Editor’s Inbox

Chris: 

I read recently with delight about the Mariners & Major League Baseball teaming up to give more than $2 million for renovations for Seattle’s Rainier Playfield, grants to local baseball and softball teams, and an intramural league to connect middle schoolers with sports.

Hats off to fellow Seattle attorney and Executive Vice President, Fred Rivera’s vision: “We are committed to long-term investment in a vision for barrier-free baseball and softball for youth in our community. . . . We know that access to play baseball and softball helps deliver lifelong benefits and that providing resources for community members to pursue their dreams on and off the field helps support a vibrant and healthy hometown.”

Fred came to bat big time for a fellow community-involved attorney and his wife, neither of whom he ever met. They were young die-hard sports fans and she was terminally ill. He set them up with amazing seats, and eats on the house, to make indelible memories.

Another Seattle attorney was devoted to social justice and youth baseball. And probably grinning ear to ear — from the great upstairs. The late Jim Douglas helped expand the Rainier District Little League and gave hundreds of kids from diverse backgrounds the opportunity to play baseball in a well-run program. Jim himself, aside from practicing law for those truly in need, played senior softball with a team called “Casket Ready.” He loved coaching, umpiring and later running that Rainer Little League, in addition to helping the downtrodden with their legal needs. Jim was also part of a legal team that investigated the complex involvement of President Ferdinand Marcos and his cronies in suppressing democracy in the Philippines and influencing elections in the U.S., an investigation that took them through the worlds of espionage, Filipino gangs and international corruption, when two union activists, Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes, were gunned down in their Pioneer Square office in 1981. 

Always heartening to hear about “mensches” like Fred Rivera and Jim Douglas, who make and made our local community, through sports (and otherwise) truly better.

And it’s root root root for our home team, indeed.