The Trump administration has scouted sites inside Grand Teton National Park to build a Major League Baseball field, the Washington Post reported Saturday, after MLB asked about staging a regular-season game in a national park.
National Park Service Deputy Director Frank Lands toured three potential locations, including one the Post described as “already disturbed land.” WyoFile, reporting from the park Sunday, noted that while a baseball field can cover about four acres, a stadium can take 25. A full complex with parking can occupy hundreds more. The park’s recently disturbed land is roughly 10 acres of sagebrush bulldozed for a trailhead parking expansion.
Visitors WyoFile spoke with in the park greeted the news with disbelief. “Keep America’s pastime in our baseball parks, not in our national parks,”said David Kelly, an Angels fan from L.A.
National parks are among the country’s most protected national public lands. Constructing a baseball field at Grand Teton could set a dangerous precedent for the entire park system.
“America’s national parks are already in a league of their own,”said Aaron Weiss, executive director at the Center for Western Priorities. “We have a responsibility to care for them, not turn them into a TV spectacle.”
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Quote of the day
MLB you should know that Grand Teton National Park, home to free ranging wildlife, including grizzly bears, bison, wolves, moose, cougars and elk, is not an appropriate or safe venue for your baseball fantasy.”
—Joan Anzelmo, former superintendent of Colorado National Monument, WyoFile
Picture This
Katmai’s brown bears are among the largest bears on Earth. Standing 3–5 feet at the shoulder and stretching 7–10 feet long, they are less “large animal” and more “walking pile of muscle with a snack agenda.”
By mid-summer, adult males are already tipping the scales at 600–900 pounds. But as winter approaches, they enter their annual transformation phase: less “bear,” more “professional food storage unit.”
By October and November, some large males can weigh over 1,000 pounds. Adult females are typically about one-third smaller than males, but still impressively chunky because in the bear world, “getting ready for winter” means turning calories into a luxurious layer of portable insulation. Same.
(Featured image: Grand Teton National Park near Jackson Lake Lodge. Photo by Chascar, Wikimedia Commons)