On a raw March day, a North Everett Little League coach handed me a schedule.
I looked at it, saw that my kid’s team would play 18 games, and accepted that life as I’d known it was over – for a couple months anyway.
A closer look had me puzzled. According to the list, most games would be played at Phil Johnson Ballfields.
Huh? Where? I didn’t have a clue.
My older boy played years ago in the same league. His games in the 1990s were in north Everett, at Garfield Park’s Dave Sommer Field or American Legion Memorial Park.
Grudgingly, I set out to find these mystery fields. With many games after work, I knew I’d be rushing to get there. Using a MapQuest search, I found Everett’s Phil Johnson complex at 400 W. Sievers-Duecy Blvd.
Then I went there in person. Wow. By the first inning of my son’s Little League season, my complaints had vanished.
I must have been away on vacation in July 2001, or just not paying attention. That’s when Everett officially opened Phil Johnson Ballfields, four state-of-the-art Little League baseball and softball fields on 13 acres the city acquired from CSR Associated sand and gravel company.
No baseball expert, even I can see these fields are amazing. They have artificial turf infields, grass outfields, and a sand surface instead of a muddy mess. Now one of Everett’s 32 parks, the complex also has nice bleachers, a concession stand, a playground area, restrooms and covered dugouts.
By the end of my son’s first game, I had another mystery to solve.
Who’s Phil Johnson? I asked a few people at the game. They didn’t know.
Tuesday morning, I had the chance to thank Johnson. If Yankee Stadium is the house that Ruth built, then Phil Johnson Ballfields is the place that coffee built.
Johnson, 64, is the former owner of Millstone Coffee Inc. and chairman of the board at Cascade Coffee in Everett. In 1995, when the Everett man sold Millstone to food industry giant Procter &Gamble for an undisclosed sum, Millstone Coffee had more than $90 million in sales.
The ballfields were built largely with a $2 million gift from Johnson’s charitable Phil L. Johnson Foundation. A 1961 graduate of Everett High School, Johnson didn’t just ride the gourmet coffee wave, he was years ahead of it.
“In the late ’70s, I came up with the idea of gravity-fed Lucite dispenser bins for gourmet coffee,” Johnson said. By the time he sold Millstone, it was the nation’s top seller of gourmet coffee beans in supermarkets.
He’s still involved in the business through Everett-based Cascade Coffee, which provides coffee to offices and convenience stores, and has an extensive private-label coffee roasting business.
Why baseball fields?
“I’ve always been partial to kids. When my son played Little League, there were shoddy fields,” said Johnson.
After selling Millstone, Johnson talked with then-Mayor Ed Hansen and Jim Langus, a city administrator, about how he could help the city. “They were working with CSR at the time,” he said.
Paul Kaftanski, director of Everett Parks and Recreation Department, said the 13-acre Phil Johnson Ballfields park is just part of acreage the sand and gravel company is providing to the city.
The land is coming in phases as part of a 1990s mitigation agreement.
“Another 57 acres will come into the city in October of this year from CSR,” Kaftanski said. “In 2012, we get another 21 acres.”
The Everett City Council recently adopted a 10-year strategic parks plan, and is working with the city parks board on the next steps.
Building parks takes big money. When someone with deep pockets is willing to pitch in, we all gain.
“It not only benefits the citizens of Everett, but with regional tournaments it draws people into the area,” said Johnson.
“I just wanted to play like Santa Claus, to come down the chimney, leave the toys, and go back up,” Johnson said.
Thanks, Santa.
Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
