(Although not about the Bexley community, this article, reprinted
with permission, features the new ballpark for the Columbus Clippers
baseball team. The photo accompanying the article includes a seating
section sign with the picture of former Columbus Jets' player and Bexley
class of 1944 member, George Spencer. The article appeared in The
Columbus Dispatch on opening day, April 18, 2009)
4/29/09
Birth of a ballpark
By
Jim Massie
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
To everything there is a season.
We learn to recite the verse from Ecclesiastes as children and only
understand its truth, if we are lucky, as adults. Baseball fans,
maybe, understand the point sooner than most.
A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to
dance.
The
thought occurred to me a few weeks ago on a walk through Huntington
Park. The city's new home for the Columbus Clippers, planted in the
Arena District in August 2007, had yet to resonate with the
unmistakable sound of a bat kissing a baseball.
The view from center field stretched over the lush green expanse of
Kentucky bluegrass that would look inviting to the most finicky
thoroughbred. Within the quiet, another thought occurred: What would
this place feel like filled with people to watch a baseball game?
I closed my eyes and summoned the familiar sounds. Here's the pitch,
the thwack, and the roar of 10,000 voices. I opened my eyes and
looked again. Yes, this new place would do nicely.
"We took fans through this week," said Ken Schnacke, the team's
president and general manager. "It was raining, but a few thousand
showed up. The look on people's faces was worth a million dollars."
The official opening-day game begins at 4 o'clock this afternoon
when the Clippers host the Toledo Mud Hens. It is a sellout, the
first of what Schnacke hopes will be many with the arrival of the
Cleveland Indians as the Clippers' new parent team.
"It's going to be special," new Columbus manager Torey Lovullo said.
"Any opening day is a pretty good day, whether you're in Little
League or high school. There's excitement with that.
"Now, tied with the idea that we're opening up a new ballpark, in a
downtown, of a community that loves baseball and loves the Cleveland
Indians, it's going to be a special moment. We're really looking
forward to getting out there and putting on the best show we
possibly can. At the end of the day, I hope we can say we did all we
can to impress the fans."
The
ballpark also should impress. I like the idea that so much of the
old place on Mound Street, which went by the other names of Red
Bird, Jets, Franklin County and Cooper stadium from 1931 through
2008, is incorporated with the new.
Fans can walk the concourse or visit the Hall of Fame restaurant in
left field to pore over details and memorabilia from the
professional baseball history of Columbus that actually dates to
1876.
Bevo LeBourveau -- hmm, Bevo LeBourveau? -- hit the first home run
in Red Bird Stadium in 1931. Maybe the author of the first home run
for a Clipper in Huntington Park will carve out a larger mark than
the late Mr. LeBourveau's modest career with the Philadelphia
Phillies and Athletics.
In 1955, the great Cy Young drove over from Newcom- erstown, in
Tuscarawas County, to throw out the first pitch on the first opening
day in Jets Stadium. Nick Cullop, the great Red Birds outfielder
whose hefty bat is among those displayed in the new Hall of Fame,
was that team's first manager.
In 2009, the great Bob Feller will be among the opening-day guests
of the Clippers. Lovullo, who batted .295 for a '92 Clippers team
that won 95 games, is the manager.
"We had J.T. Snow, Gerald Williams, Dave Silvestri, Bernie Williams,
Brad Ausmus and Sam Militello," Lovullo said. "The names were
endless, and a lot of those guys helped the Yankees win the World
Series."
These new Clippers -- Matt LaPorta, Michael Brantley, Luis Valbuena,
David Huff, Michael Aubrey, Jordan Brown and the rest -- hope to do
the same for the Indians in the future. They can close their eyes,
summon the sounds and nearly see what is to come.
To everything there is a season.
This is the day of the season that Huntington Park is born. Let the
stories begin.
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