Bringing MLB to Portland, Ciara & Russell Wilson Receive Special Gift From Pittsburgh Pirates

All major professional teams in Pittsburgh share the basic colors: black and gold. The NHL’s Pirates use black and gold jerseys to reflect the colors of the municipal flag and city seal and so does Pittsburgh’s baseball team. But when the MLB team gifted Russell Wilson and Ciara their black and gold jerseys, they couldn’t have been happier. After all, they worked a lot to get the sport to Portland!

A short clip from Ciara’s fanbase page, ‘Ciara Fanatic’, gave a sneak peek into the couple’s new Pittsburgh-gifted jersey. In the video, Wilson could be heard saying, “Pittsburgh Pirates. Pittsburgh black and gold.”

Russell’s black and gold-colored jersey has the ‘Pittsburgh’ text print on the front and on the back ‘Wilson’ and No. ‘3’ are visible. After all, the athlete has worn No. 3 his entire career. His affinity towards this number goes back to his Seattle Seahawks days. And with his new move to the NFL’s Steelers, he still has the same number. This makes him the 12th player on the team to wear No. 3. Before him, Brad Wing was the most recent player who donned the number. He spent only a few weeks with the team in the 2023 season.

Ciara’s jersey was quite similar to her husband’s jersey. The only difference was that her jersey had ‘Ciara’ printed on the back.

The couple has a special connection with Major League Baseball, as they have been working together to make MLB in Portland a reality as the owner of the PDP project.

When Russell Wilson and Ciara signed as the owners of PDP, bringing MLB to Portland

In 2018, Russell Wilson and Ciara signed the deal as the investor and owner of the Portland Diamond Project. This exciting project aims to bring Major League Baseball (MLB) to Portland, Oregon. After becoming part of this deemed project, successful entrepreneur and singer, Ciara Wilson remarked in a press release, “Athletics has always been important to me. As a young girl growing up in Atlanta, I was a tomboy who ran track and worked the hot dog stand at Turner Field.”

Pittsburgh Steelers QB, Russell Wilson also exhibited his exhilaration for taking the opportunity of introducing the camaraderie of the game into the city of Portland. “I want to see this vision come to life and empower more women owners in major sports franchises,” he stated.

In addition to this, he also showcased his belief in Portland, stating that Portland has the potential to become one of the biggest MLB cities, which is why he and his wife became part of the PDP project. Craig Cheek, the PDP founder, and president, also demonstrated his reliance on the couple, reflecting, “Having Russell and Ciara sign on as owners and investors in PDP is game-changing, and has elevated our campaign significantly.”

But what’s the connection between Wilson and baseball? He could have very well been a baseball player because he was drafted twice (middle infielder). The first time was when he was right out of high school (Baltimore Orioles in 2007) and the second time was in 2010 by Colorado Rockies. But it doesn’t end there. Later on, Russell Wilson also did some spring training with the Texas Rangers in 2014 and 2015 and with the New York Yankees in 2018.