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HARTINGTON — Nebraska American Legion Baseball recently announced the sites and dates for the summer of 2024 for all three classes of Legion baseball across the state.
The Class C Junior Legion State Tournament will be held right here at Felber Park July 20-24.
“We have been making improvements to the field and the surrounding seating over the past few years with the hopes of getting a state tournament,” Hartington Post 4 American Legion baseball manager, Don Whitmire said. “The community, the Legion and the city have been very, very cooperative in time and money, it’s definitely a community venture.”
Last spring, the entire field was resodded, which was a definite upgrade.
“The new playing field is great,” Whitmire said. “It was perfect by the end of last summer.”
Hartington has hosted Area tournaments in the past, but Whitmire thought this was the first time a state tournament will be held in town.
“We’ve had area tournaments, in fact, we hosted a ‘C’ area last summer,” he said. “But I’m pretty sure this is our first state.”
He noted hosting a state tournament is great for the Hartington Baseball Program.
“It will generate interest for a program that is creating its own interest by having success,” said Whitmire. “It’s great for the kids, it’s great for the community and it’s great for baseball in Hartington.”
The first couple of days of the tournament will run at the same time as the Cedar County Fair, which will make the city a hub for entertainment and excitement for everyone.
Hartington parents, players, the City of Hartington and Post 4 Legionnaires will be busy sprucing up the park and making some improvements.
The updates scheduled include new netting all around the seating area, new “terrace” style seating, batting cages down the left field line and a “batter’s eye” in the outfield.
“At certain times of the day, it’s very difficult for the batter to see the ball when it is pitched,” Whitmire said. “We need to give the batter a better background for seeing the ball.”
Whitmire also pointed out, hosting seven teams from across Nebraska, the fans, umpires and interested people, will be an economic boost for the local economy.
“We have the Cobblestone and the hotel downtown, Laurel has a motel, we want to try to keep everything as local as possible,” said Whitmire. “And all of these people will need to eat, either at the park or somewhere here in town.”
The coach said their will be a group of people, who will begin meeting soon, to gather information and put out a brochure of sorts to showcase motels, restaurants and activities in the area while the tournament is happening.
Part of this group’s responsibilities will be to dole out the necessary assignments to take on an event of this stature.
“This is going to take the entire community to chip in and help out,” Whitmire said. “The things we will need to take place to service this tournament, the players and the fans is going to be huge, but it will also be huge for our baseball program overall.”
