April 8, 2008 By Dan Geringer, Philadelphia Daily News
Apr. 8--ON MOST NIGHTS, Anthony "Ant" Washington leaves his wife and children sleeping at home and goes over to his mother's house on Orianna Street near Dauphin, across from the baseball field, so he can wake up often in the wee hours, walk the field and make sure no one is messing with the miracle. Responding to a Daily News report on how 10 years of city neglect ruined a youth baseball field at 4th and Dauphin streets, urban and suburban angels rushed to the rescue last week and saved the summer for 300 neighborhood children. "This is amazing," said Washington, longtime Nelson Playground rec leader, standing on the resurrected field in the historically underserved Fairhill section of North Philadelphia, which has always been his home. "This looks like a completely different ball field." It is. Only two weeks ago, the field was a dangerous mess. A deeply rutted footpath ran across the outfield from Leithgow Street to Orianna Street, carved into the turf by residents who removed bolts in the chain-link security gates and used the field as a short cut -- walking, biking, pushing strollers. The danger of a child breaking a leg while chasing a fly ball across that trenchlike footpath made the field unplayable. Because the infield was built over the foundations of abandoned rowhouses on a demolished block of 4th Street, sinkholes sometimes develop, threatening to swallow base paths and the pitcher's mound. Drug users discarded dozens of used syringes around the benches where the boys and girls, ages 4 to 14, will sit while waiting to bat. All that changed dramatically after the Daily News story. ...
Apr. 8--ON MOST NIGHTS, Anthony "Ant" Washington leaves his wife and children sleeping at home and goes over to his mother's house on Orianna Street near Dauphin, across from the baseball field, so he can wake up often in the wee hours, walk the field and make sure no one is messing with the miracle.
Responding to a Daily News report on how 10 years of city neglect ruined a youth baseball field at 4th and Dauphin streets, urban and suburban angels rushed to the rescue last week and saved the summer for 300 neighborhood children.
"This is amazing," said Washington, longtime Nelson Playground rec leader, standing on the resurrected field in the historically underserved Fairhill section of North Philadelphia, which has always been his home. "This looks like a completely different ball field."
It is. Only two weeks ago, the field was a dangerous mess.
A deeply rutted footpath ran across the outfield from Leithgow Street to Orianna Street, carved into the turf by residents who removed bolts in the chain-link security gates and used the field as a short cut -- walking, biking, pushing strollers.
The danger of a child breaking a leg while chasing a fly ball across that trenchlike footpath made the field unplayable.
Because the infield was built over the foundations of abandoned rowhouses on a demolished block of 4th Street, sinkholes sometimes develop, threatening to swallow base paths and the pitcher's mound.
Drug users discarded dozens of used syringes around the benches where the boys and girls, ages 4 to 14, will sit while waiting to bat.
All that changed dramatically after the Daily News story.
...
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