April 4, 2017
This is “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.
It’s
baseball season – and with it comes all the anticipation and excitement of players
hitting, running, sliding, catching and using their best strategies to score
more runs than the other team. There was
more than just the excitement about a new season in 1909. There was the anticipation from seeing the
beginning construction of a local baseball field in Junction City. The new park was to be situated half way
between Junction City and Fort Riley and was directly east of the streetcar
line spur. A grader was put to work to
cut off a layer of ground in order to get rid of the weeds and alfalfa. Then – a second layer was removed and the
ground scraped. The excess dirt was
moved to the center of the field, which would be higher than the rest of the
grounds. A ditch was dug around the
field for drainage purposes. The
grandstand was built immediately back of home plate with enough seats for 600
people. Two bleachers on either side of
the grandstand would hold another 500 people and a place for parking rigs and
automobiles would be on each side of the bleachers. It was decided to charge a parking fee of 10
cents for automobiles and buggies. The
field was expected to be ready for play by May 15. Players could then tryout with the first game
to be played on that new field on June 1st of 1909.
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