User:Halvorsen brian/Portland Rosebuds (baseball)

The Portland Roses, known also as the Portland Rosebuds, were a Negro league baseball team located in Portland, Oregon for one season (1946). The team was the first all-African American professional baseball team in the state of Oregon. The Roses were members of the West Coast Baseball League, a Negro league which featured franchises in San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, San Diego and Seattle. Jesse Owens, the four-time Olympic gold medal winner, was the owner of the Roses.

Formation
It was announced on January 19, 1946 that Abe Saperstein, the owner of the Harlem Globetrotters, would serve as president of a newly-formed Negro baseball league located on the West Coast of the United States. The league would establish teams in San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle and Portland, Oregon. Jesse Owens, the four-time Olympic gold medal winner, was the owner of the Roses. He also served as the vice-president of the league. The league was set to open in June.

Regular season
Wesley Barrow, who was a long-time Negro league manager, was hired to lead the Portland club. It was announced just before the start of the season that the Roses had signed pitcher Al Jones, first baseman Blue Dunn and infielder Collins Jones. June 4 was set for the Roses' first game, which would take place at Vaughn Street Park against the Los Angeles White Sox. An audience of 1,500 watched the Roses win their first game, 8–3. The game was highlighted by Portland center fielder Sam Wheeler's two doubles. The Oregonian wrote that the club had "played heads-up, entertaining baseball throughout" the game. The Roses starting pitcher was Jones, who got the victory.

Portland and Los Angeles were scheduled to play a second game on June 5, however, due to wet grounds, the game was canceled. The Roses then traveled to Tacoma, Washington. There, the Roses lost their second game of the season by a score of 5–3. The team's battery was Hutchinson and Hardin.