Salem Angels

History

Before the Senators, Salem had the Raglans, who played in the Class D Oregon State League for just the 1904 season. That year, the league folded mid-season, and the Raglans claimed the championship with a 27–13 record, finishing 5.5 games ahead of the second-place Eugene Blues. Their home field was the Capital Amateur Athletic Club (C.A.A.C.) Park, located on the north side of Asylum Avenue, now Center Street NE, near what was then the Asylum and is now the Oregon State Hospital.

Professional baseball returned to Salem on May 1, 1940, when the first Senators game was played at the new Waters Field, a 5,000-seat ballpark built for $60,000 by George E. Waters. He had purchased the Class B Bellingham Chinooks franchise from the Western International League and moved it from Washington.

The opening game against the Yakima Pippins drew 4,865 fans, the largest sports crowd Salem had ever seen. Waters died after that season, and in 1942 his widow sold the team to the Portland Beavers, who used it as a farm club. That same year, player and business manager Al Lightner tried to sign a convicted murderer from the Oregon State Penitentiary to pitch, but Minor League Baseball threatened to ban him if the convict played.

The team went on hiatus from 1943 to 1945 due to World War II. After the war, attorney Don Young helped raise $50,000 to buy the team and stadium from the Beavers in 1951. In 1961, the team became a farm club for the Los Angeles Dodgers and was renamed the Dodgers. Future major league managers Bobby Cox and Jim Lefebvre played for the Salem Dodgers.

The team stopped operations in 1966, still a Class B club. On November 11, 1966, the already-condemned, mostly wooden Waters Field burned down. A U.S. Post Office and its parking lot now sit on the site.

Did You Know?

• The Salem Angels won the Northwest League championship in their very first season, 1982, despite a regular-season record of just 34–36.
• Joe Maddon, who managed the Salem Angels in 1982 and 1983, later managed the Chicago Cubs to a World Series championship in 2016.
• Future MLB All-Star Dante Bichette played for the Salem Angels in 1984, hitting his way to a long career with the Angels and Colorado Rockies.
• Chuck Finley, a 5-time MLB All-Star as a starting pitcher, began his professional career as a relief pitcher for the 1985 Salem Angels.
• The Salem Angels' home games were played at Holland Youth Park and then Chemeketa Community College.