Bring Back Baseball, Opinion

Over the last few months, talk of getting a minor league baseball has been thrown  around.  I’ve read the articles.  I’ve seen the proposals.  I understand that this is a part of the natural process.  I very much respect the schematics, but that’s what  they are…schematics.  Numbers and theories don’t compare to this very important issue.  Milwaukie needs this.  Bad.  I’ve lived here for thirteen years, a transplant from North Portland via Southeast Portland.  Maybe I was simply heading south, looking for more sunshine.  Regardless, what started out as a pit stop turned into what I was really looking for.  A small town feel with the amenities of a big city.  Perhaps I’m a rural boy at heart that’s been brainwashed by convenience, but either way, I found home.  A part of me still belongs to NoPo, memories and such, but I love Milwaukie.  Now here’s my problem.  In those thirteen years that I’ve lived here, virtually nothing has changed.  Sure, we’ve built new condos, added a few new stores, and turned a public elementary school into a suburban hippie farm.  Thank goodness we have been blessed with the awesomeness that is Dark Horse Comics, and perhaps as equally important, McGloughlin, because I don’t think anyone would know Milwaukie exists.  In the realm of sports, Milwaukie was for a long time the red headed stepchild other schools liked to kick around.  I know that we don’t have a big area to draw from, and we certainly don’t have the money that other schools have.  Even more so with the Happy Valley kids down the way at Clackamas, and Phil Knight’s blessed alma mater in Cleveland High the other way.  (I must admit that I too am a former student of said high school, so I’m not entirely impartial.)  We have decent support for the programs, especially football, but even if it’s evident that we don’t have raging tail gaters, you can see that people definitely take a certain pride in their town. I do.  But we have been too long in the shadow of Portland.  We need something big, and a new stadium and minor league baseball team can be that big thing.  Look around you.  This place screams stagnant, and all it would take to diminish that is a well placed spark that will ignite a wild fire.  Coupled with the addition of a new max line, we would become relevant.  This could, and would, produce business that is desperately needed.  It would increase our town’s revenue and give us something we could all rally around.  Based on the schedule, granted we were to make this happen, we would have 68 home games.  That…is…phenomenal.  I love baseball, and this would be tantamount to a small child on Christmas morning for me.  I remember clearly going to Beavers games when I was a kid.  It was partly due to the startling amount of cute girls, but mostly because these players seemed larger than life, playing a game they loved so much.  There are a lot of young players here that would have those same feelings.  I have the pleasure of coaching Little League baseball, and I get to see these little people who still live in a black and white world, and that what’s this would be; black and white.  Grey wouldn’t exist.  No thoughts of politics, the economy, or what some fake boobed, unmoving faced housewife said on lasts night show.  It’s baseball, pure and simple.  Hell, with a better economy and more people visiting and spending money, we could have a bigger, better police force, which would in turn allow for more of those really cool looking cop cars to make our street safer, hopefully preaching to kids the merits of wearing their pants at their waist, and not their ankles.  Back to that pride thing, I guess.  Anyway, to actually get to the point of my ranting, you all need to take a few minutes to investigate this idea of bringing baseball to Milwaukie, and the many positives that would bloom from it.  Every person that jumps on the bandwagon puts us one step closer to achieving it.  If you are on board, or are simply curious and want to hear more, there are three discussion groups on the books for us to speak our mind if we so desire.  The first is set for Oct. 27^th at Ardenwald  Elementary, from 6 to 7, and the others are November 9^th at Milwaukie Elemetary, and November 17^th at Linwood Elementary.  Those are also from 6 to 7.  I will be there, and I hope to see you as well.