Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone.

— Joni Mitchell, 1969

Butler truly does not want to lose its BlueSox baseball franchise.

And yet that is a distinct possibility after team owners disclosed this week that they’re getting out of the Prospect League after this season.

What becomes of Kelly Automotive Park’s house team is uncertain for now, and may be uncertain for a while. The team says it would like very much to return in 2019, with or without a league or conference membership.

While the ownership group says the BlueSox has never been about making money, neither can it be about losing large volumes of cash, either. And that’s where a problem with the Prospect League has become systemic.

The Prospect League’s 11 teams are simply spread too far apart to maintain business. Three teams are in Illinois, another is in Missouri and two are on the far side of Indiana, requiring long bus rides and, often, overnight hotel lodging for the visiting teams. Those expenses add up. The travel takes a toll on the players, too.

An immediate solution for the BlueSox might be a switch to the Great Lakes Collegiate Summer Baseball League, most of whose 15 existing teams are concentrated in Ohio. Half of the teams are within a 270-mile radius — less than a four-hour drive — from Butler.

With teams more geographically concentrated, fans are more likely to travel for out-of-town games, too. That not only cultivates a sense of rivalry that’s currently lacking, but it alslo would increase attendance at Kelly Automotive Park and push concessions and revenue as well.

Like the Prospect League, Great Lakes is a wooden-bat league, made up of college-level talent. The players are amateur and live with host families for the duration of the season. Some take part-time summer jobs to earn money. Others, who are on NCAA Division 1 athletic scholarships, can forgo summer jobs and concentrate on athletic training.

Here’s the biggest hitch to overcome: There’s an Aug. 31 deadline and $40,000 entry fee to join the Great Lakes league. Larry Sassone, one of the team’s owners, says that’s a pretty tight deadline to accomplish all the things that need to get done to qualify for membership. “We’d have to get a proposal package put together, meet with that league’s board of directors and get voted in by the teams’ owners before the end of this month,” Sassone told Eagle Sports Editor John Enrietto. “I don’t know if we can get that done.”

Well, if it can be done, and it should be done, then it must be done.

In recent weeks we’ve witnessed a multimillion-dollar federal grant application submitted by the county on the same day commissioners passed the new $5 vehicle registration fee. Are there county-level officials, or similar leaders in this community, with the skills and experience needed to help the BlueSox get their application processed with the same break-neck speed?

Anyone who has taken in a summer evening at Kelly Automotive Park, with a hot dog and cold beverage in hand, cheering on the young men engaged in our national pastime, enduring the hokey events between innings, and gawking at the occasional fireworks show afterward, should understand why it’s so crucial to preserve this community asset. Let’s play ball.