By Rodney Haas 

605 sports 

MILBANK — When baseball fans hear of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, they might immediately think of the Little League World Series. 

The town of Milbank hopes to evoke a similar renown for American Legion Baseball. 

Like Williamsport, which is the birthplace of Little League Baseball, Milbank prides itself as being the birthplace of American Legion Baseball, and now the city and the Milbank Ball Diamond Association are hoping to have a $10 million complex in place to mark Legion baseball’s centennial in 2025.  

“We've gone to great lengths to make it more of a destination park,” Milbank City Administrator John Forman said. 

Earlier this month, the city broke ground on its long awaited baseball field that has been in the planning since 2018. The old field was demolished to make way for an expansion of the school. 

The complex is on a 27-acre parcel of land the city purchased near Farley Park on the city’s northwest side. 

According to Forman, the new field is expected to be completed next spring at a cost of about $2.3 million. Little over half — about $1.2 million — will come directly from the city. 

Forman said the field will feature a natural grass playing surface with a drainage system that is similar to Target Field and other major and minor league facilities. It includes a sand base and a gravel mixture below the soil to allow for better drainage.  

“That's very much the same premise that we're looking at here,” Forman said, referring to the drainage system at Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins. “I think it would be capable of having an eight-inch rain or something and being able to get that off the field and, and go back to play.”

Forman said there was much debate within the baseball community if the field should be turf or natural grass. More and more baseball fields in South Dakota are utilizing turf to allow for games to be played immediately following the snow melt in the spring or a torrential downpour from a summer thunderstorm.   

“As this kind of came together, we started leaning more towards a grass field kinda on the premise the birthplace of legion baseball wasn't started on artificial turf,” he said. “So we kind of thought a natural grass field was probably the way to go.” 

The architect of record for the project is 4Most Sports Group. They rely upon a collection of former college and MLB baseball players, coaches, groundskeepers for design advice.

With shovels in the dirt now, the city is hoping to see a spike in donations for the project. 

“A lot of people have said once they see dirt moving they would contribute, so we’re hoping to start seeing a bigger influx of donations because of that,” Forman said. 

The new field will also feature a barn that will make up a part of the right field wall. Inside the barn there will be indoor batting cages, however, Forman admits the funds to build it are not there yet, but is hopeful it will happen by next year. 

“We didn't want it to just be a cookie cutter sort of field, being we’re in dairy country and farm country,” Forman said.

Besides the playing surface and the barn in right field, the new field will also feature a pressbox, bleacher seating and a champions plaza. It’s the first phase of a multi-phase project that is expected to not be completed until 2026. 

When fully realized, the complex will include two youth fields, a multi-use field with a dirt infield with adjustable bases and fences, an American Legion Baseball Museum and Hall of Fame, wiffleball field and a grandstand on the main field.

“The American Legion is very heavily involved in the project,” Forman said. “At their last convention here just a couple weeks ago they passed a resolution to hold both the A and B senior and junior state tournaments here in Milbank in 2025, which would be the 100th anniversary, and they've also passed a resolution to hold the national district tournament. 

“That doesn't mean we're going to get any of those tournaments, but it lays the groundwork for that to start happening.”