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Hillsboro's Jordan Parr hits a two-run homer in the second inning, and the Hops went on to win their home opener at Hillsboro Ballpark, 12-0 over the Eugene Emeralds.

(Brent Wojahn/The Oregonian)

HILLSBORO -- Jordan Parr hadn't even crossed home plate after belting the first home run in Hillsboro Ballpark history on Monday night and already the place was starting to feel big time.

wanted the historic baseball for the ballpark trophy case. In fact, they requested Major League Baseball send an authenticator to the stadium in the event someone hit one, but the poor guy remained on standby as the Single-A organization found itself embroiled in a negotiation with the 15-year-old boy who caught the baseball.

The Hops offered the kid an autographed team baseball in exchange for the home-run ball.

He turned them down.

The organization upped the offer to include a baseball bat, a team hat and a replacement baseball. Each of those overtures was refused. By the fifth inning, the 15-year-old's father was consulting on the matter, and the offer from the Hops included a free season-ticket to every remaining home game for the kid. The counteroffer from the kid was everything that had been previously offered, plus a set of season tickets for his entire family.

About this time,

, the executive vice president and general manager, halted the negotiations and retreated to a spot behind the grandstand to watch the rest of the game.

"Too rich for us," he said.

The Hops beat the Eugene Emeralds 12-0 on Monday. Parr hit the first home run. There was a double rainbow. And after a look around the stadium, I have no doubt this baseball adventure in Hillsboro is going to be a raging success. It's going to spawn generations of baseball in the west suburbs and make Beaverton, Vancouver and Portland wish it could have had the guts to build a ballpark and pull this off. And in that, the historic home-run baseball will probably end up meaning more to the baseball organization than the entrepreneurial teenager who caught the thing.

Since the Triple-A

were spurned by our region three years ago, a lot of people have talked about how much baseball means to people around here. The frustration, of course, is that nobody spoke up for baseball when it faced weak city leadership, a lack of support, and a failed Rose Quarter stadium dream. So yeah. It's not just that a single baseball hit over the fence was desired on Monday -- it's that baseball, the sport, was loved here again.

Dads and sons walked to the ballpark, carrying their baseball gloves. Boyfriends and girlfriends high-fived when the home team lit up the scoreboard. And in the middle of the seventh inning, former Portland Beavers broadcaster

, voice of the Hops, leaned out the pressbox window crowing, "Take meeeee out to the baawwlgame ..." as if he were Harry Caray at Wrigley Field.

When Burk finished, the crowd roared, and then, the public-address system blared with House of Pain's "Jump Around," fashioned into "Hop Around," and the stadium bounced along on what was a very good start for baseball in Hillsboro. But the night was not without some sadness.

Theresa Lafferty, 72, made the three-hour drive from her home in Yakima, Wash., on Monday morning. She tried to buy a general admission ticket, but the game was sold out. Yet, she somehow stood on the main concourse, first-base side, watching the game while leaning against a pole. It's going to be the only game she ever attends in Hillsboro, even though Lafferty said, "Everybody thinks I should move here."

For 19 seasons, Lafferty housed Single-A Yakima Bears players. "Mostly Latin players," she said. And so she watched her team play in its new ballpark and ate a hamburger that she had to wait 45 minutes to get because of long concession lines and the big opening-night crowd. She lamented the loss of baseball in Yakima. Also, she let slip that Audo Vicente, the manager of the Hops, had the clubhouse manager sneak her into the game after she texted him to tell him she was at the stadium and there were no tickets available.

"I never had that problem in Yakima," she said. "The stadium was getting run down. The county didn't want to do anything. It's a big loss for us. It's sad."

It was a great night for baseball in Hillsboro, but not without its sobering moments. No word on whether the negotiations for that historic baseball will reignite today. But we can be sure Lafferty wouldn't take the ball if you gave it to her for free.

Said Lafferty: "Don't need it -- I have a lot of baseballs."

Just no baseball anymore.

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