Marcus Olsen said he's a fan of the Portland Pickles, the new amateur baseball team that played its first home game in east Portland's Lents Park on Friday.

But the only time he wants to hear the games is when he's at Walker Stadium. And last weekend, he said, he could keep up with every run from inside his basement.

"It's nice to see the park getting so much positive use," said 35-year-old Olsen. "We just didn't expect it to be so loud. We expected there'd be background noise, that we'd hear cheering, but we didn't expect it to sound like our entire home was surrounded by PA speakers."

Olsen and other Lents residents took to their community Facebook page this week to debate the newly arrived ballpark noise. And enough formal complaints landed with Portland's Noise Control Program this weekend -- three -- that officials are now planning a follow-up investigation.

The Pickles played three games over their inaugural weekend, with the first pitch thrown out at 7:05 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 5:05 p.m. Sunday. Two of those games ended around 11 p.m.

"It's not a ton of complaints, but it's enough that it's flagged concern for follow-up," said Theresa Marchetti, the Office of Neighborhood Involvement's livability programs manager, noting that an inspector will check whether the noise violated city codes.

People can call the Noise Control Office with problems during regular business hours, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The city's non-emergency police line is available for noise complaints after 10 p.m. No distrubance calls associated with baseball came last weekend, according to Sgt. Pete Simpson, a Portland police spokesman.

Ken Wilson, the Pickles' president and chief executive, said he plans to spend the next home game, set for June 21, walking around the neighborhood to listen for himself. The team has six home games scheduled that week.

Neighborhood leaders outlined noise guidelines with Wilson, then-president of the West Coast League, in 2013. In March 2015, they announced a deal with the Great West League, which Wilson helped start the year before.

"I'll go outside next Tuesday and walk around and see what it is they're talking about, and we'll bring in the sound experts and make any adjustments that are physically possible," Wilson said. "If we can make an adjustment to bring the PA level down and still be able to reach the people in the stadium, we'll happily do that."

Wilson said he will also be calling people who have complaints.

Other residents complained fireworks shows after two of the first three games startled them and disrupted their sleep around 11 p.m.

"I was in a deep sleep and it woke me up in a panic and it took me awhile to calm down enough to fall back asleep," Will Myers, 32, said. "I feel bad for those who have work in the mornings."

Three more fireworks shows, each one three and half minutes, are planned for the rest of season, said Wilson, adding that fireworks are "part and parcel to baseball."

"Our intention is never for them to be shot off late, but you can only get them done so early when it's after a game," Wilson said. "We'll do everything we can to tell the players to play fast and keep the games short, but that's a little out of our control."

When negotiations took place in 2013, the Lents Neighborhood Association supported bringing a baseball team to Lents Park - with qualifications. One condition was amplified noise be "reasonably limited" after 10 p.m., and not permitted after 11 p.m. on weeknights and 11:30 p.m. on weekends.

"People having fun make noise," Wilson said. "Evening sports event are just like that. They're evening sports events and they happen in the evening. Sometimes games start at 7:00 and end at 9:00. Sometimes they start at 7:00 and end 9:30. We had two longer games that ended at 11."

The neighborhood association had requested weekday games start a bit later, after 6:30 p.m., to ensure first dibs for parking in the area went to Lents residents coming home from work.

"When we wrote that document up, one of the things we wanted to do was give residents a chance to get home and park their cars, especially if they don't have a driveway," said former neighborhood association chair Nick Christensen.

Even with some people wishing for more quiet and less crowds, Christensen said there's an overall sense the team will boost neighborhood businesses and safety.

"For years, people have been concerned about going to Lents Park after dark," he said. "One of the best ways to improve safety at Lents Park is just to have people using it. You're not alone in the park when you're going on a walk at 9 p.m. if you have 1,000 other people there."

In 2009, the city proposed using 16 of Lents Park's 38 acres for a Triple-A baseball stadium for the Portland Beavers. Many residents protested bringing in a team that would play 72 home games before 6,000 people.

With the Pickles using the existing Walker Stadium and playing just 30 nights a year, Christensen said, this plan felt "more in line with what people wanted."

"Anytime you have something new, people want to talk about it," he said. "What's important is trying to find out what the positives and negatives are for the community so we can talk about how to fine tune it."

- Talia Richman

trichman@oregonian.com

@TaliRichman

Updated to include that the city's non-emergency police line didn't receive any noise complaints regarding Portland Pickles games.