Bringing Back Baseball
A $70 million ballpark is coming to Hagerstown. What will it mean for the city?
An enterprise project from The Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism
Baseball stadium aims to revitalize city center
HAGERSTOWN – The new ballpark under construction here is the latest effort to bring baseball back to a town that has a rich history tied to the game. But the project is also an attempt to revitalize a city core…
Neighbors remain skeptical of ballpark in their backyard
HAGERSTOWN — Hagerstown city officials and business owners are excited about the new minor league ballpark that’s under construction, but not all of its neighbors are cheering about it. Residents near the $70 million project – which leaders hope will…
For Black community, ties to city’s baseball traditions are complicated
HAGERSTOWN — Alesia Parson-McBean remembers the second time Willie Mays visited her hometown. Regarded as one of the greatest baseball players who ever lived, Mays returned in 2004 to Hagerstown, Maryland, the site of his minor league debut. During Mays’…
Could new baseball team bring Little League spirit back to Hagerstown?
HAGERSTOWN — Hagerstown has an argument for calling itself one of the premier Little League towns in America. It sent teams to the Little League World Series in 1950, 1968, and 2008, each one bringing together the small Western Maryland…
Big dreams for small-town baseball: Owners of new team have deep roots in Hagerstown
HAGERSTOWN — The ownership group of the new baseball team in Hagerstown aren’t baseball people. But they are Hagerstown people, and history has shown that local ownership can lead to sustained success for a minor league ball club. Howard “Blackie”…
Atlantic League founder brings Hagerstown into his baseball ‘Petri dish’
From a small stake in a minor league baseball team to founder and chief executive of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, Frank Boulton is now bringing a new team to Hagerstown, Maryland.
Inside the numbers: What changed the last time Maryland built a minor-league ballpark
Regency Furniture Stadium, a $28 million ballpark paid for largely with taxpayer dollars, opened in 2008 in Waldorf, Maryland. Ever since, it has been the home of the Southern Maryland Blue Claws of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. Supporters…
ABOUT THIS PROJECT
A city steeped in baseball history lost its minor league team. Three years later, baseball is on its way back to Hagerstown, Maryland, facilitated by the construction of a new publicly financed ballpark.
The construction of the new ballpark brings with it hopes for a rejuvenated downtown hub. But will the $70 million project live up to the weight of the community’s expectations? Bringing Back Baseball is a four-month enterprise project looking at the construction of the ballpark, slated to open in 2024, and how it is touching the lives of people in Hagerstown.
The project, produced by the Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism, includes eight text stories and several graphics. More than a dozen student journalists participated in its creation.
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