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A cleaner, safer and completely refurbished Balduck Park was unveiled Saturday, according to Rod Meloni on WDIV-TV.
The event drew hundreds of people, including former neighbors, lots of kids, the Cass Tech Marching Band, Paws, the Tigers mascot and Detroit Tigers Austin Jackson, Rajai Davis and Torii Hunter. Detroit native and Tigers great Willie Horton also was there.
"This is a big day or the city and these kids. Maybe it's the beginning of what we used to have -- east side, west side baseball," Horton told Meloni.
Balduck, at Chandler Park Drive and Canyon near St. John Hospital, is one of the larger parks in Detroit, with a sledding hill, multiple diamonds and a wooded area. It fell into disrepair over the decades, but its fortunes have rebounded with the help of a local non-profit, Eagle Children’s Charities; nearby Nearby Grace Community Church and a variety of other philanthropic efforts.
The main event Saturday was the grand opening of a new baseball park inside Balduck, UAW-Ford Field, a $1.8 million beauty with lights, a scoreboard and even infield grass -- a feature few Detroit ball diamonds had even when the city was flush with cash.
