Baseball Town

by Ken Hambleton
Baseball is the king of spring in Lincoln again.
After four runner-up conference finishes in more than 100 years of college baseball in Lincoln, Nebraska tore through the Big Ten Conference tournament last May and claimed its first conference title ever.
The Huskers pitched and hit through a 40-22 season and filled Haymarket Park game after game all season.
Led by head coach Will Bolt, Nebraska burst into national prominence and the NCAA tournament for just the 19th time in the school’s history.
Bolt has played a role in all of Nebraska’s best runs at conference titles in the 2000s—as a player or as a coach.
That news, along with the opening of the new Lincoln Youth Sports Complex, located less than a mile northeast of Haymarket Park, has baseball front and center in spring sports in the Capitol City.
The $27 million baseball complex, with seven fields, will play host to regional and national youth tournament games, Nebraska baseball and softball practices and stand as the home fields for Nebraska Wesleyan baseball and softball.
The Wesleyan fields will have stadiums, covered seating with lights, and complete practice facilities.
Lincoln hopes to build a destination baseball complex to attract new visitors and establish a valuable resource for baseball with the new complex.
Youth tourism is constantly growing and can mean Lincoln could reap millions of dollars in a baseball complex of five youth fields as well as the collegiate fields with all-weather artificial turf.
The new complex is supported by private funds, including donations from former Huskers and Major League standouts Darin Erstad and homegrown Alex Gordon. Business contributions have come from the Kansas City Royals, Sampson Construction, Ameritas, NEBCO (which helped build Haymarket Park, a owns the Lincoln Saltdogs pro team) and Union Bank, as well as Nebraska Wesleyan and the University of Nebraska.
Public funds for the newest baseball project come from the city and county, including money from the American Rescue Plan Ace, and the West Haymarket Joint Public Authority.
Baseball has always played a key part Lincoln’s entertainment.
Dating back to the 1880s, baseball has always been a draw.
Pro baseball, currently in the guise of the independent American Association team, the Lincoln Saltdogs, has attracted fans to the long-gone Antelope Park, Landis Field to the current fields—the 82-year-old Sherman Field to the 23-year-old Haymarket Park complex.
Pro baseball in the city dates back to a game in 1881 when a game was called because the only bat available for both teams was broken.
Ask and older baseball fan about pro baseball in Lincoln and you’ll hear stories of the Lincoln Chiefs, Lincoln Pirates—minor league teams that played at Sherman Field through 1961.
Husker softball, which plays in Bowlin Stadium (a part of the Haymarket Park complex) has recently expanded seating to cater to increased interest in the highly competitive Big Ten.
“There are no better softball diamonds in college softball than ours,” said Nebraska softball coach Rhonda Revelle.
Bolt said of Hawks Stadium, “The facilities are top notch and getting better.”
The fans agree. They show up and drive Nebraska to the top of the Big Ten in baseball and softball attendance every season.
The true diamonds of Lincoln’s fields are only going to get better and draw more interest as the game grows stronger. “From the select high school teams that play in Lincoln in the summer, to the Junior Saltdogs programs, to Homer’s Heroes (for kids with special needs) we are providing a way for young people to dream about playing baseball and believe we have planted a seed that keeps growing for more baseball in Lincoln said Charlie Meyer, president and general manager of the Saltdogs.
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