In a dedication ceremony before the game, Drayton McLane Jr., CEO of the Houston Astros, quoted an old major league manager from the New York Giants named Leo Durocher.
"Baseball is like the church," he said, "many attend, but few understand."
McLane told the gathering about how baseball can sometimes be a conduit used to teach lessons that are helpful in life. The lesson he taught in story form Thursday was to ?never give up in life."
He could have appropriately added things like "don't be afraid to dream? and "learn to compromise," because without those principles the field in Chisholm Trail Park would never have been built.
Scott Yearwood, whose son Tannor threw out the first pitch on Thursday, dreamed of having a field tailored to the needs of handicapped and other special needs players. He and Dotty Faber, former president of the Belton Youth Softball Association, approached Belton?s Parks Board Committee on Aug. 8, 2005, and asked that a girls field and a special needs field be built.
Former Belton support services coordinator Beverly Zendt said a compromise was quickly reached so the girls and the special needs players could share a field, and Belton city staff went to work trying to find a way to make it affordable for the city.
At that time Belton Youth Softball pledged $17,000 toward a new field.
Belton located a grant opportunity with the Baseball Tomorrow Fund, a joint venture between Major League Baseball and the players' association, but it would be competing for the grant dollars worldwide. Less than 20 percent of cities that apply for the grants are awarded money, according to data from Cathy Bradly, executive director of Baseball Tomorrow Fund.
Facing such low odds Belton decided to call on McLane, asking him to put his support behind the proposal by writing a letter to Bud Selig, commissioner of Major League Baseball.
"His letter had a great deal to do with us getting this field," said Belton Mayor Jim Covington.
While the letter appears to have been an important element in Belton's proposal, it may not have been what brought the project to fruition.
"I wrote the letter but I called the commissioner," McLane said Thursday. "That's what really worked."
Jennifer Cartabona, the Baseball Tomorrow Fund representative at the ceremony, was more diplomatic as she spoke to what is likely the largest crowd to ever witness a special needs game in Belton.
"We liked what we saw and tried to help out," she said. "This will benefit kids in the community for generations."
The Baseball Tomorrow Fund grant was $47,000. Belton chipped in $50,000. The Belton Rotary Club paid for a scoreboard and Musco Lighting, another Baseball Tomorrow Fund partner, provided a discount price for field lights.
Musco representative Scott Spears said he did not have dollar figures for how much Belton saved on the lights.
"If Baseball Tomorrow thinks it?s a worthwhile project, then so do we," he said. "Belton is also a good customer, and we feel strongly about supporting those who support us."
Softball and baseball players from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor were on hand for the festivities and joined the special-needs players for the game after the dedication.
Parks Board Chair Diane Ring recalled when Yearwood shared his dream to the board nearly two years ago.
"How can you turn that down?" she said. "We have finally gotten our field of dreams here in Belton."
When the Cowboys took the field in the top of the first, three of them were in wheelchairs but smiles abounded and nobody kept score.
