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Maddox Molony is the first Ducks with links to the past — just with a bit more power.
Maddox Molony lives and breathes baseball in the Willamette Valley.
He’s a top player on the country’s No. 10 team. He plays for the same program his grandfather once did — and in the same city where his dad played college ball.
Molony’s mom was a standout softball player at South Medford. His younger brother, Connor, will join the Oregon baseball program this fall. Molony has vivid memories of a childhood spent at Civic Stadium watching the Ems—and then later falling for the Ducks after the program was resurrected in 2009.
“J.J. Altobelli, Ryon Healy, Scott Heineman — I remember all of those names,” Molony said, recounting his knack for reciting the starting lineups like a PA announcer.
Few appreciate what baseball means to the area more than the Molonys. And while Maddox is the star of one of the best tickets in town — the 19-5 Ducks are outscoring their opponents 214-96 heading into this weekend’s series against Ohio State — the family admits they feel a sense of melancholy as one constant of their baseball existence is coming to a close.
See, Maddox is a legitimate pro prospect now. According to Baseball America, the power-hitting shortstop, whose 10 home runs in 2024 set a program record for freshmen, is the No. 13 prospect in the 2026 MLB Draft. Now hitting .356 with 6 homers and a 1.084 OPS as a sophomore, Molony looks like a likely first-rounder next year.
And no, that’s not the problem at all for the Molonys.
They’ve always been a baseball-first family. Grandpa Ronald played catcher for the Ducks in the 60s. Maddox’s parents Ryan and Michelle fell in love at the ballpark when Ryan played for Lane Community College. And Maddox has always been ahead of the curve on the field, bypassing tee ball and succeeding at older youth levels.
He won a state championship in 2023 at Thurston. He wants to win a College World Series with Oregon.
The pros would be the next step.
But there’s the Ems thing.
The Molonys aren’t the type to look ahead, but both Ryan and Maddox admit they used to think about what it would be like for Maddox to play in Eugene as a pro. Whether it was with the Emeralds or coming through town with the Hops or Aqua Sox, playing minor league ball in the Eugene/Springfield area would have been a full circle moment.
But that moment has passed. Playing in their 70th season in Eugene, the Emeralds announced last week that the franchise will look to relocate after failing to secure funding to build a new stadium — or renovate PK Park — to meet new Major League Baseball Stadium standards.
The Emeralds have shared PK Park with the Ducks since 2010 after a 41-year run at Civic Stadium — a 77-year-old field that burned down in 2015, a day that Ryan Molony, a lieutenant with the Eugene Police Department, remembers vividly.
“My entire life, I grew up going to that stadium,” Ryan said. “With my job, I was there the day that stadium burned down. That was disappointing knowing that all the all-stars and hall of famers that signed that visiting locker room wall, it was completely gone. It was sad.
“There was no saving it. It was just working with fire crews to save the surrounding buildings and houses.”
The only saving grace? Maybe the city will rally around the team it does have, the Ducks. It certainly means just as much to Maddox. When he committed to Oregon, he did so in front of his Grandpa’s framed wool jersey, a nailed together Jackie Robinson model bat and a team photo from the 1968 Ducks team. Since baseball came back to Oregon in 2009, he’s the first legacy player with links to the Ducks’ past.
Before baseball was put on hiatus in 1982, Ronald Molony was a catcher for the Ducks. He came to Eugene from Portland and turned scouts’ heads during his two years on Oregon’s varsity roster before knee injuries did his career in.
He settled in Marcola, a small town 20 miles northeast of Eugene, took a job as a PE teacher and coached his son, Ryan, from youth ball until he reached Thurston High School.
“He was quiet, stoic. Doesn’t say much. He wasn’t a yeller, or a cheerer. He was more the business aspect of it,” Ryan said. “If I got a hit when I needed to, that was me doing my job. That’s kind of the same mentality I’ve passed down to Maddox — and his mom is the same way.
“It’s just kind of one of those things where if you’re out there and enjoying the grind and loving the training portion of it, everything else will work itself out.”
Maddox loves the grind. He loves playing in a home park where he often knows dozens of people in the stands. He loves having generations of baseball knowledge at his disposal, which means there’s rarely quiet when he spends time with his family.
“It means when we talk we have a lot to talk about,” Maddox said. “When I need to express something I’m feeling on the baseball field or wherever, my whole family understands. It just allows us a closer bond. No matter what I say about the game, which is a lot of my life, they’re going to understand.”
And to be clear, Maddox’s time in Eugene isn’t coming to an end anytime soon. The Ducks still have two months of regular season play in 2025 and potential home playoff games before Maddox enters his draft-eligible junior season.
And while it doesn’t appear that Maddox will have the opportunity to be the first Molony to play professional ball in Eugene, maybe that’s part of a new legacy.
“Everything has its time that it’s supposed to be somewhere,” he said. “It probably would have been a cool experience, but I’ve been here my whole life so it’s probably good for me to get somewhere else.”
— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor
