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The Oly Sports road trip took me to Yakima last night to see the Yakima Bears top the Spokane Indians 7-3. My reason for making a long trip to Yakima is simple, I had never been to a Bears game and wanted to see one before the team relocates to Hillsboro, Oregon next season.

And after seeing Yakima County Stadium, I can understand why the Bears ownership feels that the stadium is no longer a viable MiLB park. It certainly is past it’s prime and hasn’t been well maintained. That’s both the fault of the county, who have been resistant to putting big money into the facility, and an ownership group that doesn’t want to put money into the stadium because the county won’t make the big changes necessary to keep the Bears in town.

So what does this have to do with Olympia? Well, once the Bears move from Yakima, the West Coast League will probably move to town and Yakima County Stadium will be one of the nicest facilities in the league. A new ownership group that wants to be there will come in and work with the county to put a fresh coat of paint on things, spiff it up and make it look pretty and probably add some features that it has been lacking.  A new beginning that doesn’t have the pressure of MiLB standards is just what Yakima County Stadium needs.

For Olympia, the West Coast League is the only option we will ever have for spectator baseball and it is a good option. But we lack a proper facility and with Yakima County Stadium becoming a part of the league and possibly Gesa Stadium in the Tri-Cities if Milwaukie, Oregon gets their wish of building a second stadium in the Portland area for a Northwest League team, the stadiums of the WCL will only get bigger and better and a new ballpark in Olympia only gets costlier and costlier and less likely.