History of Garrett Field
​
Bud Garrett's "Field of Dreams"
​
The park began in the mind of Bud (Roy) Garrett, a man who was fittingly born in 1927 - the year Babe Ruth
hit his 60 homeruns.
Bud had always remembered the saying by Pittsburgh Pirates Broadcaster Bob Prince, "How sweet it is to have
a good ball field to play on".
With that in mind, Bud decided that he could put a ball field on his eight acres of land in Willow Street.
His idea was prompted by the desire of the Southern Church League to have a central diamond of better quality. (One of the church league's existing fields even had three trees in the outfield, so it was time to do something.)
Bud coached one of the church teams (Colemanville) at that time and took his idea to the league officers.
After numerous hours by team members, friends and family selling sweet corn they had planted on the land,
sub sales in the winter, and donations, brought together the construction of the ball fields. Although the
league was happy with one field, Bud suggested they could put in two fields for the same money as one.
With everything in place, the opening game was help on May 4, 1981.