The Miracle Field, shown in a computer rendering, will include lights, scoreboard, covered bleachers and dugouts among other amenities. (Photo: The Tennessean)
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Major league pitcher David Price on Thursday celebrated fundraising efforts for a Miracle Field for disabled ball players by donating $300,000.
“It’s special,” Price told several dozen people gathered at the SportCom gym that’s within McKnight Park, where he competed as a young baseball player.
The event included a groundbreaking ceremony for the future Miracle Field at the McKnight Park grounds near the southeast corner of DeJarnette Lane and Memorial Boulevard on the north side of the city.
Price also spent time with 7-year-old Carlee Beam, who told Price and others how the Miracle Field will provide her and “other people in wheelchairs” the “opportunity” to enjoy playing ball.
Murfreesboro City Manager Rob Lyons said the city hopes to open the Miracle Field by spring 2017.
Price grew up in Murfreesboro and became a star pitcher at Blackman and Vanderbilt. He has played professionally with the Tampa Bay Rays, Detroit Tigers, Toronto Blue Jays and the Boston Red Sox, who signed him to a seven-year, $217 million deal this past offseason.
A Cy Young Award winner as the top pitcher in the American League with the Rays in 2012, Price said he first participated with a Miracle Field league on Saturday mornings in Tampa and enjoyed seeing how excited the children and their parents were and “how much it makes their week.”
“One day of a couple of hours of baseball doesn’t raise a lot of eyebrows for myself or a lot of other people, but for these kids it’s something they look forward to every day of the week leading up till Saturday,” Price said. “Just to be a part of that and help put one here in our hometown is very special.”
The Miracle Field will include lights, scoreboard, covered bleachers and dugouts, a concession building, bathrooms with showers and a “boundless playground” with a rubberized surface that children with and without disabilities can share, according to an event video. The video displayed on a gym curtain included Price’s father, Bonnie, talking about raising the money to complete the project.
“The community needs to step up and share this vision and get this done,” said Bonnie, who is working with his wife, Debbie, and others in raising funds through their son’s Project One Four Foundation to pay for the Miracle Field.
The project also will offer a regular ball field with synthetic turf that disabled athletes also can use, such as for Special Olympics, said Brad Luther, who attended the event with his wife, Kim. He founded four years ago with the help of his wife the Diamond League for special-needs players, such as their son, Joseph, at Barfield Crescent Park.
Courtesy of: Scott Broden