Field of broken dreams

In May of last year, Rage Baseball spokesmen Travis and wife Devin Arney visited a Moorcroft Council workshop to speak about the team making Moorcroft's upper ball field their home sports ground.

Arney, at the time, assured the council of the potential for money coming into town via the games and the increase of value by upgrades to the field, paid for by team sponsors, though he did not share any names or details regarding these sponsors.

The council listened to schedule recommendations, possible names for the field and other ideas and, later, expressed their first interest with stipulations as voiced by Councilman Dale Petersen, "Before we get to that, what we need first are the facts...[and] some type of agreement."

Work soon started, fence was removed and the organization brought in a frontend loader, removing topsoil on the infield and uncapping previously closed sprinklers.

However, after this start in June of 2023, the entire group faded away – no more visits to the council, no more work on the field and, as was discovered recently, no signature on the agreement drawn up by the town, leaving the town few options for recompense.

Little League organizer Krissy Hinkhouse and associate Courtney Reynolds have reason to open the field this year making a field for a group of more than 20 athletes who have signed up for baseball this season. The contract gave the Little League the right to use the field when the Rage team was not doing so, but the damage makes the field useless for Moorcroft area youths at this time.

Hinkhouse spoke in frustration to the council at last week's regular meeting, "We've tried to keep in contact with Rage. We literally have not heard from them... since the beginning of June [2023], they haven't been out there since the beginning of June, they tore a bunch of [ground] up and left... I'm just curious, who's going to be responsible of what they tore up? Is that something we need to do or is that something the city needs to do?"

Mayor Ben Glenn assured the team overseers, "I think it's something the city can handle, I mean there's not that much torn up, just some ground."

Reynolds disagreed with this summation and spoke to the damaged condition in which the Rage group left this ball field.

"They tore the fence down from the dugouts, the back stops and there are holes everywhere. We practiced on it last year because we didn't have any real options, but it's a [mess]. I wouldn't have left it like that over winter because with those holes - somebody could get hurt, the holes are pretty severe, mostly because of the waterlines," she said.

She later said the town anticipates the field being practice ready before the season starts, "It needs the holes filled in, fence fixed and sprayed for goat heads for sure. They asked us for our priorities and, right now, those would be it; to make it as safe as possible for our players."

According to Public Works Director Cory Allison, to make the field playable, "we're talking $20,000 worth of stuff that needs to be done" and to help facilitate "something the whole community will be able to enjoy and be proud of", Hinkhouse and Reynolds are seeking grants and planning fundraisers to assist with renovation costs.

"I have worked for the past two months to do what you guys did – contact Rage," Glenn acknowledged his own efforts. He anticipated a response by this week, but, as yet no response has been forthcoming, according to Hinkhouse.