Hamtramck gives thanks to those preserving our stadium

We’ve spilled plenty of ink in recent years about the amazing history and rebirth of Hamtramck’s very own historic baseball stadium.
Last week, we wrote about a last piece of the puzzle that was put together to get renovations of the grandstand completed.
The overall plan for the stadium and surrounding park area is still on the wish list for funding.
What an amazing turnaround for this stadium. To recap: The stadium opened up in 1930, and was home to the old Negro Leagues.
That was a shameful time, when African-Americans were prohibited from crossing the color line into the all-white Major Leagues.
Over the years, the stadium’s history had been forgotten, and the stadium itself fell into disrepair to the point that there had been serious talk of tearing it down.
When the stadium’s history was rediscovered, well, it became sacred ground.
You read about all the people and organizations that are involved in the $2.6 million renovation project in last week’s issue of The Review.
The list of folks involved in this wonderful project is long and impressive, but once again we will point out that the folks who got the ball rolling, so to speak, are the Friends of Historic Hamtramck Stadium and the Hamtramck Stadium Grounds Crew.
The Friends’ Chairman Gary Gillette did a lot of painstaking research on the stadium, and so discovered its historical significance. His knowledge of baseball history is encyclopedic, to say the least.
The Grounds Crew wasted no time stepping in, and starting the much-needed repairs and maintaining of the field.
Both groups are made up of volunteers and, as one person close to them pointed out, have put in a ton of sweat equity into the preservation of the stadium.
The true heroes of all this are the players of the Negro Leagues, whose presence here graced Hamtramck. For that, we will forever be inspired to preserve their accomplishments and history.
Posted Aug. 6. 2021