HUMBOLDT — Humboldt’s answer to The Mighty Casey, Gary Larson, shanked a looping hit down the field line Saturday during an old-time baseball game at Walter Johnson Field. At 51, he puffed into first, and allowed later he would have had a stand-up double when he was a crackerjack athlete at Humboldt High.
Larson, who dreams of turning the abandoned football and baseball fields into a Southeast Kansas destination, filled in for the Topeka Westerns, who battled a Wichita team made up of Bulldozer and Blue Stockings players. The contest — more fun than competition — brought to life the 1930s Works Progress Administration park that has been dormant since Humboldt High opened its sports complex at the east edge of town.
The baseball game featured players of several ages and included a Stacy “Sassy” Beebe, a gal from Viola. The players caught bare-handed and the pitcher delivered underhanded. Fans — a good number on a hot, sultry late afternoon — munched on the typical fare of hot-dogs and peanuts.
Most were riveted to what Larson had say, because they came to support “Saving the Field.” Humboldt Historical Preservation Alliance has joined with Larson in the effort, a gaggle of citizens rarely denied when they take on a project.
SOMETIME in the next two months Larson expects to take ownership from USD 258 of the spacious park enclosed by a tall concrete and rock wall, laid up by men who during the Great Depression were eager for any work, regardless of pay.
The property will go to GML Youth Ministries, which Larson heads along with being southeast Kansas director of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
He lives in Neodesha, “but I’m all Humboldt, my heart always has been here,” he said. “I was born here, went to school here and I love Humboldt.
“We aren’t asking for donations yet,” he added. “Right now we just want your prayers” and willingness in the future “to help in any way you can.”
Plans for the park are extensive, but fluid for the time being.
Larson said an architect had viewed the area and had suggestions for how it could be converted to a place where games of several sports could be played as well as other activities. The baseball field, where Walter Johnson is said to have pitched in its first game, will become a throwback to the 1920s.
“I want to have a wooden grandstand, just like they had then,” he said. While Humboldt High is committed to its new fields, Larson already has talked with community college coaches about playing weekend jamborees on the field. “We might have Babe Ruth tournaments” and those involving traveling teams of all ages.
The second improvement would be a building large enough to house baseball memorabilia, as well as banquets and other gatherings — “a multi-purpose building.”
In the southeast corner of the walled park, an amphitheater for entertainment would fit nicely, Larson said. At another place, “a nice pole building,” could hold a basketball court, he ventured. The old football field remains ideal for recreation level teams to practice and could be used for soccer.
“NONE OF THIS is going to happen overnight,” Larson cautioned. “We still have a lot of things to put together (including legal work) before the park changes hands. Then, it’s going to take time and effort and a lot of prayer. We have lots of plans and the sky is the limit.”
