Bing Crosby Stadium. Photo by Roger Bianchini. Courtesy of Reginald Cassagnol / CassAviation. Copyright 2006 Warren County Report
Community raises the bar for youth athletics facilities throughout the Valley
By ROGER BIANCHINI
Warren County Report
“It was 53 years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play,” or more appropriately on this occasion, “the Bing to croon.”
Okay, okay, paraphrasing the opening line from The Beatles summer of love – 1967 for you youngsters – landmark Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album is probably a bit obtuse but we are taking artistic license due to the musical Bing Crosby connection. Yes Virginia, the stadium is named after Bing Crosby, the late crooner/actor, because he donated $4,000 to the community’s youth recreation programs that put the stadium project in motion after coming to town to premier one of his films in the early 1950s.
Bing Crosby Stadium. Photo by Roger Bianchini. Copyright 2006, Warren County Report.
Warren County High School Athletic Director Buck Smith visited baseball’s long-time connection to the American spirit in his July 22 remarks at the reopening of Bing Crosby Stadium. His words and the words he referenced, from Walt Whitman and W.P. Kinsella, harkened back to our collective past, to lost innocence and the deep pull of memory that transcends generations and virtually any other boundary that separates us from our hearts, our dreams, our neighbors and ultimately from ourselves. We gratefully reprint a portion of those remarks here:
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