A
field of friendship
High school buddies reunite
in Clay Zigler's
backyard
by
Eric Syverson
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Luke Sappa bats the ball into play on Zigler Field. Clay Zigler
built the softball field on his nearly 7-acre property to reunite
with old friends. He holds one or two games a year. |
Remembering the picnics
and softball games of his days at Ritenour High School in St. Louis,
Clay Zigler decided to bring that era back to life. So like the Iowa
farmer in the movie Field of Dreams, the 1979 graduate built it, and
they came.
Clay transformed
part of his nearly 7-acre backyard into a softball field, and for more
than 10 years, the New Melle resident and some of his old high-school
buddies have been keeping the dream alive with one to two annual games.
It
began as a simple grass field and an excuse for a reunion in 1992.
Clay threw bases on the ground, and the guys picked teams. The Cuivre
River Cooperative member named his team the Zigler All-Stars, and
his friends Bill and Brian Duncan named their team the Duncan All-Stars.
It was just a one-time event, Clay says, or so he thought.
Four years later, the guys met again and kept the same teams. The rivalry
was serious by 1998.
Clay, a high school
journalism teacher, created a parody newsletter that provoked his friends’ competitive
spirit. The field became Zigler Field, and the games became annual
battles for bragging rights.
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With temperatures
in the mid-80s, Zigler All-Stars fans and players do their best
to stay cool. |
As the rivalry increased,
so did the quality of Zigler Field. Clay and his wife, Bonnie, live
an hour away from some of their old classmates. To make the trip alluring,
they began adding equipment to the experience in their spare time.
Wanting
a dirt infield, Clay asked his neighbor Don Kops to plow up the yard. “He
was looking at me like: ‘You are out of your mind,’” Clay
recalls. After Don finished, Clay used a tiller to complete the job.
Then he installed locked-down bases similar to those in high school
and professional ballparks.
Zigler Field’s
perimeter was Clay’s
next focus. He built a backstop and a border fence. Bonnie came up
with a way to decorate these additions when the couple attended a
minor league River City Rascals game in O’Fallon.
“She
said, ‘Why don’t we get banners?’” Clay recalls.
Within days, Bonnie picked up the phone, and companies such as
Budweiser, Hooters and ESPN were happy to send banners. Clay’s
favorite is the official banner of the 2002 Home Run Derby from the
All-Star game.
A phone call to the
old stadium of the Oklahoma City 89ers, another minor league team,
also proved fruitful. Clay received a row of stadium seats for the
ballpark. He added a hand-painted scoreboard, hung baseball-shaped
plaques displaying the final score of each game and bought a trophy
at a garage sale.
 |
Plaques showing the final
score of each game at Zigler Field hang near the ballpark's backstop
fence. |
Despite these enhancements, Clay
still has a wish list for Zigler Field. He wants to install lights
for night games and level the playing field. Gopher holes mar the outfield,
and the hill in right field is notorious among players.
But Bill Duncan,
who sprained his ankle near the hill during last year’s
game, thinks the terrain is part of the ballpark’s
appeal. “It
would be nice to flatten it out, but it might take the charm
away.”
Brian Duncan, who
lives in Ohio and regularly flies back for a game, says the field isn’t
really what matters anyway. “It’s the event itself — getting
together with old friends and making new ones,” he
says. “It has
become a tradition.”
This tradition has
attracted Ritenour graduates from as early as 1966 to as late as
1988. Family, friends and some of Clay’s former
students also have been added to the fold. “The
word spreads,” says
Bill, a 1980 graduate. “People
are intrigued. They come out, and they’re really
blown away.”
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Zigler All-Stars congratulate teammate Tim Lucido after his second
home run of the game. |
This year’s
game had a whole lineup of new additions. Clay and the Duncans combined
their teams to take on a new opponent, the Cougars
Khoury League team, which was Missouri state champions in both
1975 and 1977. As impressive as that sounds, the Cougars
hadn’t played since high school, and the Zigler
All-Stars won 28-23.
The game reminded
Bill of Field of Dreams, where the regular players, tired of practicing,
finally recruited another team to play real games.
References to the
1989 film are commonplace at Zigler Field. The movie was only a minor
inspiration for Clay’s ballpark, but he does
see similarities. “I
told these guys, and I think they laughed,” he
says. “But it really
is kind of magical. Where else can you get ahold
of people that you went to high school with 25
years ago and they still come out to do this?”
Mark
Lacey, who grew up down the street from Clay,
agrees. “I
would call it a field of friendship. I look forward
to it every year.”
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