Burlingame to keep ‘gem’ as is

Thursday morning, I received an email with the subject line, “DO NOT APPROVE Modifications of Washington Main Baseball Field.”

Cue the vinyl-record scratch.

Turns out, a city of Burlingame field-use committee had been set up with representatives from all youth, high school and adult sports organizations and had been meeting for the last several months to discuss way and find solutions for increasingly cramped athletic field space.

Two proposals were eventually presented to the Parks and Recreation Commission, both of which suggest drastic changes to the baseball field at the city-owned Washington Park — including completely stripping away the infield grass to accommodate adult softball.

There has been a whole generation of Peninsula baseball fans who have known nothing but Washington Park as the way it is now. Count me among those who don’t remember it without infield grass. My first full year of covering high school athletics was the 2001-02 season.

But it really wasn’t that long ago it was almost exactly what was being proposed. During the Burlingame Parks and Recreation Commission regularly scheduled meeting last Thursday, a presentation said that the park opened in 1922 and had an all-dirt infield until it was renovated in 2002.

But the commission’s regularly scheduled meeting last Thursday at which the proposals, as part of the agenda, would be discussed, got twisted into, “the commission sprung a surprise, unscheduled meeting and is going to decide the fate of the baseball field at Washington Park and construction was imminent,” panic.

Turns out, it was a classic case of “Telephone” — that game where you whisper one thing in one person’s ear and see what the story has morphed into by the time it gets to the end of the line.

“No renovations,” said Margaret Glomstad, Burlingame Parks and Recreation director. “[The decision was] to leave it as is.”

There was a vote at last Thursday’s meeting, but it was unanimously decided to keep the field intact. If nothing else, this was a good civics lesson to see how city government works and affects its citizens.

But it’s also good to know that even if the commission had decided to move forward with one of two proposals, the likelihood of any go-ahead for any work was way down the line. Burlingame Mayor Donna Colson — who said her phone blew up with calls, texts and emails about the subject — confirmed there would be no final vote on the future of Washington Park at that Thursday meeting and that it was still in the discussion process.

“No, no, no, no. … After this meeting, there will be another field user meeting … and further discussion about what’s next. … This is all part of how the public process works. There will be many opportunities for people to comment,” Colson said.

But Colson also said a final decision would not be made in a vacuum. If the the decision was to move forward with one of the proposals, “I told [Glomstad] this would have to go to the City Council.”

Commissioner Howard Wettan said during the meeting he appreciated the fact that the committee came forward with proposals that likely would not be well received, but there didn’t seem to be a lot of support to move forward with any changes. Both the Burlingame Youth Baseball Association and Burlingame Girls’ Softball said it was not advocating for changes at Washington Park for any of their organizations’ needs.

Commissioner John Brunello said he talked to a number of people ahead of last Thursday’s meeting and one of the main things he took away from his conversations was just how beloved the field was.

“I spoke to a lot of people about this. I put a lot of time into this. Among the baseball community, that field is a cherished gem,” Brudello said. “I spoke to a lot of passion about that field. … I had no idea it was such an icon.”

Colson, who has been involved in the Burlingame youth sports scene as a parent and a coach, believes that Washington Park, as a venue, is more than just the rent the city brings in from the San Mateo Union High School District and other private groups.

“It is a beautiful facility and unique on the whole Peninsula and it is an economic driver for this city,” Colson said. “[Baseball fans] come here, go to a game, stay and eat, maybe run around Burlingame Avenue.

“It’s a big draw for the city.”

Renovations on other fields and spaces have been completed in recent years around the city and there are renovations currently going on at Cuernavaca Park, which officials hope will alleviate some of the pressure on other fields.

As far as adult softball goes, there were several people at the meeting who suggested ways to make the fields at Bayside Park more adult-game friendly.

While Washington Park appears safe for now, this is an opportunity for baseball fans in the city of Burlingame to realize that the city owns Washington Park, not Burlingame High School or the SMUHSD. It behooves you to be diligent in knowing what’s going on because it is a dynamic not often found.

“People often don’t understand Washington Park field belongs to the city and we lease it to the school,” Colson said. “[These proposals have] been brought up, but it didn’t seem to have a lot of traction. I don’t think people were really paying attention.”

Nathan Mollat can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com.