Glencoe Elementary School is situated in the heart of southeast Portland, the perfect location for baseball fans to gather and watch the all American sport. Thanks to the efforts of Bob and Kim Hart, generous local businesses, volunteers from Glencoe and Friends of Baseball (FOB) the baseball diamonds were recently refurbished and prepared for the first season of the Cal Ripken Baseball league.
The Hart’s first experienced Cal Ripken Baseball a few years ago at a U8 CR tournament in Kelso, Washington where their sons were participating. They had come here with a large group of their friends whose children were playing ball. “We were all impressed with the organization and I began looking into the process of bringing it to Portland,” Bob Hart said.
Cal Ripken Baseball is a division of Babe Ruth Baseball. Ripken Baseball was founded in 2001 by the Ripken brothers, Cal and Billy.  Both brothers and their father participated in Major League Baseball, most notably for the Baltimore Orioles. Cal Ripken Baseball League has a reputation for being a highly competitive league by design, offering more opportunity for post season tournament play as well as insurance coverage that enables teams to play in open tournaments.
Hart said the reason he chose Glencoe field was that it had all the qualities we were hoping to find. There’s two backstops, bleachers on one field, access for renovations, and centrally located for our baseball families. “For many of our Dads, having our sons play at Glencoe field was a sentimental bonus for we have fond memories of playing baseball there as youths,” Hart said.
As the project unfolded Hart said they were thrilled with the relationship that developed with Glencoe, their “adopted school”. The Glencoe staff and families were wonderful and during the process a good partnership developed.
Several local companies donated their equipment and services to the field project. “Without their generous resources coupled with the amazing volunteer efforts, we could not have afforded the level of renovation nor completed the project in the time frame needed for this inaugural season,” Hart said. Some of the volunteers included: Fortis Construction, Johnson Creek Rentals, Clackamas Compost, Friends of Baseball, Liberty Metal Fab, Sunbelt Rentals, Start Rentals, Heiberg Garbage & Recycling.
Additionally, at the Opening Day Ceremony, Friends of Baseball founder, Keenan Longcor, gave nine sets of new catchers gear to the league. Also Robbie Trebelhorn, Academy Baseball,spends countless hours working on the fields, umpiring games and overseeing the program as Director of Baseball/Player Agent.
Portland Cal Ripken has the field leased seven days a week for the baseball season which goes from March to Mid-June. We hope to offer a Fallball program as well at Glencoe sometime in the future. All games are open and welcome to the public. The Minors ( ages 9-10) play games at Glencoe on Wednesday evenings and home games on Saturdays. Rookie games are played Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and Development league on Wednesday evenings and Sunday afternoons. Majors games (ages 11-12) are played at Berrydale Park fields at 89th and Taylor on Monday-Saturday and occasional Sundays.
Any individuals or companies who would like to contribute to the success of our Portland Cal Ripken league may contact portlandcalripken@gmail.com to discuss how they may help.
We intend to have online registration available as well as in-person registrations available. Currently, information for registrations would be posted on our Facebook page under Portland Cal Ripken or by contacting us at portlandcalripken@gmail.com.
