Hippidy Hops Guy brings the noise in Hillsboro

HILLSBORO, Ore. – It’s a beautiful afternoon at the ballpark, and the ambient noise is delightful. The soothing sounds of the game gently intermingle with the buzz of the crowd, the enthusiastic exhortations of the PA announcer and the atonal, overlapping bleats of dozens of miniature rubber chickens.

Wait, what?

This aural tableau is specific to at least one Minor League ballpark: Ron Tonkin Field, home of the Hillsboro Hops in the Northwest League. The high-pitched skronk of the rubber chickens -- akin to an inept blues musician blowing mournfully on a rusted, out-of-tune harmonica -- emanate from the first-base side of the ballpark. There, in Section 5, behind the far side of the home dugout, resides the Hippidy Hop Guy.

Even if his rubber chickens have not yet been let out of their proverbial coop, it’s easy to find the Hippidy Hops Guy. He’s big, boisterous and bearded, decked out in a customized beer-themed Hops jersey and prone to leading chants, constructing talismanic dugout shrines and distributing trinkets such as beads, wristbands and, yes, rubber chickens to nearby fans.

“My favorite thing is to hear people getting involved instead of just hanging out,” said the Hippidy Hops Guy, who goes by the name Christian Trout outside of the ballpark. “When they have the chicken, they have to actively engage, because what the hell else are you going to do with a rubber chicken, sitting in the stadium?”

If it appears that the Hippidy Hops is proselytizing with the fervor of a recent convert to the religion of baseball, well, that’s because he is. He and his wife, a travel nurse named Dana, moved to Hillsboro in 2021. He hadn’t even heard of the city before the move, nor had he been much of a baseball fan, but he “found the Hops and fell in love immediately.”

“I used to watch football and rugby, especially, that’s my main love,” said the Hippidy Hops Guy. “When I would watch it in our apartment, [Dana] would come home and go, ‘I can hear you from outside. You have to calm down, because our neighbors are going to complain.’ So I wanted to go to live games to be able to get it all out.”

.@hippidyhopsguy guy in action. He estimates that he’s distributed 1500 rubber chickens to Hops fans since 2021. pic.twitter.com/WMz8tKXm3N

— Benjamin Hill (@bensbiz) May 7, 2023

Hippidy Hops Guy received his first rubber chicken in 2021 as a birthday present from his younger sister. “I hated to be by myself using it,” he said, which led to him purchasing 15 miniature chickens to hand out to fans. Those 15 became 150, which became 1.500 -- his current estimate of the number he has bestowed upon fellow Hops boosters. Those most enamored with the shtick stuck around, forming a small group of Section 5 diehards who actively support the Hippidy Hops Guy in his gameday endeavors.

“I think people know, you come over this way, you already see us dressed like this and doing this, you know it’s going to get a little crazy,” he said. “Plus, I try not to do anything until about the fourth inning, when people have had a couple drinks, relaxed and settled in.”

The Hippidy Hops guy brings his act on the road as well, usually attending one game of each away series for the D-backs' High-A affiliate. When not at the ballpark, he listens to the Hillsboro radio broadcasts, knits caps for front-office staffers and scours the internet (and Party City) for his idiosyncratic ballpark supplies. It’s a labor of love, in service to the community and catharsis that Ron Tonkin Field has provided him.

So how to sum it all up? To this query, the Hippidy Hops guy offered the following: “You can have a good time! You’ve just got to do it.”

Obviously 1,500 miniature rubber chickens can’t be wrong.