'Endangered' historic designation for LaGrave Field isn't a hit

Anyone who doubts that magic happens inside a baseball diamond never watched the movie Field of Dreams, wherein elderly Doc "Moonlight" Graham steps across the foul line and turns back into the babyfaced Archie, just itching for a big-league at-bat.

But is that reason to let the cash-strapped owner of Fort Worth's LaGrave Field walk on city property taxes?

There's no doubt that the baseball greats who ran the bases in an earlier incarnation of LaGrave give the city bragging rights that "Babe Ruth played here" -- and Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays, Ted Williams and other immortals in the game's Hall of Fame. But does that turn a 2002 stadium into an endangered historical artifact worthy of a taxpayer subsidy?

Fort Worth's Historic and Cultural Landmarks Commission voted 8-0 this week to recommend giving LaGrave Field on the city's Near North Side a "Highly Significant Endangered" historic designation.

Endangered by what?

The designation would mean the stadium owner won't have to pay taxes for 10 years on the value of improvements to the building structure. That's as long as at least 30 percent of the improvements go toward rehabilitation, according to the city's website.

There apparently isn't a rehab project in the works for LaGrave, but it's conceivable that the promise of a tax break could make the property more attractive to a buyer, which owner Carl Bell has been seeking. The historic designation is tied to the property, not the owner.

Bell so far hasn't been able to persuade the city to take over the ballpark, but a tax freeze certainly would be a public investment in the facility.

And it's hard to justify, especially when so many city services have been cut to make tight budgets work.

A staff report considered by the Landmarks Commission indicates that the field meets five of the criteria for historic designation: distinctive character or value, exemplifying the city's heritage; an important relationship to other distinctive structures or sites; significant archaeological value; site of a significant historic event; and identification with contributors to the culture of Fort Worth, Texas or the United States.

The standards are broad. But whether LaGrave meets them all is arguable.

The first LaGrave Field was built at North Seventh and Calhoun streets in 1926, but it burned down and was rebuilt in 1949. When the original Fort Worth Cats folded in 1965, the stadium went down, too.

Bell bought the property in 2001, found the metal anchors for second and third base still there and reused the 1926 dugouts in the $14 million ballpark he built on the original site for the current independent-league Cats.

It's a family-friendly, affordable place to watch baseball and a community asset with a memorable history.

But metal base anchors and even 85-year-old dugouts aren't the most significant of historic structures.

Shoot, even the site of Hank Aaron's monumental 715th home run is now a parking lot outside Atlanta's Turner Field, commemorated by markers for the bases and home plate he touched that April night in 1974.

Not to suggest that LaGrave should be asphalted over -- that would be a profound loss.

But when Fort Worth City Council members consider whether to approve this potential tax break, they should focus less on the ghosts of baseball legends and more on the very real fiscal challenges of the present and very near future.

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