 He spent the season with Portland, where he had a .247 batting average in 116 games.During a period in August of that year, Portland tried him out as a pinch hitter like Cleveland had done the year prior, and he had nine hits in 17 at bats for a .530 average during the experiment.After spending the winter in the Mexican League, Hodge was named to the Oklahoma City 89ers as a player-coach for the 1973 season.