City needs to step up

Re: Why do Spokane Teams Struggle at the American Legion Level (Aug. 1).

Coach Byrne cites driving through Tri-Cities and seeing the ballparks busy with kids practicing. He would see similar sights in Ellensburg, Yakima, Wenatchee, Chewelah, Newport, Walla Walla, and Moses Lake; all have invested in facilities specifically designed for youth baseball.

Spokane has not. Our kids play on school fields and city parks designed for low maintenance. There are no dugouts, no mounds, no grass infields. The areas around the bases look like golf course sand traps. Youth programs are barred from maintaining these fields; they are not even permitted to mow the grass. So kids break teeth on ground balls or stand with one foot six inches higher than the other while they bat. They pitch uphill at Balboa Elementary and avoid the concrete pad in center field at Arlington. Middle school youth leagues don’t even have fields with the proper field proportions.

Imagine the future of basketball in Spokane if middle school kids played on nine-foot rims?

Meanwhile, the city constructs a multi-million dollar adult softball complex and still refuses to cede the old facility to youth baseball.

Baseball in Spokane will continue to lag behind the rest of the state until city government takes an interest in the kids playing it.

Bruce Holbert

Nine Mile Falls