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The Hillsboro Hops are a Minor League Baseball team in the northwest United States, located in Hillsboro, Oregon, a city in the Portland metropolitan area. The Hops are members of the Northwest League and are the High-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks. They play their home games at Hillsboro Ballpark (formerly Ron Tonkin Field), which opened in 2013.
The Hillsboro Hops' first game was played on the road against the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes on June 14, 2013, a 3–2 loss. Ryan Gebhardt had the team's first hit and Brian Billigen earned the first RBI. Their first win came on June 17 in the Hillsboro Ballpark home opener against the Eugene Emeralds. The inaugural home opener was attended by a sellout 4,710 fans, who watched Jordan Parr hit the first home run in the Hops' history.
Barley, the team's mascot, was introduced on June 28, 2013. The Hops set the franchise attendance record in 2014, when their games were attended by 138,732 people. They also won their division and the league championship. The team was managed by J. R. House, whose coaching staff included fellow-former major leaguers Doug Drabek and Mark Grace. Hillsboro swept the championship series against the three-time NWL defending champion Vancouver Canadians. The team set another franchise attendance record in 2015 with 143,412 (an average of 3,774 for 38 dates) while winning a second consecutive league title.
The Hops hosted the NWL All-Star Game in 2017.
On August 28, 2019, the Hops clinched a playoff berth for the sixth straight season breaking the Northwest League record previously held by Vancouver at five straight seasons. They faced the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes in the divisional round, where they won the series 2–0, and advanced to Northwest League finals for the first time since 2015. In Game 1, Hillsboro entered the bottom of the ninth inning trailing 3–1 but put up four runs in the inning including a walk-off 3-run home run by Andy Yerzy. The Hops were defeated in Game 2, losing 9–1, but bounced back in Game 3 with a two-run ninth-inning rally to snag the win. The Hops were shut out in Game 4, losing 6–0. Then in Game 5, Hillsboro captured their third NWL title, and their first since 2015, winning the series 3–2.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Minor League Baseball season was cancelled. In conjunction with Major League Baseball's restructuring of Minor League Baseball in 2021, the Hops were organized into the High-A West along with five other teams previously of the Northwest League. They continued as the High-A affiliate of the Diamondbacks. In 2022, the High-A West became known as the Northwest League, the name historically used by the regional circuit prior to the 2021 reorganization.
In January 2023, it was announced that Veronica Gajownik had been hired to manage the Hops, which made her the first woman to manage a minor league Class High-A baseball team, and the first openly LGBT manager in minor or major league baseball history.
The team competes as the "Sonadores de Hillsboro" as part of minor league baseball's "Copa de Diversion" program.
Season-by-season records
Northwest League (2013–present)
Hillsboro Hops 2013 ARI South 3rd 34 42 .447 — Audo Vicente 135,167 2014 ARI South 1st 48 28 .632 Defeated Boise Hawks in division series 2–1
Defeated Vancouver in championship series 2–1J. R. House 138,732 2015 ARI South 1st 45 31 .592 Defeated Salem-Keizer in division series 2–1
Defeated Tri-City in championship series 2–1Shelley Duncan 143,412 2016 ARI South 2nd 42 33 .560 Lost to Eugene in division series 2–1 Shelley Duncan 131,851 2017 ARI South 1st 41 35 .539 Lost to Eugene Emeralds in division series 2–0 Shawn Roof 128,416 2018 ARI South 1st 51 25 .671 Lost to Eugene Emeralds in division series 2–0 Shawn Roof 130,286 2019 ARI South 1st 48 28 .632 Defeated Salem-Keizer in division series 2–0
Defeated Tri-City in championship series 3–2Javier Colina 133,605 2021 ARI West 4th 52 60 .464 — Vince Harrison 110,384 2022 ARI N/A 4th 60 70 .462 — Vince Harrison 150,792
Division winner League champions
Ballpark
The Hops play their home games at Hillsboro Ballpark.
Radio
Rich Burk was signed as the team's radio announcer on KPOJ (620 AM).
Roster
Branding
The team name is a reference to Hops in beer brewing (Oregon is the second-largest hop-producing US state by volume), as well as to various baseball terms such as the short hop, bad hop, and crow hop. No previous professional or collegiate sports team has ever been called the "Hops". The team's logo includes a hop cone wearing a baseball hat, evergreen trees, and Mount Hood. Team colors are green, navy blue, and light blue. The Hops' mascot is Barley, who is green with a blue baseball cap. (Barley is another plant used in beer brewing.) The team's branding and logo was named by Ballpark Digest as the best in Minor League Baseball for 2013.
Sponsorships
In March 2013, the team announced a three-year deal with BridgePort Brewing Company to be the official beer of the Hops.
Advantis Credit Union, Les Schwab Tires, Nike, Tuality Healthcare, and The Oregonian were the founding sponsors.
Notable Alumni
Minor league affiliations
Triple-A
!scope="row" Reno Aces Pacific Coast League Reno, Nevada Greater Nevada Field 2009 Double-A
!scope="row" Amarillo Sod Poodles Texas League Amarillo, Texas Hodgetown 2021 High-A
!scope="row" Hillsboro Hops Northwest League Hillsboro, Oregon Ron Tonkin Field 2013 Single-A
!scope="row" Visalia Rawhide California League Visalia, California Valley Strong Ballpark 2007 Rookie league
!scope="row" ACL D-backs Arizona Complex League Scottsdale, Arizona Salt River Fields at Talking Stick 2024
External links
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