Prospect Park

The Daily Plant : Tuesday, October 24, 2000

WORLD SERIES QUALITY FIELD OPENED IN GREENWICH VILLAGE

Photo by Amanda (Greenpoint) Tedeschi

This is a special time for baseball in New York City. The Little Leaguers assembled at James J. Walker field last Thursday were inspired by their home teams, who had just made it into the World Series, to celebrate the renovation of their own ballfield.

James J. Walker is a community park, and the effort to reinvigorate it was a community effort. Commissioner Henry J. (StarQuest) Stern recalled that in 1996 when capital renovations began, 90 letters written by neighborhood children and the contribution of Greenwich Village community organizations helped make change happen promptly. In this renovation, the participation of the Downtown United Soccer Club, the Greenwich Village Little League, and The Pier, Park and Playground Association ensured that the renovations were up to the highest standards. He stressed that community groups, by participating in the process of renovation, made the space their own-a city park, and a neighborhood park.

In 1947, the park was given the name it bears today, to honor former Mayor James J. Walker, the man who legalized baseball playing on Sundays. Last week it continued to pay tribute to athletic innovation; the ballfield has been reconstructed with field turf, the first of its kind in a city park. This exceptional technology mixes recycled crushed rubber and sand to mimic grass more closely than traditional artificial turf. It is the surface currently being installed at the Tampa Bay Devil Rays' new MLB stadium. The renovation at James J. Walker field signals the role it is expected as a high quality playing field whose technology is a model for others like it. The ballfield is already a popular site for little leaguers and the spectators who cheer them on.

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO IN THE PLANT

MORE HALLOWEEN FUN IN BROOKLYN PARKS
(Tuesday, October 27, 1987)

A min-carnival, balloons, refreshments, entertainment and "The Haunted Walk" will all be offered to youngsters this year at the Seventh Annual Great Halloween Festival held on Saturday October 31 from Noon to 3 P.M. in the Nethermead in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. Sponsored by the prospect park Administrator's Office, the festival's "Haunted Walk" features a twenty-minute tour by Urban Park Rangers through the Park's ghostly Ravine where the Headless Horseman has been known to appear riding his trusty steed.

QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

In the great department store of life, baseball is the toy department.

Anonymous