A long-time dream came true last week with the ribbon-cutting on the George and Doris Haley Field at the Barton-Ross sports complex at 53rd and Parallel Parkway in Kansas City, Kan.
The field was named for George W. Haley, a late U.S. ambassador and a former state senator in Kansas City, Kan. Haley, an attorney, was chairman of the Postal Rate Commission under President George H.W. Bush and was ambassador to the Republic of The Gambia in West Africa during the Clinton administration.
The ribbon-cutting included dignitaries Cal Ripken Jr. and Kansas City Royals general manager Dayton Moore.
Cle Ross, executive director of Kansas RBI, said he took ownership of the old 3&2 field in 2008, and ramped up the fund-raising efforts for it in 2013. The first phase, a $1.4 million project, is now complete.
This year, he said he expected that 1,000 youth will use the new baseball field. The ultimate goal is 2,500, he added.
The second phase of fundraising will now start, according to Ross.
“We understand clearly it doesn’t matter how nice the field are that we build — if we don’t have a location to educate the children, it’s a wasted effort,” Ross said. “We want them to pass the required tests academically to be able to play on a college team.”
The second phase will include a facility on top of the existing facility, that will have classrooms, as well as batting cages to practice year-round, and a second field, for girls softball, he said.
The Reviving Baseball in the Inner Cities program is a program connected with Major League Baseball and it encourages urban youth to play baseball. Involved in the fundraising for this project were Kansas RBI, Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation, Royals Charities and the Baseball Tomorrow Fund.
The speakers at the event were Ripken Jr.; Doris Haley; Moore; Ross; Cathy Bradley, executive director of the Baseball Tomorrow Fund; and Steve Salem, president of the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation.
“We are proud to be a part of this project and honor our dear friend and mentor, George W. Haley,” Cal Ripken Jr. said. “What George and the Haley family have contributed to our society, the local community and everyone they have met and influenced along the way, is truly remarkable and worth celebrating. The kids from Kansas RBI have a great ball field to call home.”
The new George and Doris Haley Field includes an all-weather, low maintenance synthetic turf surface, dugouts, digital scoreboard, backstop and bleachers.
The long-term project now is at the point where youth will be able to use the field.
“Yes, there was a lot of praying,” Ross said about the project. “The people always ask me how we survive, and I tell them the three Ps, prayer, passion and perseverance.”
