Published September 2004

Finding a field of dreams amid the feed corn

When the debate about the Snohomish baseball fields on farmland hit the news this summer, I thought it would be a great subject for this column. I fully intended to run out to the ball fields myself to see what all the fuss was about, make some calls to those involved and then do my best to write a balanced piece about it. I never got around to it.

It’s a shame, too, because the ball field story had all of the ingredients of a good read: no-growthers, pro-growthers, kids, adults, growth management and farmers. Everyone had an opinion.

Then, as fate would have it, one of my sons had a Little League baseball tournament at the Snohomish fields in question.

When I arrived there, though, I felt the subject needed no more research beyond what I had accumulated in the first five minutes of his game. There is no question — none at all — that the ball fields belong there. It’s a no-brainer.

I tried to imagine the area as another field of hay or feed corn, which is what you see around you in every direction. In fact, there’s a noticeable hint of fresh manure in the air that reminds you that this is smack dab in the middle of farming country. But the fields are woven in very nicely, and the farming continues all around. Even the Salvadalena Nursery next door likes the presence of the ball fields. Seems like a win-win.

On my walk to the portable concession shack, I did a bit more investigation. I noticed that the volunteers who built the fields were careful to avoid laying asphalt or concrete anywhere. Just grass, gravel, some chain-link fence and lots of boys and girls laughing and competing and making memories that will last a lifetime. This is no over-the-top ball field at all. In fact, if world demand for hay or feed corn kicks up, these ball fields could be tilled and productive in about three weeks.

But, of course, that’s not the real issue in this controversy. And I admit I haven’t done the right level of research to write about it. I’m just a dad with a boy who likes to play ball.

The issue isn’t about the ball fields and the kids at all. It’s really about the ends justifying the means. Just because the ball fields are a good thing doesn’t mean violating law — or the permitting process in this case — is justified, whether it was done intentionally or unintentionally.

Yet most sensible people would agree that if there’s some law that’s in place that prevents a roadside hay field from becoming, at the property owner’s own desire, a grassy ball field for kids, then there’s maybe something wrong with the law. So energy ought to be put toward scrubbing up the law and its application, not debating how or why the fields got there at this point.

Late into the game, a boy hit a hard grounder past second base against my son’s team. It was an important part of the game, and the center fielder would need to cleanly scoop the ball and make a throw to hold the runner at third. The ball took a bad hop that no player could have fielded, and the lead changed as the center fielder ran toward the fence to fetch it.

After the game, the center fielder was crushed. So while the coach and team were wrapping things up on the bench and consoling him, I walked out to center field and just walked around. Something about this farm field converted to a baseball field tugged at me. And there it was. Right there in the middle of center field, about where the ball took the bad hop, was the mowed-off stub of a single, small corn stalk.

I immediately closed my investigation. Careful, balanced, heady research by yours truly concluded, without a doubt, that Snohomish ball fields are not ball fields at all. They’re simply a productive farm with an odd arrangement of fences.

Tom Hoban is CEO of Everett-based Coast Real Estate Services, a property management and real estate advisory company specializing in multi-family and commercial investment properties. He can be contacted by phone at 425-339-3638 or send e-mail to tomhoban@coastmgt.com.

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