Portland, Oregon, has been home to many baseball teams, dating back to the 19th century. Despite this, Portland has never fielded a Major League Baseball team. Early Portland baseball: 1866–1883 The first organized baseball team on record in the Pacific Northwest was founded in Portland, when on May 28, 1866, the Pioneer Baseball Club of East Portland was created. Known as a gentleman's group at the time, it composed merchants, doctors, lawyers and farmers from rural Portland. Professional players were not allowed to be part of the club. In fact, members had to pay dues in order to be a part of the club. Over the next year many clubs were created throughout the Portland area. The Pioneers of East Portland invited clubs from throughout the region to a meeting in February 1868 to form what became The Oregon, Washington and Idaho Territories Association of Base Ball Players. The association consisted of five founding clubs—they were the Pioneers, the Portland Spartans, the Highland Baseball Club, the Clackamas Club of Oregon City and the Occidentals of Vancouver, Washington. The teams adopted rules that were slightly modified from those approved by the National Association of Base Ball Players in 1863. Professional baseball in Portland: 1883–1901 In 1884 Joe Buchtel, a player-manager for the Pioneers who is regarded as being largely responsible for making baseball popular in Oregon during the 20th century, started a new team in Portland, the Willamettes of East Portland. In 1890 this team became the Portland Webfeet. It helped organize the first professional league in the region, the Pacific Northwest League. This league consisted of teams from Portland, Seattle, Tacoma and Spokane, and began attracting players from around the nation. In 1891 the Webfeet won the league championship, playing teams from as far as the California League, which included Sacramento, San Francisco, and San Jose. This version of the Pacific Northwest League folded in the second half of the 1892 season due to the onset of a nationwide economic depression known as the Panic of 1893. An attempt was made in 1896 to restart the Pacific Northwest League, which was alternately known as the New Pacific League. Portland fielded a team in again in the league, this time going by the name of the Portland Gladiators. The season only lasted through June, but the Gladiators did end up winning the league championship with a 19–9 record. Another new team