HOWELL ALL-STAR FIELD
What: Dedication as part of MLB's All-Star Game legacy project.
When: 3 p.m. Wednesday.
Where: Howell Field, 2500 Ridge Ave., Dayton.
If raining: Moves to Triangle Park shelter on top of hill above Howell Field.
Emcee: Mike Hartsock
Speakers: Tom Browning, Hal McCoy.
Admission: Free and open to the public.
If you’ve followed the career of Pete Rose, you know two things: he likes to wager and he has selective memory. So it’s no surprise he rattles off his Howell Field experience as if he just walked off the diamond located on Ridge Avenue and next to DeWeese and Triangle parks.
“In the spring of 1960 I played in the Dayton AA amateur league,” Rose said last year while endorsing a Cassano’s Pizza King promotion.
“I played for Lebanon. I batted about 50 times in that league. I used to come up every Wednesday and Sunday to play here in Dayton because I couldn’t play in high school that year. My last game was at Howell Field and I got 5 for 5. I graduated on a Friday and signed with the Reds on Saturday and left on Sunday to go to Geneva, New York.”
A lot has evolved since those days, including Howell Field. On Wednesday the place that Rose hustled on will be dedicated in an effort to re-establish itself as a signature Dayton ballpark.
The new Howell All-Star Field is one of nine baseball venues at Cincinnati, Covington (Ky.) and Dayton to get makeovers thanks to a gift of nearly $5 million from the Reds and the Major League Baseball All-Star Game legacy project.
Howell Field is located where Triangle Park once was home to the Dayton Triangles football team. It was a bustling place for baseball, featuring high school tournament games, DABC and Class AA, A and B leagues.
But by the 1990s it had lost its appeal and upkeep.
“This is a two-year project,” said Jim Richards, general sales manager for Alpha Media Dayton who’s spearheading a continued fund-raising effort. “The (City of Dayton) did a great job to get a lot of this work done.”
Reds COO Phil Castellini, Dayton commissioner Matt Joseph and Reds hall of fame pitcher Tom Browning will be among the featured guests. What they’ll see is a park that has a rebuilt press box, new restrooms and new scoreboard, fencing and wind screens. Replacing the infield with artificial turf is the ultimate goal. So are replacing existing light poles.
And Howell Field isn’t the only athletic facility targeted by the City of Dayton. Triangle Park and Kettering Field also are ticketed for upgrades.
“It’s pretty neat to see what the city is trying to do,” Richards said, “and Howell Field is the catalyst to kick it off.”
WHIO News Center 7 sports director Mike Hartsock will emcee the dedication. Also speaking will be longtime Dayton Daily News Reds beat writer Hal McCoy.
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