The Grays Harbor Ports were a minor league baseball

Minor league baseball

Minor league baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball and provide opportunities for player development. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses...

 team that played in the 1976 Northwest League

Northwest League

The Northwest League of Professional Baseball is a Class A-Short Season minor baseball league. The league is the descendant of the Western International League which ran as a class B league from 1937-1951 and class A from 1952-1954...

, representing Hoquiam, Washington

Hoquiam, Washington

Hoquiam is a city in Grays Harbor County, Washington state, United States. The town borders the city of Aberdeen at Myrtle Street with Hoquiam to the west. The two cities share a common economic history in lumbering and exporting but Hoquiam has maintained its independent identity...

 and Aberdeen, Washington

Aberdeen, Washington

Aberdeen is a city in Grays Harbor County, Washington, United States, founded by Samuel Benn in 1884. Aberdeen was incorporated on May 12, 1890. The city is the economic center of Grays Harbor County, bordering the cities of Hoquiam and Cosmopolis...

.

Owned and managed by the Stockton Ports

Stockton Ports

The Stockton Ports are a baseball team in Stockton, California. The Ports play in the Northern Division of the Class A – Advanced California League and are a Minor League affiliate of the Oakland Athletics. Their home field is Banner Island Ballpark which seats over 5,000 people and opened in...

' former owner and manager Carl W. Thompson, Sr., the team had a record of 26-46, at that time the worst in the league. Season attendance at Hoquiam's Olympic Stadium

Olympic Stadium (Hoquiam)

Olympic Stadium is a stadium in Hoquiam, Washington which opened in 1938. The City of Hoquiam first got the idea for an all-wood stadium in the early 1930s when it applied for a Civil Works Administration grant. In 1932, the grant was approved. Construction began in early 1938 with the stadium...

 was fourth in the seven-team Northwest League at 28,842. The Ports' All-Star pitcher Barry Biggerstaff (9-7, 3.44) led the league in almost every counting category with 17 starts, 15 complete games, 3 shutouts (having tied for the lead), 144 innings, 138 hits, 77 runs, 55 earned runs and 123 strikeouts. While playing for the Ports, Biggerstaff was only one behind the lead in wins and two behind the league leader in losses.

After Thompson sold the team in 1977, the Ports became the Grays Harbor Loggers. In 1978 the team took on famed actor Bill Murray

Bill Murray

William James "Bill" Murray is an American actor and comedian. He first gained national exposure on Saturday Night Live in which he earned an Emmy Award and later went on to star in a number of critically and commercially successful comedic films, including Caddyshack , Ghostbusters , and...

 for a successful marketing stunt. During the summer of 1978 Murray joined the Loggers for one day. The cast of Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...

 was asked to find something they've always wanted to do and for Murray it was play professional baseball. Murray joined the independent team in Gray Harbor, MA where he knocked in a couple of runs (going 1 for 2, with a single) during his one day stint. Two years later, the team changed their name to the Grays Harbor Mets and in 1980 were once again the Grays Harbor Loggers for the team's final two seasons.