A lot of elbow grease has gone into making Hanley’s David Prosofsky Memorial Park into a destination for baseball tournaments across Saskatchewan.
The community of over 500 residents has made it a priority to make the three baseball diamonds shine for everyone from the smallest kids to its senior men’s teams to play.
While two of the fields have been brought up to the expected standards over the last decade or so, one has remained more derelict than hoped.
They won’t be waiting much longer to finish that long-awaited project though, as the community was named in the recent Jays Care Field of Dreams funding announcement.
Hanley will be one of 15 projects across Canada – including another in Saskatchewan through North Regina Little League – that will share in more than $1.5 million for community baseball diamonds.
“It was exciting and validating that all of the planning and time we put into the application was well-received,” Hanley Minor Ball Association past-president Christina McCormick told Saskatchewan Dugout Stories.
“It was also a relief to know we could offer our community this much-needed upgrade as our diamonds have become very busy over the past couple of years.”
With one senior and one youth baseball team, one senior and six youth softball teams, and rentals from five other baseball teams, Hanley is among many communities in the province that are seeing interest in baseball skyrocket in recent years.
HANLEY’S HANDYWORK
The effort being put into the three ball diamonds in Hanley hasn’t gone unnoticed by many who have come to play.
McCormick says it’s become a point of pride for the town, as they have added fully covered dugouts, backstops and fencing at two of the three fields. They also aimed to beautify the entire area by adding trees and improve facilities like bathrooms.
However, the “north diamond” was still needing attention to bring it up to par with its other fields.
“We need to replace the grass infield with crusher dust, repair and extend the backstop to regulation height with a flyball guard, and replace the aging wood-and-wire outfield fence with chain link fence,” McCormick said. “We were hoping to finish the project by the end of the summer.”
While they were able to lean on many community and area partners for the majority of the park upgrades, she says they wanted to see if they could access some other funding to push the project over the finish line.
UPGRADES IN NORTH REGINA
About 200 kilometres southeast, North Regina Little League had similar dreams of knocking a big item off of their “to do” list.
The organization was successful in getting a Jays Care grant in 2018 for improvements and again in 2020 to relocate its Challenger Diamond to a more convenient and accessible location, which is important for the children with cognitive or physical disabilities who are taking part.
Director Savanna Matthies says they had a few more things they wanted to get done at the five-diamond complex.
“We are hoping to complete dugout renovations, which are used by all divisions including Challenger,” she said. “The upgrades focus on making the dugouts safer, more accessible, and a lot more functional for players and coaches.”
The project was already in its final stages of completion, so Matthies says the funding would help them get it all wrapped up early in the baseball season.
UNDER THEIR HATS
Since its inception, Jays Care has invested more than $20 million in 232 Field of Dreams projects across the country, including several in Saskatchewan.
McCormick says they carefully went through the application process, then patiently waited for news, expecting to hear something by late-March.
She remembers being in Winnipeg for a youth curling event in mid-March when she received a call from an unknown number.
“At first, I thought it was a scam number,” McCormick laughed. “Then I thought they were calling to thank all of the non-winners.”
READ MORE: More Than A Field
When it finally sunk in that Hanley had been successful in its bid, she had to keep the news under wraps until the formal announcement during the May 4th Blue Jays Central broadcast on Sportsnet.
Matthies also had to keep the news under her cap and vividly recalls the phone call a few weeks ago.
“It was such a great moment,” she said.
“I’m a terrible secret-keeper, but these applications are a lot of work, so knowing it paid off is incredibly rewarding.”
Despite the urge to shout the news from the rooftops, McCormick and Matthies quickly started putting plans in place to get the word out.
DREAMING BIG
With the local baseball scene ramping up with opening weekend festivities, both communities had watch parties planned for the Blue Jays Central broadcast.
Given that the broadcast was happening late in the morning, games were already going on, so the organizers had to get creative with making sure as any people as possible could watch.
In Hanley, McCormick says they had Blue Jays jerseys, swag, door prizes, activities and food set up for people to come in and watch.
“The tension and anticipation in the room was palpable,” she said. “The crowd anxiously sat through the first few minutes, then got tense as the announcements started in eastern Canada.”
The first Blue Jays logo west of Ontario to land was on Regina, where Matthies says the park was buzzing as the announcements were being made.
A loud ovation took over when their association was officially named.
“This is a huge win for the league,” she said. “I knew everyone would be thrilled to hear that Jays Care was backing us.”
McCormick says some in her community actually thought they might be out, given there were only a couple more communities set to be announced.
That near-heartbreak was quickly replaced by glee when Hanley was the next community announced.
“The room erupted – kids were high-fiving and hugging, there were cheers and tears, and all-around sense of elation and gratitude,” she said.
“It was truly special having community members present who were involved in ball in Hanley over 30 years ago.”
McCormick says her organization’s board members were particularly emotional, which she says spoke to how invested they are in the project and how they want to improve the minor baseball experience for their young athletes.
After a weekend of fun and excitement, both communities are now back to work, putting the finishing touches on a pair of projects that will undoubtedly leave a mark on grassroots baseball across Saskatchewan, while serving as inspiration for other communities to dream big with Jays Care.
Tales of Baseball 