Posted on Wed, Oct. 29, 2003

Fargo stadium preparing for fastpitch softball

Associated Press

FARGO, N.D. - They were stepping off the distance between home plate and third base at Jack Williams Stadium.

"Sixty feet, right here," Ken Hackmeister said, as he made his final step on the agri-lime base path last week.

The distance was 30 feet short of the usual spot for third base at Jack Williams __ home of American Legion baseball since 1966.

But that is where third base will be next August, when for the first time at Jack Williams, fastpitch softball will be played. Shorter dimensions, but a huge tournament.

The 58th Annual International Softball Congress Men's World Fastpitch Tournament is coming to Fargo, and a bulk of the games will be played at Jack Williams Stadium Aug. 13-21.

"I'm impressed," said Hackmeister, the ISC executive director who was in Fargo last week inspecting Jack Williams and the nearby Mickelson Field softball complex.

Paul Lybeck, the tournament director, has been involved with fastpitch softball in Fargo for the last three decades. It was almost one year ago when he and others on the softball committee announced that Fargo won the bid for the 2004 ISC World Series __ an event that will attract 40 teams from the United States and Canada.

"But never in my wildest dreams had it crossed my mind to hold the tournament at Jack Williams," Lybeck said.

That was until he got a phone call from Dave Leker, assistant director of Fargo Parks and Recreation. Leker asked Lybeck what he thought about holding the tournament at Jack Williams.

After a few seconds of stunned silence, Lybeck said he would have to think it over. The more he and others thought about it, the more it started making sense.

The next hurdle was convincing Fargo's American Legion baseball officials.

"I was very skeptical at first," said Joe Parmer, chairman of the Legion baseball committee. "Eventually, we decided, 'Let's give it a shot."'

Lybeck and Leker call it a win-win situation for softball, baseball and the city of Fargo. The tournament, supplemented with another lower-division 40-team tournament, is expected to attract up to 100,000 people for the 10-day event.

The Legion will have to give up its field on July 15, one week before its regular season ends. In exchange, the Legion has had an $18,000 irrigation system installed at Jack Williams at the tournament committee's expense.

From July 15 until the tournament's first pitch on Aug. 13, the park district will be making changes to Jack Williams.

The pitcher's mound will be scraped off and the infield grass will be shaved off and installed on the excess portion of the infield.

"Those two or three weeks will give us time for the grass to really take root," Leker said.

Temporary fencing will be installed in the outfield 250 feet from home plate. Temporary bleachers that will seat 1,500 will be placed in the original outfield.

Fencing will also be installed 30 feet in from the backstop and dugout areas. That will allow officials to add seating for 600 more fans.

With the new configuration, Jack Williams will hold 5,000 fans for the fastpitch tournament __ 1,000 more than the capacity for each of the three American Legion World Series Jack Williams hosted.

It won't be the first time the ISC will be using a baseball field for its world tournament. It used one in St. Joseph, Mo., in 2000 and another one in Salt Lake City in 1992.

"Typically, a baseball stadium already has a lot of the things that many softball facilities don't have," Hackmeister said.

In addition to more seating, Jack Williams offers two press boxes with phone hookups and lighting that has enough candlepower for ESPN to have televised one of the Legion World Series held at Jack Williams.

Instead of having to add lighting to two softball fields, Lybeck said the softball committee now has to add new lighting to only the main softball diamond at Mickelson Field __ which sits 300 yards to the south of Jack Williams.

"We figure we'll save $150,000 by using Jack Williams," Lybeck said. "Dollar-wise, it just started making sense. We save and Legion baseball benefits for the long term."

And for Leker, the one who came up with the idea, using Jack Williams started making more sense to him after talking to some park district friends in Grand Forks.

"They asked 'why don't you use Jack Williams? You've got everything right there?'" Leker said. "I was thinking about this before. So after I heard that, I told myself, 'Why not?"'