Author's Blog

January 7, 2009

---

Northwest Stadiums - Day 5

I have just started the second of two trips to the Pacific Northwest to visit the professional baseball stadiums of Washington, Oregon, and Vancouver, B.C.  Both trips are being reported on in a daily log to be posted at the blogsite at CaProParks.com.  Trip #1 – day 1 through 4 – took me to Everett, Vancouver, Tacoma, and Portland.  Trip #2 – days 5 through 11, will take me to Seattle, Spokane, Yakima, Pasco, Keizer-Salem, and Eugene.

The second trip to the Northwest starts with a return to Cheney Stadium in Tacoma, and an amazing introduction to Safeco Field in Seattle, but not much in the way of actually watching baseball.  Through my sister, who lives in the area and who, unbeknownst to me, is a Mariners fanatic, I am able to get a private tour of Safeco with the Assistant Groundskeeper.  When visiting ballparks, I try not to use my position as a baseball writer, especially one that does reviews on stadiums, to get too much in the way of journalist’s view.  Ask any local press member who watches the game in the booth, and he or she will likely have no idea how much a beer at the stadium costs.  I am in it for the experience as a fan, so I almost hesitate to accept the invitation.  Some feedback on my first guidebook, however, shows a genuine interest in many fans in getting more inside scoops on stadiums.  I have also found that almost every longtime baseball fan has had that unique experience with the game; maybe watch a game from a luxury box, or being on the field after the last game and some famous stadium.  I figure this will just be one of my baseball stories.  Besides, the offer is just too good to pass up.

Leo Liebert, the number three guy on the Mariners ground crew is late.  Its Sea Fair weekend in Seattle, perhaps the busiest time of the year, and he gets stuck in traffic.  I wait at his house; talk with his wife, play fetch with is dogs on a lawn that would make many a golf course greens keeper envious.  When Leo arrives, we spend about an hour going through his personal memorabilia, most of it around Tacoma.  Gaylord Perry, Alex Rodriguez, Juan Marichal, these are just a few of the names to pass through Tacoma on their way to fame.

We finally start out to visit Cheney Stadium on the way to Seattle.  It’s raining, and the grounds crew has been busy just trying to get the game going.  The National Anthem plays at 7:45 just as we are walking in.  We walk around the stadium, visit the special club at the right field pole, sample some of the food.  All along the way, Leo runs into people he knows, not only from working 20 years at Cheney, but also from growing up in Tacoma and working nearly his entire life here.  All along, I gain a new appreciation for Cheney.  My opinion of the place hasn’t changed.  I still think its ugly, and not a very comfortable place to watch a game.  Yet the stadium that took only 59 days to make, in large part to promise of moving the Giants Triple A affiliate there in 1960 if they can get it done, has become a place of memories for Tacoma’s residents.  Going on three generations of locals have come to know the place as a local hangout, and just as old timers will tell you memories of places like the Polo Grounds or Seals Stadium in San Francisco.  This place is much younger historically, but going on three generations have come to Cheney Stadium.  Speaking of Seals Stadium, Cheney Stadium was being built as Seals Stadium was being torn down, so many of the seats and the lights from the San Francisco Stadium where recycled here.

Before leaving, we meet with Dave McKenna, Vice President of Operations for the Rainiers.  Retired military who served in Afghanistan, McKenna, doesn’t want to talk about his war experience.  He’s a baseball man, and that’s what it talks about.  With only a few short years of experience, McKenna quickly moved into a top position with the team, rebuilt old relationships, built new ones, and whenever possible, involved the local community.  The key, I learn, is to have locals feel a sense of ownership.  Local contractors can tell how they helped build that wall.  Local food vendors can tell folks how these are their hotdogs…the list goes on.  Like most of the fans we met, McKenna loves Cheney Stadium like a captain loves an old ship.  The place feels like its being held together by duct tape in places, but it’s got character.

McKenna’s praise for his staff is unyielding, especially the grounds crew.  At first I think this is because Leo is there, but the list of awards and acknowledgments along the way is impressive.  Later, I go back over my notes from my first visit the Cheney, and sure enough, one of the best parts I notice is the condition of the field.

We are ready to move onto Seattle.  Leo realizes he has forgotten his keys, so we have to run back to his house.  We decide to pick up my wife and daughter who are accompanying me on this trip and are waiting with my sister.  We also decide to pick up Leo’s wife.  The five of us make the 40 minute drive up to Seattle, and arrive at Safeco at 11:45 PM.  Never would I image taking a midnight tour of a big league park, but that’s what we did.  Walking onto the playing surface, security light glaring off the field, gives a whole new perspective on the size of this place.

I started to gain a new appreciation for Seattle’s one of a kind, umbrella style roof.  It’s huge, measuring 20 feet longer than the Space Needle is high.  The roof is closed because of the rain, but since the umbrella sits above the stadium, the place still feels open and airy.  Leo talks a lot about the roof and how it is the key to this stadium.  Sure locals have complained plenty about the cost to tax payers to build Safeco, but a substantial sub-section of Seattle’ economy depends on that roof.  The most isolated of the major league teams, with San Francisco and Oakland being the closest teams, the Mariners have a fan belt that extends from Alaska to Montana, northern British Columbia to southern Oregon.  People fly into Seattle to catch a Mariners game, usually staying the night.  Thanks to Inchiro, the fan belt now extends across the Pacific to Japan.  How many of these trips would be cancelled if these baseball fans thought that the game could be canceled because of rain.  It was actually one of my biggest fears as I tried to squeeze 10 games into two trips…a rainout.  The roof is so important to visitors from outside Seattle, that Leo can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t put a roof over their building.

It’s after 1:00 AM when we finish.  The team is expected to return any minute for their series in Texas.  A number of people are sitting in cars waiting to pick up their husbands or significant others.  Leo himself will be back in a few hours to get the field ready for their game the next day.  I get into my hotel at almost 2:00, my daughter asleep in my arms, but I am not tired.  I feel like a kid again, one that has just stayed up past his bedtime to see an adventurous movie, or maybe to watch a ballgame on a school night.  I guess that’s just what ballparks do to people.

---

Reader Feedback

---

Post a Comment

Display Name (required)

Email (will not be published) (required)

Website Address (URL)

I agree to the Posting Guidelines.

Having problems submitting a comment? Email us at

---

---