Still a Baseball Town

by Ken Hambleton 

started with a red leather ball and quickly became the most popular game in town

Games on Sundays were not allowed until the 1930s, but most fans ignored the law and risked the $10 or 10 days in jail fine for the first 50 years of baseball in the Capital City.

It is still one of Lincoln’s most popular games, just behind football and volleyball at the University of Nebraska.

Wearing blue silk knee pants with a white stripe down the legs, a white-bloomer shirt, and, sometimes, a ball cap, the players began playing in Antelope Park.

The game is now all around Lincoln, with pro baseball in the form of the Lincoln Saltdogs and the Huskers at Haymarket Park, high school and American Legion baseball at Den Hartog Field, and, of course, the nearly century-old Sherman Field.

The Saltdogs, around for 23 years, have caught on as an independent league member in the American Association and draw an average of more than 4,500 fans throughout the summer at Haymarket Park.

League champions in 2009 and a consistent playoff contender, the team of former and future pro baseball players entertains 50 home games a year.

Add to that the 30 home games for the Huskers during the spring and dozens of Legion teams, all-star teams, and traveling teams, and it’s hard to miss a baseball game when in season.

Last summer, the Lincoln East High School team won the state high school title and marched to the American Legion World Series final—one of only three Nebraska teams to advance that far.

Nebraska made runs at the Big Ten Conference baseball title and reached the College World Series, held in Omaha in June, twice.

Lincoln’s baseball ‘center of attention’ is Haymarket Park, a city, university, and private enterprise collaboration built near the University of Nebraska campus in 2000.

The complex holds Hawks Field—the baseball field, and Bowlin Stadium—the home of the University of Nebraska softball team.

This year, softball will take on its most significant role ever with hopes of a Women’s College
World Series berth and a Big Ten Conference championship.

The transfer of Jordy Bahl, who led Oklahoma to the Women’s College World Series title in 2023, has local Husker fans in a daze. Season tickets
have already sold out, and there are plans to add extra seating because interest is so high for 2024 and beyond.

“There are no better softball diamonds in college softball than ours,” said NU softball coach Rhonda Revelle. Nebraska baseball coach Will Bolt, who played for the Husker baseball teams that reached the Men’s College World Series, echoed that sentiment about the baseball field.

“We have the best ballpark and the best fans you could ask for here in Lincoln,” said the current Husker head baseball coach. “The facilities are top-notch and getting better,” Bolt said.

The future of baseball in Lincoln looks as bright as the past when Nebraska was known as the Old Gold Knights, Links, Ducklings, Rail Splitters, Tree Planters, Rustlers, and pro affiliates of the A’s, Pirates, and Cardinals, when games were played at Landis Field, Sherman Field and, now throughout the city.

New plans are underway for a major baseball and softball complex for the Nebraska Wesleyan baseball and softball programs and high school-age teams.