Their own brand

Virtually every baseball field has a concession stand nearby. Many have lights. Contests involving the fans during games are regular.
But only one has the combination of the Lunching Pad, light poles that are in play and the Birdman selling tickets for games of chance.
They are part of the local charm of the Portland Rockets.
Light poles are typically stationed outside of the fence, but not at Portland’s Runkle-Miller Field at Portland Memorial Park. Four of them stand inside the fence, with the one between first base and the dugout particularly conspicuous. When a first baseman is tracking a pop up in foul territory, he has to keep a watchful eye. The other poles are tucked closer to the fence, but can still become a part of the action.
The team showed off a little bit of wordplay when it gave its concession stand a new paint job several years back, adding the name the Lunching Pad on its side. The Rocket dog, with chopped onions and a variety of other condiments always available, is its top offering.
Brad Miller, brother of Rockets manager Randy Miller and son of the man from whom the field takes half of its name, is affectionately known as “Birdman” and has been involved in a variety of areas, including the Lunching Pad, for decades. He runs the concession stand — for the last five years with regular help from Rocket fan Kristie Delaney — and every few innings makes his way around to the fans to hawk 50-50 raffle tickets. He also works on fundraising for the team to try to help control some of the cost involved with uniforms and travel.
Birdman doesn’t share the same love of the game his brother does and father did. It was the first sport he gave up in his youth. His involvement is for a different reason.
“Believe me, it’s family,” he said, noting that he started efforts with the Rockets a few years after moving back to Portland from Chicago in 1988. “We came out to help dad.
“When I started helping, my whole family was involved. My brother was helping my father. My sister was running the concession stand with her family. So the whole family would come out.”
The family atmosphere extends beyond the bloodlines of the field’s namesake — Ray Miller, who was the team’s second manager following Dick Runkle — and to the field.
This year’s team is loaded with veterans — eight players who are in the midst of at least their fourth season with the club. Mitch Waters, a 2002 Jay County High School graduate, is the elder statesman, and South Adams grad Dan Bollenbacher is in his seventh campaign. It’s not just the local guys either, as Dalton Tinsley (Kokomo), Geoff Bowers (Lima, Ohio) and Justin Marrero (Reynoldsburg, Ohio) are all regulars in their fifth seasons.
Most of these long-term Rockets are past the point at which they could realistically dream of playing at the next level. It’s a different draw that keeps bringing them back to the corner of Western Avenue and Blaine Pike each year.
“For me, it’s the camaraderie,” said Tinsley, the team’s 24-year-old center fielder and leadoff man. “It’s kind of a family atmosphere. We have a core group of older guys that love playing with each other.”
They also love their fans, as anyone who has ever listened to the Rocket report on WPGW knows well.
Randy Miller, who played his first season with the team in 1972, often gives as much airtime, if not more, to the fans who have come to the game as he does to its result. That’s especially the case if someone has a birthday, or if a former player is in attendance.
Even during the games, for which admission is free until the World Baseball Congress Tournament in late July, he frequently calls up to the press box above the Rockets’ dugout to make sure a birthday is announced or a fan given a verbal pat on the back with a “love ya in Portland.”
“You see the same smiling faces, the same Sesame Street guys,” said Miller, referencing the street that runs along the south side of Portland Memorial Park, “the same guys in the golf carts … That gives you a boost on a hot day, knowing that you have that kind of support.”