Reviving Bailey Park would be good for all
Help is on the way for Bailey Park; but like most things worthwhile, it will require hard work and a team effort.
A group organized with the help of a 34-year-old baseball step-dad and the Uniontown High School’s Baseball Boosters have teamed up with the hope of having Uniontown’s once-proud baseball field in shape for play by April.
All that’s required is $140,000. That’s the price tag for removing two inches of dirt from the infield and then layering the infield with 6-inches of new dirt, smoothing out and re-sodding the outfield, re-building the pitcher’s mound and home plate area, and then ringing the whole thing with a warning track to help with runoff.
The chances of getting all this done in time for high school baseball are not great. So says the man behind the plan, a Boeing project manager and native of Fairchance by the name of Elliot Galand.
Galand, whose job keeps him on the go, lives a few doors up from Asbury Church in Uniontown, a foul ball and then some away from the park, a unique sports venue that has dwindled in importance to area youth, owing to adult negligence and official incompetence.
Galand, the group he belongs to — the city’s Park and Recreation Board — and the Boosters are determined to get Bailey Park’s big field back in play in 2018. There is a Plan B, Galand said over a cup of coffee this past week. This comes down to scrapping the infield of weeds and bellowing, “Play ball!”
For the moment, however, Galand is understandably focused on raising the $140,000. The results he envisions are so glittering it’s easy to understand why. Galand wants to make the field available for a youth summer league.
He even has the crazy notion of triangling Bailey Park with diamonds in North and South Union townships, weaving together a multi-site complex to host big weekend tournaments. There is a new youth baseball paradigm potentially worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to communities smart enough and eager enough to get in on the action.
It’s the kind of action that local restaurants and hotels should die for — the kind that should make the Chamber of Commerce sit up and take notice — the kind that should attract the active interest of elected officials, both local and state.
But first things first — the renewal of Bailey Park.
Even though he hails from Fairchance, Galand told me he played at Bailey Park as a youngster. He got reacquainted with the old ballpark as a result of his stepson. The kid is a Red Raider baseball player.
It was this connection which eventually led him to city hall where he encountered the stumblebums (my characterization) in charge of Uniontown.
For the past decade or so, city fathers have failed Bailey Park, whose pedigree stretches back at least to the 1920s, and have left the city’s young people to fend for themselves as summer after summer dragged on without adult provision of leagues to occupy their time and bodies.
Bailey Park, once the center of sports in the city, lapsed into virtual disuse. (The small diamond adjacent to the large field is the springtime home of the high school softball team.)
For his part, Galand grew tired of the excuses, tired of the promises and expectations that always went unfulfilled as regards to Bailey Park.
Approaching the city, he thrashed about for a time in the hall of mirrors otherwise known as city council where he discovered the miscommunication that was at the heart of city government. Finally, with the blessing of city councilman Joby Palumbo, he forged ahead with a partnership between the nine-seat Parks and Rec Board and the high school baseball boosters.
Working with K2 Engineering, contact was made with a Pittsburgh outfit that specializes in sports field construction. It was this group — Athletic Field Pros — that provided the specs totaling $140,000 for Bailey Park.
Fundraising is never easy, especially when so much is required in such a short period of time. Soon, Galand and friends will be reaching out to businesses, foundation, individuals. Money is essential. So is expertise, willing hands, and eager hearts.
Now is the time for the people who love Bailey Park and what it represents — a place where young dreams may be realized — to pivot from grousing to action, from standing on the sidelines to getting into the game.
Richard Robbins lives in Uniontown and is the author of two books — Grand Salute: Stories of the World War II Generation and Our People. He can be reached at dick.l.robbins@gmail .com.