One of the Zingrods' owner's favorite bands, Sepultura, is from Brazil. The national language of Brazil is Portugese, which is, of course, also spoken in Portugal*.
Portugal was with the Zingrods during their Golden Era. Since then, several new teams have been added to the GBUFBL and expansion has had the same effect on pitching as it has in MLB, so he came back to the Zingrods in 1999 and made a decent contribution to the team.
Around the middle of the 1999 season, Portugal announced his retirement so the Zingrods released him. Portugal cited his divorce and desire to spend more time with his kids as the reason, which seemed a shame at the time because his numbers obviously indicated that he had plenty of baseball left in him. Mark had served the Zingrods admirably over the years, and the Zingrods' management wished him the best of luck.
Portugal announced shortly thereafter that he wasn't actually retiring, and the Juggerheads picked him up before the Zingrods could get him back. However, the Juggerheads apparently didn't realize how carefully an owner must manage Portugal at that stage of his career. He was still perfectly capable of getting big-leaguers out, but leaving him out there to get shelled by the Indians was no way to build a new owner's confidence in him. Fantasy owners have a luxury that real managers do not - we can sit a pitcher for a week if he is scheduled to face the Tribe or the Bronx Bombers. Ditto for NL pitchers scheduled to pitch at Coors or BOB. At any rate, the Juggerheads released Portugal, so the Zingrods picked him back up and he finished the season on the roster.
Unfortunately, Portugal's deteriorating skills and still-impending retirement, coupled with the availability of younger arms on the staff, led to his release in prior to the 2000 season. Once again, the Zingrods' management wished him the best of luck.
* Any similarity between Mark Portugal and the nation of Portugal is coincidental. No animals were harmed in the writing of this page. Batteries not included. Action figures sold separately.