I love baseball. I love the sounds of the game, ball meeting bat, the pop of leather when a fastball meets the catcher's mitt, and the roar of the crowd when a line drive falls into the outfield gap to score the go-ahead run.

I love the smell of the game, bratwurst wrapped in onions and peppers, nachos and cheese and cold beer.

And I especially love the strategy of the game, the hit and run, a pitchout to nail a runner trying to steal, and my favorite, the squeeze play.

I've had a love affair with baseball since I was a little boy, and never once during all those years has that love faltered. That is, until last week.

Sadly, I found that there is one thing that can diminish my lifelong love for America's pastime, and that's to mix it with a heaping helping of good old-fashioned partisan politics.

I learned in one afternoon that baseball and politics combined provide sounds that make my head hurt, smells that are unpleasant and difficult on my nostrils and a strategy that's known as business as usual and the public be damned.

Let me explain.

First, I should emphasize that I think it's great that the city of Marion is getting a new baseball stadium, and it's equally great that the Southern Illinois Baseball Group has signed an agreement to purchase an expansion team in the Frontier League. I say kudos to both.

However, right there is where I jump off the bandwagon.

Last year, the state kicked in $3 million for construction of the new stadium, and then last week Gov. Blagojevich decided on a whim to toss in an additional $1 million.

Several things bother me about that.

First, this is a privately funded venture being financed by John Simmons, a Metro East trial lawyer who has made millions in malpractice cases in Madison County. Simmons is a multimillionaire, so it's not like we're talking about the "Little Sisters of the Poor" who are cash-strapped and need financial help from the state.

The fact that Simmons has donated more than $1 million to Democratic Party campaign coffers gives the $4 million kicked in by the state a distinct odor that is difficult to describe. It's a practice commonly referred to in Illinois these days as "pay-to-play" - and in this instance "play" doesn't mean playing baseball.

The $4 million "gift" to Simmons is an indication to me that the state has its priorities skewed.

Take a quick look at the financial situation in the state. Pension systems are the most underfunded in the nation, health care providers routinely wait six months or longer for Medicaid reimbursement, doctors are leaving the state on a regular basis, and the majority of school districts statewide operate with a deficit budget. And all those things happen because the state will not pay its bills, period.

I spoke with Becky Carroll, a spokeswoman for Blagojevich, the day after the blessed event in Marion, and she explained the $4 million comes from capital funds, money generated from bond proceeds that cannot be used to fund operating expenses such as Medicaid bills.

Based on what Carroll said, it seems the $4 million provided for a millionaire baseball owner could have also been used on school construction projects in Southern Illinois that have been pushed aside for more than three years. After all, it's all capital projects, right? It would be interesting to ask school administrators in Carterville, Johnston City, Benton and Du Quoin, where much-needed construction projects are on indefinite hold, how they feel about the state's $4 million reverse-Robin Hood action.

Let's talk about priorities in state government concerning the Marion baseball project.

The choice of priorities boils down to this: Should the state give $4 million to a millionaire attorney who helps bankroll Democrat election campaigns? Or, should the state keep its word, complete school construction projects and help Southern Illinois children receive a better education in less-crowded classrooms?

Based on the pay-to-play rules in Illinois government - rules that trump everything else - the answer to those questions are quite simple. Simmons gets the money, the rich get richer and school officials continue to sit on their hands waiting for the state to toss them a few crumbs.

During the back-slapping and glad-handing at the gala celebration in Marion last week, I heard one official make the comment that the announcement that Southern Illinois has landed a professional baseball team is a sign that "we've made it."

Let's get one thing straight today about that phrase "we've made it," OK?

When long-overdue school construction projects are completed, when health care providers can quit refinancing their homes to meet payroll, when pay-to-play politics stops, and when Southern Illinois is not ranked dead last in 15 out of 16 poverty indicators among Midwest states, I'll be the first one to jump on the "we've-made-it" bandwagon.

Until then, I'll take my baseball straight up with no politics on the side.

JIM MUIR'S column appears Thursdays in The Southern Illinoisan. Contact him at writeon1@shawneelink.net.