Members of the Indy Cubs 12-year-old travel baseball team that will be competing in a tournament in Cooperstown, N.Y. are, from the left, Brayden Raglin, Cannon Hunt, Keegan Reilly, Peyton Wahl, Parker Springman, Gavin Rugenstein, Mason Zike, Garrett Holmes, Carter Ellis, Brady Phillips and Alaric Boneta.
Daily Reporter photo
GREENFIELD — The Indy Cubs are going from their home for baseball to the home of baseball.
The Greenfield-based 12-year-old travel baseball team, which plays games and practices on a field built at the home of coach Adam Wahl, is leaving this week for Cooperstown, N.Y., to play in an 84-team tournament in the village known as the place where Abner Doubleday invented the sport in 1839.
Along with being the historic home of America’s national pastime, and the National Baseball Hall of Fame Museum, Cooperstown has a place for kids to play the game.
Cooperstown Dreams Park was built in 1996. It has 22 real grass field and hosts 12-and-under baseball tournaments throughout the summer. The Cubs signed up, were accepted and will now head off for the ultimate baseball experience.
“It’s a once in a lifetime chance,” Garrett Holmes, of Greenfield, said. “You only get to do it at 12U, so it is something that you can never do again. I am looking forward to seeing New York for the first time, playing there, seeing the Hall of Fame and hearing about all the legends, and to meet new kids.”
Holmes is one of the players on the 11-member team, which includes kids from Greenfield, McCordsville, Mt. Comfort, Knightstown and Fishers.
Coaches for the team are Wahl, Eric McAllen, Brad Phillips and Jerry Holmes.
Wahl built the backyard field in 2019. It is complete with its own irrigation and drainage system, has a brick backstop —resembling the one at Chicago’s Wrigley Field — dugouts, an outfield fence, and all the necessities the team needs for games and practices.
The ballpark even has a “Field of Dreams” vibe with a cornfield just behind the outfield fence.
“When the corn’s out there it’s even better,” Brayden “Big Daddy” Raglin, the team captain from Knightstown, said. “The field is just like the Field of Dreams.”
Wahl is from a historic baseball town, too. He is from the southern Indiana town of Jasper, which has a state-record 10 appearances in IHSAA state championship games.
It is not just a special trip for the players, the coaches and parents are looking forward to it, too.
“We know a lot of people that have gone and played there and heard a lot of great things about it,” Wahl, who has a son on the team, said of the Cooperstown trip. “I want the experience, too, see the Hall of Fame and I want our boys to succeed. They’ve been turning it on the last few weeks. We went 6-0 (and won a tournament in Fishers last week).”
The event runs from July 16-22. The Cubs will play six games and could play as many as 13, depending on their wins and losses .
It’ll have the feel of a Major League Baseball All-Star Week with skills competitions, including the “King of Swat”, “Road Runner”, “Golden Arm” and “Around the Horn Plus.”
“I’ve been wanting to go for two years,” Raglin, the Indy Cubs representative in the“King of Swat” home run competition, said.
The New York park bills its games as “The Greatest Tournament in America.”
Players, coaches and umpires participating in the tournaments are inducted into the American Youth Baseball Hall of Fame.
“I’m looking forward to seeing all of the Hall of Fame players (in the museum) that I might not know about,” Brady Phillips, of McCordsville, said.
“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity and there will be a lot of good teams out there,” added Greenfield’s Parker Springman.
Other players on the team along with Holmes, Raglin, Phillips and Springman, are Gavin Rugenstein, who just got clearance to play this week after having his arm in a cast, Peyton Wahl, Alaric Boneta, Cannon Hunt, Carter Ellis, Keegan Reilly, and Mason Zike.
