This Field Of Dreams!

Seven months ago Texas was in the middle of one of its usual heat waves. Summers since moving here are spent in one of a few places.

The pool, indoors, at a park, or maybe the race track. If you said park you'd be 99.9% correct.

Seven months ago on a lazy Friday night there was a game going on with the Grand Prairie Air Hogs and Amarillo Sox.

No doubt my compadre Lew Patton caught up with me at some point during the evening. A ritual was started and will continue until our day in heaven.

We convened in center field at QuikTrip Ballpark right outside the pool and the restaurant (which is cigar friendly I might add). Lew with his adult beverage and me with a Macanudo of some sort. The conversation begins...

In almost a state of alpha we start discussing the issues of the day while keeping track of what's happening on the ball field. Grand Prairie at the time lost a lot of good people and were in the middle of a horrendous slump. Then Lew began to speak.

'Will, I know this is our meeting place to get a baseball fix and the like. What if I were to tell you there was this place? It's where I currently attend school a little South of Grand Prairie. And get this Will. It has a baseball team that plays on a field with no lights!'

'Lew this is 2012. Even Wrigley Field went to wattage in 1988. You're pulling my leg!' my retort.

'Next year I will show you. Grand Prairie is a great meeting place, but in 2013 I will introduce you to Knighthood!'

I thought nothing more about that discussion until yesterday...

August of 2012 Lew actually grabbed me from behind one evening to introduce to a young man named Jeremy Kennedy. The discussion was brief and off we went. Yesterday was a reunion of sorts for myself Lew P and Jeremy Kennedy.

Wonderfully nestled beneath the eye of Cedar Hill at Northwood University lies a little piece of baseball heaven. A field that to the naked eye rolls uphill toward a center field with an extended wall that will engender thoughts of Fenway Park's Green Monster. I envision games of Jai-Alai on off days for the Knights of Northwood. 

A beautifully maintained ballpark with three striking qualities:

1.The aforementioned wall.

2.No lights anywhere to be seen and

3.All the grounds keeping and maintenance done by the players themselves.

It doesn't hurt that you also have a backdrop of white rock hilly terrain and a line of green trees to create a wonderful backdrop looking to straightaway centerfield. Somehow that does not become a distraction for batters at the plate.

Looking further on down the the right field side of the Northwood ball field you see more trees and forestry to remind you that you could very well be walking and living within a field of dreams. Whoever designed this area for sports at Northwood University had to be an East Coast person. The whole campus and the way it is configured looks like so many parks I was privy to as a younger man in New Jersey.

In essence a true slice of Americana heaven!

While the world starts to mourn the loss of football and other sports get top priority it was comforting to discover that baseball indeed is back and alive and well in the NAIA! It begins with the Northwood Knights tomorrow afternoon in Cedar Hill, Texas.

Lew Patton and myself arrived in time to watch an hour of practice for the Knights. Wearing the NU logo on tee shirts navy blue in color and white in lettering it just looked right amongst the previously described backdrop. For a moment I was ready to throw on a glove and cleats and go shag some flies.

Then a pop up almost hit me and remembered I was closer to 50 than 17...

The NAIA baseball season runs from February 1st all the way to the playoffs in May. It's a weird start and finish to be sure. For long time baseball fans like myself and General Patton the timing is perfect!

Since 2001 Rangers Ballpark was home. Since 2003 the same for Dr. Pepper Ballpark in Frisco. In 2008 Quik Trip Ballpark also added to the rotation. 2013 I now adopt a new home. My Wrigley Field of Dreams just south of Grand Prairie and under the eye of Cedar Hill. My thanks to Lew Patton for the tip-off and to Jeremy Kennedy for the breakdown on what's to come in 2013 for the Northwood University Knights.

Can't wait to go back!

Over and out in Big D.

Mr. Will