Marshall baseball fans have been waiting for a new baseball stadium since 1967. Next year, the long-awaited dream becomes a reality.
By Keith Morehouse
HQ 121 | Spring 2023
Old neighborhood ballparks generally don’t get a proper sendoff when their time comes. When the basepaths disappear and the pitching mounds are grown over, the fields slowly morph into the surrounding landscape. That’s the tale of two old homes of Marshall baseball on opposite sides of Huntington.
At St. Cloud Commons in the West End, the cheers — and the main grandstand — are long gone. Two chain-link fences are still there, as are two smaller dugouts. But the charm of the place, where professional baseball was once played, is only a memory.
Across the county in the shadow of a Walmart, you wouldn’t recognize the old University Heights field. There are vestiges of an old outfield fence tractor tire tracks heading down what used to be the first base line.
“We played at the Heights,” former Marshall pitcher and 15-year Major Leaguer Rick Reed said recently. “But it wasn’t a home field. I figured it up and Marshall has played about 3,000 games without a field to call their own.”
The two-time MLB All-Star honed his craft on some of the most pristine baseball diamonds in the world — think Dodger Stadium at Chavez Ravine and Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. But Reed never forgets where he came from. Growing up on Jefferson Avenue, his cleat marks were all over the fields at St. Cloud Commons. From his little league days to becoming a star pitcher at Huntington High and then at Marshall, his baseball roots run deep here. Now he smiles at the thought that Marshall is finally getting its own on-campus baseball facility.
“When we played away games in college, their students turned out and they would get on the opposing team,” Reed said. “It’s time for Marshall to enjoy something like that.”
It’s hard to imagine Marshall students’ being able to attend a Herd baseball game all those years ago without the help of Google Maps. Neither University Heights nor St. Cloud’s was easy to get to. And today the Kennedy Center is quite a drive from campus, and GoMart Park in Charleston even further away — the list of places Marshall baseball has called home is almost too long to note here. A “home game” for Herd baseball always came with an asterisk.
That’s why the construction of Marshall’s new baseball stadium on Third Avenue across from Edwards Stadium gives Reed such a feeling of pride. He knows an on-campus home can give Marshall an opportunity to have a level playing field in a very good Sun Belt baseball conference. He also understands what it can mean for the city of Huntington in particular, and the sport in general.
“Marshall baseball has been on the backburner for way too long. Now we are making our way to the frontburner,” said Reed. “There are endless possibilities for Marshall’s new ballpark. The rainouts will be gone with the turf field. You can practice here before you head out on your southern road trips. As Ernie Banks used to say, ‘Let’s play two.’”
Reed quietly donated $1 million to the project, which will run around $23 million when completed. He didn’t seek any attention for his donation. In fact, that was the last of his intentions for the generosity. He just felt that strongly that the program needed the support.
“I always said if I had the chance I was going to give back to Marshall,” Reed said, “because that’s where my exposure was. Longtime baseball coach Jack Cook gave me an opportunity and helped prepare me for pro baseball.”
Cook, who died on Nov. 24, 2021, was the Marshall baseball legend who led the program for 23 years. He was promised a new ballpark during his first season as coach in 1967, but it never came to fruition. And while he will never see the new stadium, he did live long enough to see ground broken on his personal field of dreams.
From high above the new stadium construction site, you can see the footprint of the new ballpark begin to take form. There’s a bevy of activity here on a project that has an ambitious opening day of March 1, 2024. From a distance — and close up — new Marshall head coach Greg Beals keeps an eye on all of it.
“I do go over to the site on a weekly basis and check things out,” Beals said. “I have meetings and we’re designing lockers and we’re doing all that other stuff. It’s pretty cool. It’s coming along. The foundation wall around the ballpark is almost complete.”
Now in his first season as head coach, his Herd swept a three-game opening series on the road for the first time since 1990, which set expectations high. Amid the challenges of the season itself, Beals is still looking at the grander picture of college baseball — on campus — in Huntington.
“It will resonate on March 1, 2024, when we flip the lights on and play ball,” Beals said. “It’s absolutely part of the reason I’m here and part of the excitement about the future of this program. It’s a really cool opportunity any time in your career to take over a program that’s going into a really good baseball conference.”
If you can’t find Coach Beals at the Kennedy Center or at GoMart Park, check the construction site. He’ll be the guy with a baseball hat underneath his hard hat, playing stadium architect, construction consultant and baseball manager — all at the same time.
