"Dad, want to have a catch?" "No! Go practice your corner kicks!"

"The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again.But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come. " -Terrance Mann, Field of Dreams

You've never heard anybody say that about soccer.

Yet we are suddenly faced with a battle between soccer and baseball in Portland, and it looks more and more like it is baseball that will be forced out of town.

All because we so desperately want an MLS soccer team.

Let's go over this again: when Portland was granted an MLS expansion franchise to begin play in 2011, the agreement was that Portland would renovate PGE park to make it soccer-only, while also building a new stadium for the Portland Beavers. Two proposed sites were put on the table: Memorial Coliseum and Lents Park. But then the public didn't want to tear down the Coliseum, even despite how old and dilapidated it is. Then, the public lashed out against building a stadium in Lents Park, and the city officially took the site off the table.

So now, suddenly there are no options for a baseball stadium in Portland and a Sept. 1 deadline looming. If nothing can be found, baseball leaves town.

All because we so desperately want an MLS soccer team.

We were told my Meritt Paulson that building for soccer would not come at baseball's expense, but now it appears like it will. For the record, I was on board with the option of putting the stadium at Lents Park, but not as an end-all option. It was completely unfair for the city to put residents in a position of "It's Lents or nothing," but the poor planning brought it to that.

Now baseball might be leaving, and for what? Soccer? Let's get one thing straight right now:

Soccer is a fad.

At least it is in Portland. Residents love the Timbers and the MLS and the European leagues because it is the trendy thing to do at the moment. Portlanders love what other cities have, and right now Portlanders are looking at Seattle with their Sounders and thinking that looks fun, I want that. But Seattle is only enamored with the Sounders because the Sonics left and the rest of their teams suck. Seattle had a natural need and love for the Sounders that is genuine. Beyond the initial excitement with the green scarves and the Timber Army in the MLS, do you honestly think soccer is going to have a lasting popularity in Portland?

For that matter, will the entire MLS even still be relevant in a few years? It wasn't that long ago that the MLS was viewed as a fringe league trying to stay above water.

The Beavers have been in town since 1903. Think soccer would have that kind of longevity in Portland?

Paulson and mayor Sam Adams were so caught up in the newness of MLS soccer that they let it cloud their judgement and planning, and in doing so they now risk letting a franchise with ties to multiple generations leave town without a fight. Their eyes were solely on soccer that they lost sight of baseball until it was too late.

Baseball is everything soccer is not. It's historic. It has ties to Portland. Baseball has stuck around throughout the trends and appeals to the masses. Ask any kid and they'll tell you they'd rather take their glove to a baseball game. Soccer, on the other hand, is a sport that appeals to Portland's elitist, 21-30 crowd because it is so anti-sport. But in a choice between baseball and soccer, it's soccer that seems poised to stay in town. It isn't a genuine love for soccer in Portland, it's just that it's trendy! It's European! It appeals to our Keep Portland Weird mentality!

But Portlanders are a fickle bunch, and unlike in real soccer cities, in a few years the fad of soccer will wear off and Portlanders will move on to whatever is in style then.

And when the Timbers are playing before empty crowds in five years, Portland will realize how important baseball really was.

Lents Park can still give back with a stadium

I've lived down the street from Lents Park for most of my life, and I've garnered my share of great memories there.

Lents had the only nearby baseball field with lights, giving kids a chance to experience playing in a night game (provided you were able sneak in under the fence after the little leaguers left).

Lents provided many an opportunity for football on its 100-yard gridiron, complete with goalposts, something no other park in our neighborhood had.

Lents was my home for picnics, low-budget movie shoots, and was the place where I first started dating my now-fiance.

But despite all of that, I feel that the park, the area, and the surrounding neighborhood would be better off if Lents was the new site for Portland's minor league ballpark.

With the MLS Portland Timbers set to be the sole tenants of downtown's PGE Park in 2011, Portland had been busy trying to find a site to build a new baseball stadium. The field has been narrowed down to two options: tear down Memorial Coliseum and build the stadium there, or build it at Lents Park. Portlanders have been adamant that they don't want to tear down the unused eyesore that is the Coliseum, and yet, they also don't want to build it at Lents Park, saying that it would ruin the comfy, relaxed feel of a nice little neighborhood.

But those people are turning a blind eye to what the neighborhood is really like.

Anyone who has lived in or been to the Lents/Foster-Powell neighborhood knows that the area is deteriorating. Longtime businesses are closing their doors. Longtime residents are moving away and their homes are being replaced with low-income housing. The area, as far as economic or cultural advancement, has been stagnant. I went away to college for four years and when I got back, things had only gotten worse.

Lents Park is not a safe little haven isolated from what is happening to the surrounding neighborhood. If drugs and poverty keep affecting the neighborhood as it had, then keeping a park is not going to help it.

That's why this baseball stadium could be the thing that puts the neighborhood back on track. It could provide business that the area sorely needs, with the stadium providing jobs, a kick start to nearby businesses, and an incentive for new business to come to the area. The new North-South MAX transit line will help the businesses even more.

It also gives an influx of culture, and gives the area something to feel proud of. Regardless of what Portland west-siders and affluent downtown dwellers might say, Southeast Portland is still Portland, and it deserves to feel like it is a part of the city. If the stadium is built at Lents, Southeast families wouldn't have to plan a whole day around taking the kids downtown to see the Beavers play, or transversing traffic to get to the Rose Quarter, they could just take a stroll to Lents to catch a game. Kids in Southeast Portland wouldn't feel do distant from their sports teams; as soon as the final bell rang at Marshall or Franklin High, Binnsmead middle school, or Marysville Elementary, they can head straight to the game. Sure, the west-siders may have to make a trip out there, but now they would know how the other half lived.

The stadium would be a great way to bring a neighborhood together, and it doesn't have to be an eyesore, either. Let's keep the elements that made Lents Park so accommodating: a place for families to visit, play, spend quality time. Give the kids a play area, or a grassy hill to watch the game from outside the fence. Embrace the neighborhood by sponsoring activities with nearby schools, and make kids and families welcome. PGE park was tucked away so far downtown that it felt it was detached from kids, but Lents can give kids a feeling that the park is theirs.

It can be done, and it must be done in order to begin to rebuild a neighborhood that is going backwards. A stadium may not the the end-all solution to the problems, but it's a start in the right direction, and no amount of traffic hassles is worse than letting the area slip away.

I love Lents Park, and a huge part of me would be sad to see it go. It would be hard to see a baseball stadium in place of the fields, trees, and paths that have provided families with so many memories. It would hurt to know that I could never sit on the swings where I first asked out my fiance.

But I care too much about my neighborhood as a whole to see it continue to suffer as it has. There are still other great parks in the area (although, in my mind, none will ever compare to Lents), such as Essex and Mt. Scott, and my hope is that the new stadium will be designed as a place for all types of families to come together and make memories.

But with the neighborhood hurting big time, we need to step up to rebuild it. The Stadium at Lents Park would be a great place to start.