I am told that Major League Baseball has been holding a $1 million gift hostage, secretly, and not allowing the general public to know that the gift was so-called payment for the naming of a Lower Woodland Park facility after the 2001 All-Star Baseball Game.

The funds are supposed to allow Park officials to revamp the baseball parks at Lower Woodland. They say that drainage of the parks, new bleachers, new lighting and a general overhaul of the ballparks is planned. Certainly, these facilities need attention.

However, once the ballpark is named for the "Mariners/Major League/2001 All-Star Game," the name will become permanent, for a thousand years or so.

I would have to consider $1 million a cheap shot, for a thousand-year naming right that would never be interrupted.

As far as all the improvements that are planned are concerned, if you get a team of architects, a general contractor, some attorneys and a bunch of high-priced laborers together, you can't build a bird house for less than $10,000. I doubt that $1 million, while perhaps helpful, will cover the costs involved for five baseball parks. The drainage situation alone could eat up most of that small sum, especially at good old soggy Lower Woodland playfield. The runoff from the cliffs to the west of the playfields has kept this area wet for years. What's left after the massive drainage problem is solved might buy a few light bulbs.

And, while we are on the subject, is there any good reason the Mariners need to expand their power beyond the highly expensive stadium we have already bought them, over the heads of our votes? And, could it be considered "good sportsmanship" to declare that your firm (Mariners/Major League Baseball) has donated a gift to the city, leaving the public with the impression that it is a done-deal, when they actually have no intention of giving the money to the city unless they can slap their name on a publicly owned Park Department facility? I think not. It is shameful, poor-sportsmanslike and arrogant.

- ANDREW VANBUREN JR., North Seattle