Central Park

Ball Play’s The Thing: Central Park Cuts The Ribbon At Heckscher Ballfields

Today, Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe and Central Park Conservancy President Douglas Blonsky joined teams from The Broadway Show League to cut the ribbon on the newly renovated Heckscher Ballfields. In the inaugural game of the 2007 season, the competition was fierce between last year’s two division winners: The Producers and the Nederlander Organization.

“Today’s opening ceremonies were an action-packed premier for the newly renovated Heckscher Ballfields,” said Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe. “Around the City, parks are open for business–grab your mitts and play ball!”

The opening ceremonies for the Central Park ballfields celebrated the $3 million restoration of five regulation softball fields and one practice area in the southwestern section of Central Park. Beginning in December 2005, the playing surfaces of all five fields were restored with natural turf outfields and clay infields, new drainage, and irrigation systems. Equipment and site furnishings were replaced, including open bleachers and benches, backstops and fencing, drinking fountains, and trash receptacles.

The ballfields are phase two of a $10 million, multi-phase refurbishment and rehabilitation plan initiated with the 2006 restoration of the Heckscher Playground, Central Park’s oldest and largest playground. The Heckscher Playground Building will be completed this summer, with the building’s central breezeway restored as the main entrance to the playground. The existing restrooms will be renovated for playground users, and additional restrooms will be added on the east side of the building.

“Our goal in rebuilding the athletic fields and surrounding landscape has been to revive tradition while providing a recreation space for all to enjoy,” said Douglas Blonsky, President of the Central Park Conservancy.

With over 12,000 permits for baseball and softball issued in Central Park annually, many players anticipated the re-opening, but maybe none more than the Broadway Show League. These teams of actors, stagehands, technicians, and other theater employees have been playing at Heckscher Ballfields for over 50 years.

Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux’s 1858 winning design for Central Park, the Greensward Plan, designated the 10-acre meadow in the southwest corner of the park as a “Playground,” a word used to describe a versatile open meadow intended for games, sports, and informal play. Schoolboys gathered here to play the new sport of baseball, and the area was soon nicknamed the Ballground. In response to demand for organized recreation, this part of the Park was altered in 1936 with the addition of formal ballfields and new paths, while the playground was modernized with new play equipment, additional asphalt pavement, and an expansion of the building. The ballfields were partially restored in 1980 but suffered from failing irrigation and drainage systems. As a result, the playing surfaces fell below the athletic standards of the Great Lawn and North Meadow ballfields.

The restoration of the Heckscher Ballfields would not have been possible without the generous donations of the Peter B. Lewis Family Philanthropic Fund and the late Harold Twohie. The entire Heckscher project, including the playground, building and surrounding landscapes were made possible through other leadership gifts from Diane Von Furstenberg, Barry Diller, Joan Tisch, the William Randolf Hearst Foundation, Time Warner Inc., Patricia and Raymond G. Chambers, Richard Gilder, the Women’s Committee of the Central Park Conservancy, the late Janet and Leonard Kramer, Elizabeth and Jay Chandler, The Sunshine Group and the Anbau Group.

- 30 -

Know Before You Go

Harlem Meer Center (formerly Lasker Rink)

Harlem Meer Center