It’s late June/early July, and it used to be time for post season Babe Ruth baseball tournaments in which all stars from different counties would play each other for the right to advance to state and national competition.
South Central Tennessee has been blessed with many good venues at which to play Babe Ruth baseball.
There is Sam Davis Park with Steve Speer Field in Pulaski. Marshall County and Maury County Park have spacious fields, and then there’s Flanigan Field in Lawrenceburg.
Flanigan Field has a mystique of its own.
In 2015, Lawrenceburg marked its 60th anniversary with Babe Ruth Baseball by hosting its third World Series in 37 years.
Kiwanis’s Flanigan Field has hosted at least one world series, a feat not all communities have accomplished.
Many Babe Ruth state tournaments at different age levels also have been played in Lawrenceburg with several at Flanagan Field.
Fields at Bobby Brewer Park, Lawrenceburg, have replaced Flanigan Field as the home for Babe Ruth games, and community support throughout Lawrenceburg has been unrivaled for supporting and making improvements.
But the move to another home field does not diminish my memories over the years of watching baseball at Flanigan Field.
Whether a warm afternoon or on a cooler evening, once the sun gradually descended, baseball and Flanigan Field seemed meant for each other, just as much as the smell of popcorn, the taste of hamburgers and hot dogs and the soothing relief of cool soda or water during a hot summer.
During rain delays, the press box at Flanigan Field always seemed to have enough room for just one more person trying to escape the showers.
While the scoreboard in left field is gone and the field is privately owned, the site is easy to find on the edge of an industrial park and triggers memories.
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