Fans watching baseball games at Vets Field will no longer have to keep track of the score on their own.
The scoreboard next to Tom Suchanek Diamond was non-functioning throughout the Greenfield High School baseball season this past spring as well as the summer during Post 81’s Legion campaign.
That won’t be the case next spring, as Post 81 chairman Bill Phelps has received the funding to put a new scoreboard up, which should be done in plenty of time for the baseball season.
“It started last July at the final Legion game when the scoreboard stopped working,” Phelps said. “We thought it might be the hand device that operates it but when I got back from Florida this spring and went to a Greenfield High School game, I noticed it still wasn’t working.”
Phelps, who was also named by former Greenfield Mayor Bill Martin the assistant superintendent to Vets Field (longtime Greenfield baseball coach Tom Suchanek is the superintendent), quickly got to work.
Once Phelps made it his mission to get a new scoreboard installed, he started looking at other areas of the field that had been short on upgrades, from the sign above the concession stand to general repairs around the fieldhouse.
“The major driving force of this was the scoreboard,” Phelps said. “Just me being who I am, I wanted to get this other stuff done as well. Tom [Suchanek] is great and I love him. He’s up there working on stuff but he has a full plate over there. Tom and I used to do a lot of this ourselves but we’re getting older and can’t do it all anymore. We have to find someone and pay them to do it.”
Knowing he’d need approval from the city, Phelps, Suchanek and Post 81 coach Alex Siano went to a Greenfield city meeting and laid out their plans to fundraise to the mayor.
Once she gave them the go-ahead, Phelps began contacting local businesses to see who would be able to donate to get the new scoreboard and repairs done.
“The high school went a whole year without a scoreboard,” Phelps said. “It really takes away from the game. This day in age, you need a scoreboard or something for the fans. Fans were constantly reminding me that it wasn’t working.”
The first move was to contact Lyman Signs out of Phillipston and work on what the replacement would be. They eventually came to a decision on a new scoreboard that would utilize as much of the old structure as possible.
Then came raising the money. Phelps received generous donations from Greenfield Savings Bank, Vietnam Vets of MA INC., Legion Post 81 as well as from Bob and Denise Grazick, owners of Victoria Bar in Greenfield.
“I knew it was going to be a major project,” Phelps said. “People were very generous with their donations to make this all happen. Each of the donors will be recognized by signage and plaques. The signage over the scoreboard will be Greenfield Savings Bank.”
A down payment has been sent to Lyman, while local contractors will be starting numerous jobs on the fieldhouse, concession stand and others around the field.
The hope is to have it all done in the fall, in plenty of time for the baseball season in the spring.
“Since the scoreboard isn’t used for football, it can be done sometime in the fall,” Phelps said. “One thing for sure is there will be no more baseball at Vets Field without a scoreboard.”
As someone who grew up playing on Vets Field, it was important for Phelps to have it kept to the highest standard.
“Tom and I played ball together there,” Phelps said. “From the Pony League to Legion ball. I used to go there as a little kid to pitch and watch games in the early 50s. I’ve been going there forever. My kids and my grandkids all played there. The city has a lot of financial burdens and have a lot of responsibilities and things going on. If we can do something to help the city out and make Vets Field the field of dreams we always wanted it to be and said it was, we’ll do it. We want to keep it that way.”