Welcoming the new McEuen

Go ahead. Grab the hanky and give it a good snort. A summer tradition has doffed its cap by the lake for the last time.

Gone are the fences around the American Legion ballpark at McEuen Field, and even to those who never swung at a fastball or even watched an inning there, nostalgia demands taking a final bow. It was always a good place to play baseball, as several generations of kids with big dreams can attest. And thus it is worthwhile to mark this point in history as one to be fondly remembered, to conjure up during winter snowstorms the telltale scents of leather and sweat and hear the joyful banter of fans and foes until our kids play ball again.

And play they will. In fact, while baseball is destined to move to the fields next to Kroc Center and perhaps to blossom even further at Cherry Hill, where baseball fever is fueling the drive to build a $2.7 million ballpark, our summer pastime is far from dead. These two developments could put baseball more prominently on the local map than anyone dared imagine when talk of moving from McEuen began in earnest back in 1997.

But it's perfectly understandable that people seeing The Press photo Friday of the fences being removed at McEuen would feel a sense of loss, would feel remorse that not only has an annual chapter closed again, but that particular book has ended as well. Though some will insist on making it so, this need not be a bitter ending. While it's a new beginning for baseball players and fans in the greater Coeur d'Alene area, it is also the start of something better for McEuen.

The whole idea behind removing the tennis courts and now, the baseball fences from McEuen was to open the park to greater usage. The skeptics will say it was used enough; the cynics will say the changes bear the fingerprints of locals who have sold out to big business and more tourists at the expense of local taxpayers and park patrons.

But ask those who live or work next to McEuen how much the park has been used this summer, and you'll consistently hear that even on gorgeous summer afternoons, patronage was paltry. Many of us are confident that the changes coming to McEuen will dramatically increase the park's popularity with locals, but the truth is, it would be difficult not to improve on its poor current usage. In our view, the sky's the limit with McEuen. Now perhaps it will become a field of dreams for many more North Idahoans.