August 24, 2004

Pro baseball faces obstacles in county

By RALPH LEEF
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

It's easy to feel almost giddy about the possibility, however remote, of California League baseball returning to Sonoma County.

The Sonoma County A's has a nice ring to it.

Giants, Brewers, Rockies, Mariners. All music to the ears. Who cares what major-league affiliation is attached. Just get it here in a hurry.

But, please, don't settle in Rohnert Park.

Bless those folks in Rohnertland for building a stadium for minor-league baseball and only charging $1 a year rent.

But shame on them for not putting a dome over it to keep out the wind and fog.

Sonoma County Crushers' owner Bob Fletcher worked a small miracle to draw more than 700,000 fans to the fridge in eight independent league seasons.

But now it's time for real minor-league ball, preferably in Santa Rosa or along the freeway north of town where Candlestick Park-like conditions aren't an almost nightly occurrence.

Giddiness aside, the question needs to be asked about Kenwood resident Chris Lee's attempt to bring minor-league ball back to the area. Is this realistic, or just diamond-shaped pie in the sky?

Lee doesn't see pie when he looks up. Nor does he seem to be living in fantasyland.

The assistant news director for KRON-TV in San Francisco - the No. 2 man on a staff of 165 - knows the score. He was the London bureau chief for Christian Science Monitor television, has worked in several TV markets around the country, and also worked for the Sony Corporation for five years.

His late father-in-law, Wayne Thompson, was Oakland City Manager from 1954-65 and a behind-the-scenes force in helping to build the Oakland Coliseum complex.

Lee is sold on the idea that if you build a small, comfortable stadium and fill it with top prospects, people will come. Heck of a lot better to pay $10 for a ticket than to put $20 in the old gas-guzzler for a trip to San Francisco or Oakland, pay another $20 to park it, $30 or $40 for hotdogs and beer and, oh, yes, another bunch of bucks for game tickets. Just hand over the wallet.

Why not watch some budding stars for a fraction of the cost?

Included among the players who performed at Rohnert Park Stadium when the Pioneers of the California League were affiliated with the Anaheim Angels were Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, Will Clark, Kirby Puckett and Kent Hrbek.

Devon White, Mark McLemore, Jack Howell, Bob Kipper and Carl Nichols played for the Pioneers in 1983 when they won the Cal League title. Each went on to play in the majors.

It could all happen here again, but imagine the roadblocks Lee faces.

"The devil is in the details," says Sonoma County Supervisor Tim Smith, who has met Lee and has worked with Jim Olmsted, a former Sonoma County planner who is backing Lee's plan.

Smith wants to see baseball return. He sees public benefit.

But he wonders how Lee will locate 20 suitable acres with all the services needed (sewer, water, freeway access) for a ballpark.

"Land is so prohibitively expensive," Smith said. "The key will be for them to find preferred alternatives and see how far they can get through the process."

Oh, yes, the process.

Will Lee get burned out by the never-ending bureaucracy? Will he become numbed by NIMBY-ism? Will he be doomed by the area's lingering economic woes?

I might welcome a Cal League stadium in my back yard, but what about my neighbors? The 10-team California League has a 140-game schedule. That's 70 home games, many of them under the lights until 11 p.m.

The process also includes raising $16 million or so to build the stadium and purchase the team.

But, as Smith says, "nothing ventured, nothing gained."

Smith and fellow Supervisor Paul Kelley, a baseball buff, can't think of any county land along 101 north of Santa Rosa large enough to accommodate a new ballpark.

Both wonder if redevelopment areas in the City of Santa Rosa might be the best way to acquire affordable land.

Santa Rosa public officials can't make a gift of 20 acres. But they can make it attractive by being creative with back-loaded long-term leases.

A downtown stadium would be the ideal.

I vote for