Warren County Report

But back to basics – I know where the heart of a story lies and this one’s is in a community’s commitment to its future and its children.

It was, in fact, 53 years ago that Front Royal’s 11-12-year-old, 1953 Little League All Stars, the first to play in the original Bing Crosby Stadium, made it to Williamsport, Pa., where they finished a gutsy third place in the Little League World Series following an untimely, freak injury to one key player. In 1953 that team played in a $10,000, concrete wall-encased “Bing” that was state of the art for youth athletics at the time.

But over a half-century later that facility had aged, deteriorated and was passed both in appearance and amenities by newer high school and even some Little League complexes throughout the Shenandoah Valley. As went “The Bing” it seemed, so went the community as it battled hard economic times and occasionally itself, in the wake of the loss of its major employer of nearly 50 years, the American Viscose, then FMC, then Avtex rayon manufacturing plant.

Does “The Bing’s” resurrection point to the successful culmination of another rebirth, that of the American Viscose site as both business and recreational parks? With the same commitment and forward-looking perspective of local government, one can certainly hope for a similar conclusion.

“Build it and they will come,” a line from the baseball fantasy film “Field of Dreams,” seemed an appropriate reference to the vision and commitment leading to the July 22, 2006, grand re-opening of Bing Crosby Stadium. It was a reference and a theme returned to often by speakers during that Saturday morning ceremony.

Two of those speakers, Warren County Board of Supervisors Chairman Richard Traczyk and Vice-Chairman Ron Llewellyn were part of the county governmental team that dared to dream this community would support a $3 to $4-million athletic investment in its children and its future. And while that nearly $4-million expenditure has been an ongoing topic of debate for some, on a recent Saturday such grumbling faded like the shadows driven from the Bing’s field by an emerging late morning, July sun.

“This new ballpark is, indeed, a field of dreams for virtually every child coming through its gates . . . What child does not dream of the opportunity to play in a Camden Yards or a Yankee Stadium?” Llewellyn asked in recounting his own childhood here, which he noted included “over 100 games in the original Bing.” But while, like himself, most of us aren’t destined to attain the dream of baseball’s big “Show,” Llewellyn pointed out that the new Bing is a viable working alternative for the community’s baseball playing youngsters.

And while questions remained that Saturday about the immediate playability of rain-soaked sections of infield sod (only four Front Royal Cardinal home games remained that day in this lost gypsy Card season before eight months of undisturbed sod setting and field manicuring can occur), and some final necessary construction tweaking was apparent to the close observer, the focus on July 22 was on the stadium’s long-term potential as a baseball and community facility.

Several speakers noted that Front Royal has always been known as “a baseball town.” And now it seems that youth baseball and its modernized centerpiece have the opportunity to help reunite a community as it comes to terms with change and the parameters of the change that will define it and its future.

Perspective, traditions

The focus on pride gained from tradition, effort and the achievement of “being the best YOU can be,” may have been best expressed by 1953 Front Royal Little League All Star Sam Cooksey, who appeared with former teammate Warren Miller at the opening ceremonies.

“I played at Bing Crosby when I was about 10 years old and it’s amazing what they have done here. I take my hat off to the people that got together and got this stadium rebuilt for the kids. The money is well spent, there’s no doubt about it. And the kids playing high school ball now, they’re going to have kids someday and they’re going to be playing here and then someday their grandkids will be playing here too. So this ballpark carries it all into the future.

“We’ve got another team here going to the World Series, the Challengers,” Cooksey said when asked about his own childhood exploits leading to Williamsport’s own legendary field of dreams. “There’s only two teams in the whole world going to play in the World Series in that group, and they are one of them and that’s amazing.

“So they’re taking our banner away from us, they’re carrying it on,” Cooksey said of the Challengers ending his team’s distinction as the town’s only Little League World Series participant. “And they have no idea what they’re getting into when they get up there, they’ll get caught up in it because they love baseball just like the rest of us. And if you ever come and watch them play, you’ll fall in love with them like I did,” Cooksey said of the Challengers.

He then noted that the Challenger League All Stars are in the process of conducting a variety of events to raise the money necessary to make the trip to Williamsport and urged the community’s support of that effort.

Included among speakers representing future users of the stadium on Saturday were Front Royal Little League President Bryan Helmick, American Legion Post 53’s Jody Lee, Front Royal Cardinals President Linda Keen, Warren County High School Athletic Director Buck Smith and baseball coach Todd Miller. Smith was also representing Skyline High School, scheduled to open in the fall of 2007, along with the new WCHS. Both high schools will play their home games at The Bing (Smith’s stirring remarks are reported elsewhere in this issue).

Members of this year’s WCHS team that shared the Northwestern District Title with Sherando and fell one game short of a state playoff berth also participated in a mass, first-pitch ceremony. The Col. Wesley Fox Jr. Marine Honor Guard presented federal, state and Legion Post 53 colors as members of the WCHS Band played the renovated stadium’s first National Anthem.