams as well; the Rockies, when establishing their first California League affiliate, signed an operating agreement with the existing franchise then and now known as the Visalia Oaks, but insisted on re-naming the team the Central Valley Rockies). More research by the next article editor could also turn up the reasoning behind the Rockies being willing to let the short-season squad, for the first time ever, have a team name to itself. Chrysicat 12:41, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

Merging with Portland Rockies
The Portland Rockies page will be merged into the Dust Devils page. The Portland Rockies info was already transferred to the Portland Beavers and History of baseball in Portland, Oregon pages so that the history of the Portland Rockies doesn't get lost with the city of Portland. The Beavers page has more importance than the Portland Rockies page. Silvercoindinerman (talk) 20:33, 19 August 2012 (UTC)