Metro Pulse/Ear to the Ground

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Take Me Out to the...

On Monday, County Executive Mike Ragsdale's chief of staff Mike Arms confirmed rumors of a baseball-stadium proposal for the 400 block of State Street in a technical-society meeting. To some, it brought a disquieting sense of deja vu. All the buildings on that block, some of them historic and slated to be renovated as residences, were torn down a few years ago to build something: We heard about a county jail and sheriff's office, then about the Universe Knoxville planetarium which is now, at best, MIA. Considering it's been nothing but a weedy mud pit for a long time, the prospect of building anything there starts looking good. Of course, a baseball-stadium project was the reason this block came into the sights of eminent domain to begin with. That was back when the city was trying to recruit the minor-league Smokies to stay in town.

The questions are familiar. Is the area really big enough for a baseball stadium? Previous proposals ran into resistance when it was discovered that they might call for spreading beyond this site in an anschluss that would remove more historic buildings and businesses. And why build a new baseball stadium on this slope, when less than a mile away is broad, flat Caswell Park, presently in transition , but proven, since World War I, to be conducive to the playing of baseball?

This particular proposal might seem especially surprising to those who know that UT still has a nine-year-old Lindsey Nelson Stadium right on campus; with seating for 4,000, it's rarely sold out. Athletic department employees Wednesday were surprised to hear about the State Street proposal. "As far as I know, we're happy with our facility," says sports-information staffer Jeff Muir. He admits that some coaches have been grumbling that it's not as fan-friendly as several newer, fancier stadiums in the SEC, but that might be addressed by a long-range plan to build a complex on the south side of the river. One advantage of the downtown site is that beer, which goes with baseball like Cracker Jacks, is allowed here but not on campus. And the fact that prodigious music promoter Ashley Capps has expressed interest in making such a downtown sports facility work as a major outdoor entertainment venue makes the idea seem almost plausible.

Learning Curve

The 7th County Commission District is represented by one of the most senior commissioners, Mary Lou Horner, and one of the newbies, Scott "Scoobie" Moore. And at Monday's meeting, the first full meeting for Moore and the other neophyte commissioners who were elected in August, Moore engaged his seatmate in battle over a piece of property the school board aims to acquire to use as a practice field for the Halls High School band. Moore pushed his new colleagues to approve the half-million dollar, three-acre strip of land, while Horner opposed it on the basis that the selling price is inflated. After much wrangling, the vote came down 11-8, in Horner's favor.

Bird Watchers

When 5th District County Commissioner Mike Arms resigned his seat Monday to devote his time to being County Executive Mike Ragsdale's chief of staff, he told his colleagues how much he'd enjoyed working with them. That prompted Commission prankster John Mills to ask a question:

"Do I get to keep my bird?"

Much laughter ensued, since everyone understood the "bird" question to be a reference to a recent meeting when Arms became so angry at Mills' quips that he flipped him a middle finger, uttered an audible obscenity in Mills' direction and "vowed" to "get" him on an upcoming, controversial rezoning vote in Mills' district.

Arms took his medicine with aplomb this time, with the humorous, yet cryptic, remark that "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."