The Wild Wild West League, a four-team summer wood bat baseball league for high school and college players, was formed in 2020 by the Portland (Oregon) Pickles in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The league announced it will continue in 2021, featuring two new teams, the Willamette Wild Bills and the Portland Rosebuds.
The Rosebuds are reviving the name of a short-lived Negro League team, which played one season in 1946 before the West Coast Baseball League folded. The original Rosebuds were owned by Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens.
The Rosebuds are the second baseball team to bring back a defunct minor league team in as many weeks. The Kansas City T-Bones recently revived the brand of the legendary Kansas City Monarchs to much acclaim.
The Willamette Wild Bills brand is based on a platypus, noted for being an egg-laying mammal, being endemic to Australia (and nowhere else), and for being generally weird, in keeping with the overall ethos of Portland.
The Rosebuds and the Wild Bills will join the league’s existing teams, the Portland Gherkins (farm team to the Portland Pickles) and Gresham Grey Wolves for this summer’s season.
