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By Greg Hunt
A crew of Grandy Lions volunteers toiled away on Oct. 30 during another work day to reinvigorate the Grandy Ballfield. A grass infield, new baselines and a total face-lift will have the park ready for games next season.
Loren Davis was among the guys working on the baselines that afternoon. He explained the property the ball park sits upon was donated by Donna Biggins of the Brass Rail, and Bob and Nancy Taylor.
 “The thought was Donna owned the whole thing, but when we got it surveyed, we come to find out Donna only owned pretty much from third base straight out. The rest of it is the Taylors. Kind of funky how it was laid out. Taylors didn’t even know they owned it until Don Hanson started poking around with the survey,” said Davis.
Don Leaf, out helping dig down the basepath areas for lime fill (left), was part of the crew which built the original ballfield.
“It was originally built many years ago when my dad was in business, in the late 1950s. It was just an open field back then owned by Don Morrel. He was in California at the time, and he gave us permission to build a field for the kids,” recalled Leaf. “It was always used for softball. There was a baseball field across the highway back where the creamery was. We played a lot of softball on this field. I think every church in the county used it for ball.”
“There’s a lot of history here. As it’s been said, if you grew up in the Cambridge area and you didn’t play all on the Grandy field, then you didn’t play ball,” passed on Davis.
The renovating is getting done quickly, with the Grandy Lions getting rolling with initial work Sept. 21 before letting Leaf Construction have at it with their dirt hauling and leveling equipment. Ditches were leveled for the sake of the fans.
“This area here will be nice to sit in, and nice to mow. We have enough room now where the fences will be 20-feet back to allow larger foul ball areas,” said Davis.
Dimensions for the park are 260’ down the lines and 280’ to center. Russ Mann, who led the Athens Township ballpark project, helped with dimensions and designs and offered “do’s and don’ts” advice to the Grandy Lions.
Mark Leaf played many seasons on the field including manning the shortstop spot for the old Grandy Indians softball crew.
“Growing up, I lived down the street just five houses away. I used to play down here when I was in kindergarten and first grade, playing with all the sixth graders, so I took a beating for a lot of years. We didn’t have Little League back then,” he recalled. “It will be nice to have lime down because the gravel that was on here would chew your knees up.”
Donations come from variety of directions
The park will be officially owned by the Grandy Community Center. The Grandy Lions pulled together money from charitable pull tabs and funds raised during pancake breakfasts and silent auctions. Cambridge Township donated $12,000 from its park fund for the project, and the Minnesota Twins gave $5,000 from their grant purse. A grant is being pursued through East Central Energy’s Operation Round-Up campaign.
Side and backstop fencing was recycled from the old C-I Softball Complex. Irrigation and a well is on the work list, along with either grass seeding or sod placement.
“If anybody wants to donate a large sum of money for lights, we would be more than happy to talk to them!” said Davis.
Donations for the project can be made out to Grandy Community Center and mailed to P.O. Box 29, Grandy, MN 55029. Bob Zimprich and Dennis Golden are coordinators for the donations.
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