Baseball, motherhood and apple pie

After listening to people talk about why they oppose a proposal to bring minor league baseball to Vancouver, I feel the need to share something that might be unpopular:

I don’t particularly enjoy baseball.

Don’t get me wrong. Build a stadium, don’t build a stadium. People have made good arguments on both sides, and I’m just trying to cover both sides. To me, baseball ranks among other topics on my county government beat that I can write about dispassionately. Like stormwater.

I say this to let other people know it’s OK to not like baseball. There are time limits during public comment, so people who show up to testify should know it’s OK to skip the qualifier and get to the point.

Most opponents feel the need to make it clear they love baseball, oh my gosh they luvvvv baseball, they have such fond memories of going to games when they were kids.

They just don’t like this baseball proposal because it comes with a tax.

Commissioner Tom Mielke, who opposes the project, noted the theme. “The general consensus is we all like and support baseball,” he said Tuesday. Just not an admissions tax.

So far, the owners have said there won’t be baseball in Vancouver without an admissions tax.

I did closely follow baseball once, by the way, and still have the scrapbook I made when the Los Angeles Dodgers won the 1988 World Series. And I’ve seen games at Wrigley Field and Fenway Park because, when you’re in Chicago and Boston, why not?

But I’m a football fan, and, apart from knowing the Mariners are horrible, I don’t know anything about what’s going on in major league baseball.

So while I’ve written two stories this week about the baseball proposal, the real news is the end of the NFL lockout.

Game on!