By Rodney Haas 

605 Sports 

MILBANK — Three years ago the City of Milbank broke ground on a new ballpark with visions of it being the center of activity come 2025 when the town celebrates the centennial of American Legion baseball. 

Three years later, the town had done just that by hosting its Heritage Classic in June and the Centennial Classic in July, and now this week the State B American Legion baseball tournament.  

“Our one goal was to have a playable field — lights, dugouts and we can always add amenities later,” Milbank mayor Pat Raffety said. “We have bleachers and a nice pressbox we’ve been using for about a month, but it’s really come to fruition from a lot of folks in the community that have stepped up and helped. 

“Yes we have big plans but the important thing is we’re playing baseball on what I would say is the nicest field in South Dakota.”

The bigger plans for the ballpark is to have a 700-seat grandstand, videoboard, a barn in right-center field that will house indoor batting cages. It’s part of a bigger vision for the complex located on the northwest side of town next to Lake Farley that will include an American Legion Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, two more baseball fields and a wiffleball/youth baseball field. 

“We need to prioritize what needs to get done,” Raffety said. “The field obviously and being able to play baseball.” 

The Milbank baseball community has a $5 million goal for the full completion of the entire project. The cost of the field was around $2.3 million with $1.2 million coming from the city and features a natural grass playing surface which includes a sand base with a gravel mixture similar in nature to Major League Baseball playing surfaces. 

“The design team was all about grass and said we will put a turf field in for you, that’s not a problem,” Raffety said about the debates of going with natural grass versus a turf field that is common in other communities in South Dakota. “Keep in mind in the summer time when it’s 90-degrees out, it’s going to be 150 on the field. Everything will be fine, but the kids will get worn out faster. You walk out on the grass and it’s like walking on double-padded carpet. It’s just something about baseball and dirt. It plays a little slower but it’s a much more competitive game.” 

Raffety admits the field does require a lot of upkeep. He said it gets watered everyday and sometimes twice, and adds the parks and rec department looks at the 12-day forecast to make decisions on how much and what time everything needs to happen. “If we get a lot of rain, it gets mowed three times a week and we only like to trim about a half-inch off at a time.” 

While the field does require extra work, the mayor said the grounds crew members take a sense of pride in maintaining it.

“It needs love,” Raffety said. “We have hired a turf management graduate, who relocated back to Milbank. We hired a parks maintenance lead who is an ag kid and understands the agronomy part of things. It’s not just this field, but we have other fields and the guys have the knowledge. It might not have the technology that this has under the grass (of the baseball field) but there’s no reason why that top can’t be the same. We want to be able to take a rain delay and not have a postponement.” 

While many in South Dakota may already be aware of Milbank being the birthplace of American Legion Baseball, for others that is not the case and Raffety is hoping this project will change that. 

After opening last summer and hosting a district amateur baseball tournament, this summer has been a busy one by hosting five tournaments all being legion teams. 

“We’re hoping that this is going to be the warm up for what we are going to have down the road," Raffety said. “It’s going to take a lot of coordination to get it right and a lot of volunteers. We have a lot of people who have a passion for baseball, but it takes a small army and good leadership group to execute it. 

This week’s state Class B Legion tournament will be the first opportunity for many to see the new field which includes the recently moved monument commemorating the 25th anniversary of American Legion Baseball in 1950.

“We like the nice wow factor so that’s pretty neat,” Raffety said. “Some of the amateur teams that played here last year said, ‘I don’t know why we are playing anywhere else.’ We like the field and we want to play here.’’ 

“It makes you feel good to hear that, but it’s another thing to do it. To know that everyone feels that way, gives you the confidence to be able to promote it and see what you can do with it.”