MANSFIELD — An important piece of the city’s storied baseball history has been resurrected.
For the first time in decades, the crack of the bat can be heard echoing through Liberty Park.
The Madison Local School District middle school teams moved into their new home ballpark a few weeks ago. Mansfield Mayor Jodie Perry was on hand to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a field that began hosting Industrial League games in the mid-1930s.
The revitalization effort began in January of 2024 and was spearheaded by Madison eighth-grade coach Justin Hunt.
“The Madison seventh- and eighth-grade baseball teams have not had a home field to play on for I don’t know how long,” Hunt said.
“I was sitting at the corner of Grace Street and Ninth Avenue right across from Liberty Park and I’m thinking, ‘There’s got to be a field to play at somewhere.’ I looked across and remembered there was a baseball field on top of the hill up there,” Hunt said.
Once Hunt got the ball rolling, the project quickly gained momentum. The Richland County Foundation donated $10,000 and several other area businesses and individuals contributed labor and materials.
Brandt’s Custom Machinery co-owner Ben Brandt has been instrumental in the revival, as has John Flenner of Flenner Water Well and Excavating. Sons of Herman, a service group, recently made a $2,000 donation and Jacobs Excavating laid the clay and a baseball field-quality top layer.
Other contributors included Baker’s Collision, Hudson and Roth Outdoor Living, a Lexington-headquartered fencing and yard maintenance business, and Mifflin Township Trustee Matt Cook, who helped finance the building of new dugouts.
Perry and city Parks and Recreation Supt. Mark Abrams also got on board with the project.
“I played baseball up there in the mid-1980s, so it’s great to see baseball back up there,” Abrams said. “Justin put a lot of time and effort in and (the city) helped out as much as we could.”
Abrams said the field would be available in the summer, but no teams or leagues have contacted him about using it yet. Field maintenance is a joint venture between the city and the Madison Middle School program this spring.
“We mow and they take care of the field,” Abrams said. “It’s a shared thing right now.”
The ballpark reclamation project is part of an overall public-private partnership that has rejuvenated nearly all of Liberty Park in the last 18 months.
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Both Hunt and Madison seventh-grade coach Bill McFarland were sharing grounds crew duties last week. Hunt mowed the outfield grass while McFarland dragged the infield with a four-wheeler.
McFarland is also on the board at the Madison Community Youth Park and, like Hunt, wanted to find a suitable home for the Madison Middle School program.
“I’ve dealt with this for years where Madison didn’t have a place to call home for their seventh- and eighth-grade teams,” McFarland said. “When Justin and Ben Brandt started doing some homework and getting things lined up at Liberty Park, it was all-hands-on-deck. We ran with it because we all have kids vested in the program.
“We all made the choice to raise our kids here in Madison and we wanted them to have a place to play baseball,” he said.
While Hunt and McFarland have middle school-aged sons who will benefit immediately from Liberty Park’s renovation, they both have a long-term vision for the field.
“When I met with Mr. Abrams, he asked if this was going to be a one-and-done situation,” Hunt said. “I told him absolutely not.
“Ben Brandt’s youngest son and my youngest son were in the fourth grade when we started this project and we want that group of kids to use this field. We’re going to be involved in the upkeep for at least the next four or five years. It’s not a short-term thing,” he said.
Liberty Park’s rebirth is about more than providing kids with a place to play.
“There’s a lot of baseball history in Mansfield that a lot of people don’t know and there’s a lot of baseball history at Liberty Park,” McFarland said. “That is something that got us all interested in getting this place going again and keeping it going.”