Since this is vacation time, perhaps the best way to describe the baseball facility at Free State High is to say it’s a nice place to play, but you sure wouldn’t want to watch a game there.

Or as Carl Brooks, coach of the American Legion Raiders, told me: “It’s a great place for the players, but it’s awful for the fans. It’s horrible.”

No one who has ever watched a baseball game at Free State High could possibly disagree.

If the portable restrooms, lack of concessions and the distant parking weren’t enough, the inadequate bleachers with partially obscured views are visual torture.

When the Free State facility was first built in conjunction with the erection of Lawrence’s second high school back in the late ’90s, the school district poured its money into providing a first-class diamond for Free State High student-athletes. That’s commendable.

At the time, it was assumed both Free State High and Lawrence High baseball players would use the facility, much like both use Haskell Stadium for football. But baseball isn’t football, and Lawrence High coaches and officials balked. They preferred to stay at older, smaller Ice Field for much the same reason the Cubs would never consider leaving Wrigley Field to share Comiskey Park with the White Sox. Home is home.

Ice Field, located in Holcom Complex, was built when high school and Legion players used wooden bats, so it’s a throwback with center field only 350 feet from home plate. Heck, men’s slow-pitch teams play on fields nearly that big. Yet Lawrence High baseball  I should probably say “tradition-rich Lawrence High baseball”  has thrived at the Ice bandbox.

Because it is one of four diamonds in Holcom Complex  the three smaller ones are for youth baseball and high school softball  Ice Field has restrooms, a concession stand and plenty of parking.

So why don’t they play this week’s Legion zone tourney at Ice Field instead of Free State? Ice Field has the seats, the fan amenities and the parking to make it an ideal spot for a tournament. Why inflict Free State’s facility from hell on the team followers who will be driving here from Kansas City, Overland Park and Olathe?

One reason  access. At the free-standing Free State facility, Legion officials can control the gate. At Ice Field, they can’t because of concurrent activities at Holcom Complex.

“By playing at Free State, we make $4,000,” Brooks said. “That makes a difference. It keeps the players’ fees down for one thing. It pays for the cost of motels when we go on the road, and that’s a cost that’s really escalated.”

While the Legion was able to land a zone tourney, securing the State Legion Tournament is out of the question. Ice Field is too small and admission can’t be controlled. Free State, while boasting one of the best playing areas in Kansas, is so fan-unfriendly local Legion officials haven’t wasted their time applying for the state meet.

“They wouldn’t give it to us with that facility,” Brooks said. “We could have it at KU, I guess, but that costs too much.”

Kansas University’s Hoglund Ballpark would be ideal, but liability insurance is the stumbling block.

Clearly, Free State is the city’s baseball diamond of the future. Unfortunately, it’s probably the distant future in view of the current state of state funding for education. There has been talk about city help, but that may not be realistic, either. Incidentally, a restroom-concession stand would also be available for the adjacent FSHS softball diamond and perhaps even for the nearby track facility.

How much would it cost to install permanent bleachers and a combination restroom-concession area? At least six figures to do it right and, said Brooks, “We don’t want it to be done halfway.”

What Free State’s baseball stadium really needs is a sugar daddy, or sugar corporation, to write a check for the sorely needed capital improvements. It’s no secret colleges and universities rely almost completely on donor money for capital improvements. Why shouldn’t high schools do the same thing?