By LEAH WEATHERSBY

Athletes who use Meadowbrook Field Two and Field Three located behind the Meadowbrook Community Center at 10517 35th Ave NE, got a rude - and soggy - awakening this spring. Due to overflow from an adjacent stream known as Meadowbrook Creeklet, the two fields were too wet to play on earlier this year.

"You would sink down to your ankles in goo and muck," said Steve Wiliams, president of North Seattle Baseball Association.

Sports teams from nearby Nathan Hale High School and Meadowbrook Community Center also use the fields.

While Field Two has reopened, Field Three was still closed as of late May.

"It's a wait and see issue now, " said Mickey Merriam, senior athletic field coordinator for the Department of Parks & Recreation. "We monitor the field daily."

The Meadowbrook creeklet was completed in the late '90s. According to Janine VanSanden, Parks Department volunteer coordinator for Northeast Seattle, volunteers who had been charged with caring for the small creek had not realized that plants growing the stream could cause the water table to rise.

VanSanden said she was made aware of wet condition on those fields in March and a maintenance crew was sent out to clear away the "mid-channel" vegetation. She said that the water level has since dropped six inches.

"Since the volunteers (no distinct group) had been charged with all of the maintenance of the new system in perpetuity, yes, I guess one could say that they had dropped the ball," said VanSanden. "On the other hand, this situation had never occurred before, and we had not gotten reports earlier that the ballfields were extra soggy. This will become an annual maintenance task for the volunteers in the future."

The reasons why Field Two and Field Three were made unplayable by the rise in water level are somewhat of a mystery. Because field one at the lowest elevation means that it should be unplayable now as well.

"There is a chance, since this site is fill, and fill is prone to liquefaction, that the Feb. 28 earthquake may have changed something underground in Fields Two and Three," VanSanden said.

Meanwhile, the field closures have had a serious impact on the North Seattle Baseball Association. Williams said that the group's concession service, which usually generates $6,000-$8,000 per year, has been severely curtailed.

For more information, call 684-7096. (