Serving Up Internships, Pickles Style

The Portland Pickles appreciate a good show—and Eli Steinhaus BA ’27 delivered. On a warm August evening at the team’s Fan Appreciation Night in Walker Stadium, he blended easily into the crowd, popcorn and water in hand and snacking on a signature pickle. Then, as the music swelled and the cameras panned, he was plucked from the stands and brought onto the field.

In the eighth inning, Steinhaus, a member of Lewis & Clark’s baseball team, grinned at fans, stepped into the batter box, and landed a two-run home run. The crowd went wild—first, the fans at the game, and later, viewers watching from around the United States. The clip of Steinhaus was picked up across the nation’s sports pages and generated more than 7 million views on TikTok alone. “I never expected that it would pick up so much traction on social media,” says Steinhaus, an economics major who is currently studying overseas in Prague.

Steinhaus’s viral moment grew out of his internship with the Portland Pickles, a position he pursued to get an “inside look at the business of sports,” one of his lifelong passions. Through the summer months, he worked across operations, from the front office to fan engagement to managing relationships with sponsors. “There’s so much that goes into it,” Steinhaus says. “For the Pickles, everything is for the fans. It’s all about facilitating their experiences.”

Over the last decade, the Portland Pickles have become a beloved cultural institution and local pastime. When the minor league Portland Beavers ceased to exist in 2010, the city was left with a baseball-sized hole in its athletic roster. Then came the Pickles in 2015—an independent wood bat baseball team with a giant pickle mascot (“Dillon T. Pickle”) and an emphasis on good vibes, rather than competition. But the competitive spirit persists—in 2024, the Pickles defeated the Wenatchee AppleSox 6-5 for its first West Coast League championship title.

Steinhaus is one of several Lewis & Clark students to intern with the Pickles, some of whom have taken on full-time positions with the team after graduation. Courtney Schmidt BA ’21 joined the Pickles as an intern in 2020, which evolved into a full-time role managing partnerships. Her responsibilities continued to grow, and, in 2024, Schmidt was named the Pickles’s general manager.

Courtney Schmidt BA ’21, Portland Pickles general managerFor Schmidt, keeping the Pickles at the center of Portland life through the off-season is central to its success. Outside of the summer games, the team continues to produce events and parties for local fans, amplified through its large social media following. And in 2025, the Pickles branched out of baseball and into the world of soccer with Bangers Football Club (FC) and Cherry Bombs FC. “We understand that we’re not a professional sports team, like the Blazers or the Timbers, and we like it that way,” says Schmidt. “It’s homegrown, and it’s an accessible place for people to hang out in the summer. We bring a backyard, block party atmosphere to the game.”

Schmidt looks back on the team’s 2024 championship win as a testament to its growth, and an experience none of the staff will forget. But it’s the regular games that show the Pickles’s true colors—fans enjoy races between fans and Dillon T. Pickle, on-field contests between innings, and chairs lifted in celebration of great plays. The team’s cult-like following and traditions have generated national attention, including a recent documentary that aired on the MLB Network.

Another Lewis & Clark intern, Millen Mistry BA ’26, described his summer experience as a chance to translate skills learned in the classroom to real-world industries, like sports. Mistry, a mathematics major, was able to create real-time data visualizations and performance reports during games, using technical insights to inform strategic decisions. “I was always told, either love what you do or love the people you work with—then work won’t feel like work,” says Mistry. “That was definitely true for this internship.”

Athletics