Hoping Coplay's Balliet Stadium comes back to life

http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/

FROM KEITH GROLLER

never talked to him about before he died on Christmas Day in 1992, but I have a strong hunch that my grandfather, Frank Groller, intentionally picked his gravesite to be near Coplay's Balliet Stadium.
I visited the site last week and it's just a long foul ball from Balliet Stadium.
My grandfather, as I've said often before, worshipped Sammy Balliet, who is buried in the same cemetery by the way.
As a kid, my grandfather took me to Coplay Legion games at Balliet every summer because it's the only baseball he wanted me to learn -- Sammy's baseball.
As I stopped at his gravesite, I remembered that from it you can see the light poles of Balliet Stadium.
Sadly, those lights have been turned off since 2012. The lights, the scoreboard, and other things are in need of being replaced. Hurricane Sandy did her share of damage, although from what I understand there were other factors, and people, who led to the neglect.
I was so saddened to hear how the place was in decline.
But now, a new committee is in place to restore one of the Lehigh Valley's baseball shrines.
I am hoping they're successful because not only did the place mean a lot to my grandfather, but it has meant a lot for the past 70 years or so to the entire Coplay community. They need help. Hope they get it.
Baseball should be played at Balliet Stadium. Under the lights.
Here's my column on the subject from Sunday's Morning Call:

A new hope for Sammy Balliet Stadium

A committee is trying to put the lights, scoreboard and life back into Coplay’s renowned baseball shrine.

It was once the mecca of local baseball, hosting games of all varieties throughout the spring and summer.
It hosted high school baseball’s league and district championship games as well as American Legion state and regional tournaments.
For several generations, if you were a quality baseball player in the Lehigh Valley, you played at Coplay’s Sammy Balliet Stadium at some point.
Curt Simmons played here, as did Dave Schneck, Pat Kelly, Ted Wieand and Brian Schneider en route to big-league careers.
But the stadium, which was once home to Coplay High’s football team before it became known as “baseball heaven,” has been in vast decline in recent years.
The high school playoffs have been moved and only the Coplay American Legion and its Connie Mack squad use the facility just off Chestnut Street at Eighth Street and Potter Alley. It is in operation just 14 times this year as opposed to the dozens of summer nights it was used in the past.
The scoreboard doesn’t work and the lights, what’s left of them, won’t turn on.
Fortunately, a group of guys have banded together in an attempt to bring the stadium back to life.
They have formed a committee that is seeking grants and sponsorships so that the lights and scoreboard can be restored and much-needed improvements can be made.
The hope is to bring the high school playoffs, and possibly one area high school to play its home games in Coplay.
And, if that happens, hopefully the Legion playoffs and maybe even a Blue Mountain League member will follow.
Slowly, the place is coming back to life after Superstorm Sandy seemed to provide a finishing blow with major damage in October 2012.
“We got together about two months ago and we have about 20 of us on the committee right now,” Ed Filipovits, president of the Coplay Legion Baseball/Sammy Balliet Stadium committee. “We haven’t had a lighted baseball game here since Superstorm Sandy.
“We’re looking at all kinds of options right now,” he said. “We’re just trying to make everybody aware of the situation and what we’re trying to do. Anybody who wants to help is welcome and you don’t have to be from Coplay to get involved.”
The field is owned by the borough Coplay Borough and leased to the Legion for a nominal fee each year.
Bill Loy, owner of the Samuel Owens Restaurant in Coplay and a member of the committee, said the field could be named in a major donor’s honor, although the place will once and forever be known as Sammy Balliet Stadium.
“I was watching the Phillies and Rockies over Memorial Day weekend and they said that almost everyone on the Rockies team has a field named after them,” Loy said. “I never knew that. We can re-name the field for a donor. There are many routes, but right now, we just don’t know where to go.”
The committee intends to apply for a grant from the state and if it gets it, matching money could come from Major League Baseball. In addition, contact has been made with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, who have been helpful in refurbishing many other baseball facilities since arriving on the scene in 2008.
“The first priority is the lights because the ability to play at night is what brings the people out to the games,” Loy said. “We’ve talked to District 11 and we know that’s what they need to host the games here again.”
Lawrence Gutleber, a lifelong Coplay resident and father-in-law of Catasauqua girls basketball coach Dave Troxell, said the stadium used to be a source of pride for the community.
“I can go back to the 1960s when there was a football field here and a cinder track around the place,” Gutleber, 68, said. …“This place goes back to being used as World War II camps during the Depression. “Joe Steiner was the great coach and then in the summertime, I grew up here watching Legion baseball.
“I was never good enough to play, but I still wanted to be here and watch all of the great teams and players,” he said. “The concrete stands were always full. So many people came through here.”
Loy, the baseball commissioner who runs the stadium refreshment stadium, just moved into Coplay 20 years ago, and quickly learned of the value of Balliet Stadium.
“I’d be out working on my lawn and an older couple would walk past me and I’d ask them where they’re going,” he said. “And they’d tell me they’re going to a baseball game under the lights at the stadium. Now the older people don’t come out because we have to start games no later than 6 because we don’t have lights and during the summer it’s too hot for them to come out. This is an older community.”
The committee has been crunching a lot of numbers and it’ll take at least $250,000 to get the lights turned back on.
The committee is also hoping for a corporate sponsor to help with a new scoreboard.
“There are a lot of things going on in a short period of time,” Filipovits said. “A lot of research, a lot of work has been done. Everybody is helping in some way. It’s not just one or two guys doing all of the work, but we still won’t turn anyone away.
“It’s too late to get anything accomplished this year because it’s going to take some time to get the grant,” he said. “We won’t know until November about that. but we’re looking toward 2015.”
To help out or to inquire about the revitalization of this local baseball shrine, contact Filipovits at 610-297-6369.