Save Centennial Field!

Though I haven't written much about it here, I am a massive baseball fan, and I spent many happy days during four years of my childhood watching the Vermont Lake Monsters, then a single-A team for the Expos, now a Nationals subsidiary, playing games at Centennial Field in Burlington. So I was devastated to read that the park is in danger of being shuttered. I honestly don't remember if the field was dreadful or not, only that the baseball was, mostly. But it was a great small-town stadium, and the young men who played there were, despite what sound like the indignity of the conditions they played in, total gentlemen, generous to kids and fans. If there's someone out there who wore #34 for the Lake Monsters at some point between 1991 and 1995, I'd happily buy you a beer today to thank you for signing my team hat at least three times during that period. I don't remember your name, but I thought you were great (and maybe a little dreamy, too). And my checkbook is at the ready for anyone who gets together an effort to save Centennial. Small-town baseball is an American cultural treasure. It shouldn't die, anywhere, because stimulus funding doesn't come through, as long as there are people who want to watch the games.