Trio of donors make it possible for Canadian ball hall to enhance fields, site

Thanks to the generous support of the Jays Care Foundation, the Town of St. Marys and the St. Marys Minor Ball Association, the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will be able to make significant improvements to its baseball diamonds and its 32-acre site. Photo: Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame

May 11, 2021

Official Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame News Release

St. Marys, Ont. – Thanks to the generous support of the Jays Care Foundation, the Town of St. Marys and the St. Marys Minor Ball Association, the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will be able to make significant improvements to its baseball diamonds and its 32-acre site.

“We are extremely grateful for the support from the Jays Care Foundation, the Town of St. Marys and the St. Marys Minor Ball Association,” said Jeremy Diamond, Chair of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame’s Board of Directors. “Thanks to their generosity, we can continue to enhance our site so it can be enjoyed by young ballplayers and their families in the future.”

The Jays Care Foundation announced on Friday that the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is one of the 14 organizations across the country that will receive funding through their Field Of Dreams program. The Field Of Dreams program has been made possible by Rogers Communications, which has provided more than $10 million to support Jays Care Foundation programs over the last decade.

The Field Of Dreams grant will allow the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum to replace the backstop on St. Marys Cement Field, build professional bullpens on King Field, install an infield irrigation system on three of its main fields and acquire bleacher seating.

“The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum plays a pivotal role in preserving this country’s deep and enduring baseball legacy and Jays Care is proud to support the future of the game through a second Field Of Dreams grant,” said Robert Witchel, Executive Director, Jays Care Foundation. “We are pleased to invest over $50,000 to help refurbish both Cement and King Fields in St. Marys and create opportunities for a generation of children and youth to have fun and develop life skills through the game of baseball.”

Along with the grant from the Jays Care Foundation, the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will also receive support from the Town of St. Marys and the St. Marys Minor Ball Association which will enable them to purchase new tools and equipment for preparing the fields, expand their equipment and storage shed, improve lighting around the site and repair the outfield playing surface on Rotary Field.

“This is very exciting for our community. We are honoured and humbled to be a recipient of the 2021 Field Of Dreams grant which will give us the opportunity to make upgrades at the Baseball Hall of Fame diamonds such as the Cement Field backstop, bullpen, irrigation and bleacher upgrades,” said St. Marys mayor Al Strathdee.

“With this grant along with additional funding from the Town, we’ll also be able to complete a shed expansion, outfield resurfacing, parking lot lighting upgrades and more. This will provide the citizens of St. Marys and the surrounding area with an exciting chance to reconnect and socialize, which will be needed more than ever as soon as it is safe to do so.”

Candy McEwan, president of the St. Marys Minor Ball Association, is happy that her organization is able to help the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

“The St. Marys Minor Ball Association is pleased to donate to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum to support site improvements,” she said. “We are so fortunate to play on the beautiful diamonds at the Hall and look forward to continued upgrades of the site. We are very proud of our partnership with the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and look forward to continuing to work with them in the future.”

The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s goal is to have these projects completed in 2022 and to hold a ribbon cutting celebration with the donors during the 2022 induction weekend.