Tombstone
Born: 1978 – Northwest League expansion franchise
Moved: February 1979 (Medford A’s)
First Game: June 20, 1978 (L 5-4 vs. Eugene Emeralds)
Last Game: August 31, 1978 (L 7-6, L 7-1 @ Salem Senators)
Northwest League Championships: None
Stadium
Ownership & Affiliation
Owners: Doug Emmans
Major League Affiliation: Oakland Athletics
Attendance
Background
The Bend Timber Hawks were, ever so briefly, a Central Oregon-based farm club of the Oakland Athletics. The franchise joined the Northwest League in 1978 as part of an expansion that saw the short-season Class A circuit expand from six to eight teams that summer.
Bend had one previous experience with Minor League Baseball and the Northwest League. The Bend Rainbows had a two-year run in town in 1970 and 1971. That Timber Hawks would last only half that long.
Wild Wild Country
The Northwest League was a truly odd place in 1978. Half of the loop’s eight clubs, including the Timber Hawks, were affiliated with Major League Baseball organizations. These clubs were stocked mostly with teenagers or recent college graduates, spending a year in the the short-season (72-game) format to accustom their bodies to the rigors of the pro game.
Typical of these players were the two Timber Hawks who ultimately made it to the Major Leagues. 19-year old Keith Atherton, who led Bend’s pitching staff with 7 victories, was Oakland’s 2nd round draft pick in 1978. Atherton ultimately spent seven years in the Majors, earning a World Series ring with the Minnesota Twins in 1987. 18-year old second baseman Mike Woodard, another high school draftee of Oakland in 1978, eventually played parts of four seasons in the Majors from 1985 to 1988.
The other four teams were independent clubs with no Major League sponsors. The indy teams often stocked their rosters with more experienced but unwanted free agents in their mid-twenties. Three of the four indies were overmatched. Boise, Salem and Victoria all finished at least 10 games under .500 and claimed the three worst records in the league. But the fourth indy ball club, the Grays Harbor Loggers, assembled the best team in the NWL and won the league championship. The Loggers oldest player that summer was the 28-year old Saturday Night Live star Bill Murray who signed a one-game contract as a publicity stunt (and got a hit).
Down To The Wire
The Timber Hawks lone season in Bend came down to the season’s final day on August 31, 1978 trailing the Eugene Emeralds by one-half game in the Northwest League’s southern division standings. On paper, at least, things looks promising for Bend’s playoff hopes.
The Hawks were in Salem, Oregon to take on the lowly Senators, one of the Northwest League’s inept independent clubs who were mired 20 games under .500, in a quasi-doubleheader. Salem’s Chemetka Field had no lights in 1978, so the Senators played only matinee games. The previous day’s game was suspended on account of darkness with the Timber Hawks up 6-3 in the 8th inning. The teams resumed play at 3:30 in the afternoon on August 31st and Bend promptly kicked away their three-run cushion and lost 7-6. Fewer than one hundred people watched.1English, Reid. “Salem ‘relaxes’ its way to two wins”. The Statesman Journal (Salem, OR). September 1, 1978 Deflated, the Timber Hawks dropped the second game 7-1.
Move & Replacement by Phillies
Those proved to be the club’s final games. The following winter, team owner Doug Emmans moved the franchise to Medford, Oregon. The Northwest League promptly put a new team into Bend for the 1979 season, the Central Oregon Phillies.
