Garren Colvin couldn’t imagine any of this. Not when he was a Ludlow Knothole kid growing up on the sandy dunes of Lemker Field hard by the banks of the Ohio River. Or a Ludlow High baseball guy for some pretty good Panther teams.
And yet here it was. And here he was. Along with a standing-room-only crowd 10 deep in spots for Thursday’s community dedication of Lemker Field at St. Elizabeth Ball Park.
But it wasn’t just Garren, who went on to Thomas More on the Jim Connor Scholarship to play for the legendary coach. No one involved in Ludlow sports the last 75 years or so could believe this scene either.
Benny Clary has been coaching and boosting youth sports since he was the head manager as a Ludlow High School junior in 1954 and had the keys to the stadium.
But a brand-new Lemker Field at St. Elizabeth Ball Park with a community turnout like this despite the rain? Nope. “I could never have imagined a crowd this big,” Benny said.
Jon Draud, Dr. Draud to those who know him professionally, was sitting almost in the same place he did as a Ludlow High baseball catcher before he went off to Eastern Kentucky University – thanks to his baseball talents. That led him back to a stint as a superintendent at his alma mater before becoming Kentucky Education Commissioner and then – and now – Kenton County Commissioner.
Hard not to think how this got Jon his start in coaching, where his 1963 Holmes team was the last Northern Kentucky team to win a state baseball title for 39 years and one of only two – with Covington Catholic – to do so in 59 years. “It all started here,” Jon says.
Jack Aynes, here on this his 90th birthday, would have never imagined it. The conscience of the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame – and the Ludlow Sports Hall of Fame — played in the first Ludlow High game here in 1949, threw the first two no-hitters here and all he could do was shake his head that here he was at the place he helped christen 73 seasons ago — and on his 90th birthday.
And for sure, Clarence “Dutch” Dickman could not have imagined this place when he and his cousin, — and next-door neighbor — Carl Lemker, decided to convert the field across Elm Street from their homes where the World War II Victory Gardens were being wound down, into a baseball field.
“We just wanted a place to play,” the soon-to-be 93-year-old was saying the other day. He was 15, Carl was 16. And so they worked at it, clearing as much plant life as they could and – when they got their driver’s licenses – hooking a screen on the back to drag the infield.
Much better than playing in the alley where one of their neighbors didn’t much like baseball “would call the police on us and wouldn’t give us back our baseballs when they went into her yard.,” Dutch recalls the painful memories.
They would even pour gasoline on it and set fire to it for a quick-dry experience after it rained. And when Sunday came around, they would have to go after Mass to see St. Boniface pastor Fr. Hanses to ask for a new game ball.
Dutch was looking for a place where the St. Boniface team he pitched for could play in the CYO League. “We wanted to play so bad,” says Dutch, who retired after 55 years as an electrician.
They named it Lemker Field for their two families – his mother was a Lemker. And now the name lives on, alongside that of St. Elizabeth Healthcare.
Which is where Garren Colvin comes in. He’s the President and CEO of St. Elizabeth Healthcare these days. “I could never have imagined this, to have one of the state-of-the-art baseball facilities here in Ludlow. I’m so proud of St. Elizabeth Healthcare, that we have the ability to do something like this.”
It won’t be the last time, Colvin says of their second time doing this. The first was at the Bellevue Vets Field. But it’s not just the financial sponsorship, he said, with St. E as one of three major benefactors here along with Duke Energy and the Reds Community Fund. “We probably had 40 to 60 of our employees working on this, the same for Duke.”
They painted and built the dugouts, even set up an elaborate playground gym set for the younger kids next door. Lots of work to do here – fences, turf to be put down in the outfield, along with the plants and shrubs.
“I remember coming here watching the older guys,” Garren says. He also remembers what he learned from Jim Connor at Thomas More. “He taught me much more than about baseball.”
The hope here is this field will teach a new generation of Ludlow kids about baseball – and a whole lot more. “This’ll help,” says Woody McMillen, Ludlow baseball coach, in this river town he calls “a walking community,” where people don’t need a car to get from one end of the town to the other.
“We had a camp last year on the dirt field,” he said, “I can’t wait to do it on this one.”
But first, in a season when his Panthers have played 25 of their first 26 games on the road, there was Thursday’s dedication game against Lloyd Memorial. And with an artificial turf infield, basepaths, pitcher’s mound and batter’s boxes, it would be hard to rain this one out.
Except for this. The rain held off until the ceremonies were almost finished. But the word from the weather people was that the rain would be steady until 7:30. If the game didn’t start until then, there wouldn’t be time to get it in before it was too dark to play.
So they apologized to the crowd and said sorry folks, but no game today. And not a soul seemed upset. They’d gotten what they’d come for – a glimpse of the future. In a place that reflected so much of baseball town Ludlow’s past.
“This Ludlow community has done everything right,” the Reds Community Fund’s Charley Frank said. Not a soul disagreed.
Noted: Ten additional sponsors made this happen: The City of Ludlow, Southbank Partners, the Kinser Foundation, Ludlow Independent Schools, Ft. Wright Skyline, Marshall Dry Ridge Toyota, Camporosso, The Motz Group, Ashlee Fence, and GCI Digital Imagining.