More Than Rain: Promises, Problems, and a Pattern of Rejection Behind Connersville’s Ailing Baseball Fields

CONNERSVILLE, IN – While the Connersville Parks Department points to recent flooding as the cause for the poor condition of the city’s Babe Ruth baseball fields, a deeper look reveals a story that begins not with a rainstorm, but with a 2019 government takeover built on promises that former league officials say were never kept.

The current state of the fields, they argue, is not a simple matter of weather, but the culmination of years of declining services, resource mismanagement, and a pattern of rejected offers of help from the very community volunteers who once ran the league.

The 2019 Takeover: A Vision of Efficiency

The turning point was a November 2019 Park Board meeting where then-Superintendent Katherine Good and then-Sports Director Dennis Ellis presented a vision for a more efficient league run by the Parks Department. They made several key promises, including that they had the necessary manpower, that costs would be lowered, and, crucially, that they would continue to charter with the official Babe Ruth organization.

It was a plan that many in the community hoped would succeed, but the reality of what followed was completely different.

A Different Reality on the Ground

Those who ran the league prior to the takeover report that the program changed immediately. The volunteer board had invested over $21,000 into the fields in 2019 alone, but the new management brought a different approach.

The promise to continue under the official Babe Ruth charter never materialized. This change had significant consequences: the “tournament trail,” a series of all-star and post-season opportunities for kids, was eliminated. Furthermore, the number of games played per season was cut nearly in half, from an average of 14 to just eight.

The 2019 promise of having adequate manpower is also called into question by former volunteers, who allege that since the takeover, the department has prioritized hiring management staff while having less on-the-ground labor for field maintenance.

A Pattern of Rejected Connections

Perhaps most central to the story is what former volunteers describe as a pattern of missed connections and rejected offers of partnership.

Former league leadership confirms that in meetings with then-Mayor Harold Gordon, their group of volunteers offered their labor and expertise to help build the new fields planned for River’s Edge Park. That offer, they say, was never acted upon.

Years later, in 2023, the volunteer group made another formal offer to the new Parks Department administration: let the volunteers take back the league and restore it. That proposal was also not accepted. These attempts to re-establish a working connection with the city’s volunteer base were, in both cases, unsuccessful.

Community Steps Up

As frustration over the fields’ condition continues, some are now taking action themselves. This past weekend, Connersville resident Bruce Ritter put out a public call for a volunteer-led cleanup.

“I’m organizing a field clean up,” Ritter said. “Anyone who wants to help reach out to me.”

The cleanup, planned for Saturday, June 14th, represents the latest chapter in the community’s long-standing connection to the fields—a grassroots effort to succeed where many feel the official channels have failed.

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