Youth baseball fans in new competition

Signs, traffic complaints at Fields Bridge Park reach city council

By Kara Hansen

The West Linn Tidings, Jul 29, 2010

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With their season barely over, West Linn youth baseball fans have found themselves in a new match-up.

It’s the city of West Linn vs. West Linn Baseball Association.

Youth sports supporters pummeled the city council with letters over the past week after learning of complaints about sponsorship signage and increased traffic at Fields Bridge Park, whose two fields are some of the only places to play ball in West Linn.

Behind much of the fervor was Mike Hughes, president of the West Linn Baseball Association.

Hughes said multiple people approached him to complain about ball games over the Fourth of July, a four-tournament weekend at the fields. He was also aware of similar comments made at recent city council meetings. And he remembered encountering backlash from a few locals when city officials were in the approval process for the park.

Those factors led him to issue a “call to action” to the baseball community and other youth sports supporters, Hughes said.

“As a former members of the (park and recreation advisory board) and being involved in West Linn politics over the years, I have found it better to get out in front of an issue instead of remaining silent and letting the vocal few determine the outcome just because they were the only people speaking up.”

The battle brewed as youth baseball grew increasingly popular at Fields Bridge Park, whose weather-friendly turf surfaces — paid for in a partnership between the baseball association and the city — prevented all but a few rainouts despite one of the wettest springs in memory.

Players’ experience shows. Multiple West Linn teams of 10- to 12-year-olds won state tournaments this year. Overall, more than 600 West Linn youths participated in the baseball association.

But not everyone is as thrilled about baseball’s success.

At a city council meeting earlier this summer, Elizabeth Rocchia called attention to advertisements along the back wall of the outfield.

Living near the park for many years, she said she has enjoyed watching it develop from an open grassy field to a community space with public garden plots, a fishing platform and recreational facilities such as ball fields.

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