by Mary Rupert
Today was a dream come true for Cle Ross.
About 17 years after Ross had a vision to help local kids get started on a baseball career, ground was broken today on the Barton-Ross Complex and George and Doris Haley Field, the old 3&2 baseball field at 5325 Parallel Parkway. The fields there will be renovated because of the efforts of Cle Ross and the KCK RBI (Reviving Baseball in the Inner Cities) organization.
The $1.2 million turf field is being named for former Ambassador and Mrs. George Haley. George Haley, who died in May of this year at the age of 89, was a former state senator from Kansas City, Kan., and a long-time presidential appointee. State Sen. David Haley is his son, and his brother was the late Alex Haley, author of “Roots.”
The sports complex is being named the Barton-Ross Complex, after Tim Barton, who gave much of the funds for the renovation, and Cle Ross and his son. Cle Ross, executive director of the KCK RBI organization, is also its driving force, and is the owner of the field.
A board of directors chose the names for the complex of the field, Ross said.
One of the persons leading the $1.2 million complex fund-raising drive and making a large donation was Tim Barton, founder of FreightQuote, who used to play baseball at the 3&2 field. FreightQuote was recently sold to another firm.
Development plans
The baseball field, built in a bowl-like area along Parallel Parkway, has remained empty for more than a decade. While the field is somewhat cleared, major work remains to be done on everything at the site.
“The field will be completed before Halloween,” said Ross, executive director of the Kansas City, Kan., Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (KCK RBI). It will be high-school sized and a full turf field, he added.
This first phase includes the new field, grandstands, dugouts and a scoreboard, Ross said. There will be drainage for the fields, also.
“Last summer, we had probably 50 ballgames rained out,” Ross said. “Next summer, 15 minutes after the rain stops, we’ll be in a position to be able to play. The field will drain.”
Ross said KCK RBI is all-volunteer based. This season alone, he worked about 40 hours a week at his job, and another 45 hours a week as a volunteer with the baseball program, he estimated.
The KCK RBI program also has ties to Major League Baseball and the Cal Ripken Sr. foundation. It lists several organizations as partners and sponsors.
With 1,000 kids playing baseball, KCK RBI probably will continue to use the City Park and Eisenhower fields, too, Ross said.
KCK RBI received some help from the Unified Government Parks and Recreation Department last year with the upkeep of the parks facilities for baseball use.
Jason Banks, representing the mayor’s office at the groundbreaking, said today that the UG would probably assist with brush removal in helping to get this new field ready, as well.
The second phase of development at the Barton-Ross Complex will include a softball field with dugouts, scoreboards and an indoor facility, Ross said. Kids in Wyandotte County would have an indoor facility to work out in, after the second phase is built, he said.
Not giving up
Sen. David Haley said his father was the recipient of many awards throughout his career.
“His foundation for public service was when he started his career here as an attorney in KCK,” Sen. Haley said. “He and my mother loved Wyandotte County and KCK, and it is appropriate and spiritually rewarding that his name would be affixed to some lasting community-based field. It was a touching tribute,” he said.
“Of all the awards that we’ve gotten, this is the last one he was aware of that was going to be bestowed, and he was so excited about it,” Sen. Haley said.
Sen. Haley accepted an award on Feb. 13, 2015, from the Cal Ripken Sr. Association in Baltimore, Md., on behalf of his father, and he brought the award back to him.
“I brought the award back to Dad in his hospital room, the next day, Saturday, Feb. 14th,” he said. “He was excited about the field here in KCK.”
George Haley talked then about how this baseball program and field would help the children with team discipline and interacting with other communities.
“He understood the big picture,” Sen. Haley said. And having his name on the field was something that excited him, he said.
“It was a little touching for me to be part of the groundbreaking today,” Sen. Haley said. “I look forward to hopefully see my mom throw out the first pitch. She plans to be here for the ribbon cutting.”
Sen. Haley said he never thought the day would come when ground would be broken for the field. “But Dad always thought it would come,” he said.
His dad was the subject of a Reader’s Digest article in 1963 called “The Man Who Wouldn’t Quit,” written by Alex Haley, about George Haley being one of the first two black persons to integrate the University of Arkansas law school at Fayetteville.
To Sen. Haley, the field’s renovation after all these years “has a certain George Haley ring to it, a George Haley symbolism, not giving up.”
A vision of a ballpark to serve KCK youth
Once the place in Kansas City, Kan., where the best youth baseball teams played, the 3&2 field had not been kept up through recent years. The 3&2 alumni who went on to play professional sports include such names as Ray Sadecki, Neil Allen, Larry Drew, Steve Renko Jr., David Segui, Kevin Young, Damian Rolls, Mike Birmingham and Eric Vega.
The field may never have been renovated had Cle Ross not been playing baseball at KCKCC as a walk-on in 1998.
“It started back in 1998 when I was a college student, playing baseball at KCKCC, and ran by the ballparks at 53rd and Parallel,” Ross recalled. That’s when his vision of a ballpark to serve KCK youth started.
Ross broke several school records at the University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff, where he went on to play baseball. He played in the minor leagues in Texas.
When he came back to Kansas City, Kan., after his sports career in the minor leagues was over, Ross started KCK RBI in 2009 with 155 members, and this year hit the 1,000-membership mark, he said.
“I lost a lot of friends during the process, gained a lot of friends, and at the end of the day the kids have remained faithful and remained passionate about the project, just like myself,” Ross said.
Feeling ‘blessed’
Ross said he feels “blessed” about the project going forward. “To be honest with you, there was a lot of praying,” he said.
“We remained faithful when sometimes we couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Ross said. “I give all glory and credit to God, through him all things are possible. I take no credit, I give all glory to God.”
Both Cle Ross and Ringo Ross’s names are on the new sports complex. Ringo is Cle’s 4-year-old son.
“I’m excited my son was named,” Ross said. “He started playing at 2 years old.”
Ringo probably will be one of a very small group to play baseball at a complex with his name on it.
“It’s something I will always cherish,” Cle Ross said. “Being raised by a single mother and never knowing my own father, that’s something I will always cherish, being able to give my son that gift.”
