Voice of the Mid-Columbia | Kennewick, Pasco and Richland, Wash. |
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Chris Mulick has worked for the Herald since 1998 and has served as the statehouse correspondent covering state government and politics since 2000. He works year-round out of the Herald's Olympia bureau on the state Capitol campus. Have a question? Send Chris an e-mail and he'll answer the best questions regularly. |
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Remember that money the Legislature approved in 2006 to help renovate minor league baseball stadiums in Tacoma, Spokane, Everett, Yakima and the Tri-Cities? The money was included in the final budget plan at the insistence of Sen. Margarita Prentice, a Renton Democrat and chairwoman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
Well, the photos at right show you just what that money paid for at what is now known as Gesa Stadium in Pasco.
That towering structure over the first base stands is a sun shade designed to keep fans sitting along the third base side from roasting. Before it was built fans would bake in the direct sun as it set.
At the time the money was approved I wondered what such a structure would look like. And it turns out that it looks considerably better than I had envisioned. In fact the sun shade is the ballpark's defining feature. It's certainly the most visible.
You'd think someone would give it a name. And since I doubt anyone would ever pay for naming rights, perhaps it should be declared the Margarita Prentice Memorial Sun Shade.
UPDATE: To answer a reader's question in the comments below, no, Sen. Prentice is alive and well. But it just had a nice ring to it. And why do we have to wait until people pass on to honor their accomplishments/sun shade funding?
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