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Pullman Park’s rebirth in early 2000s gave Butler County a home for baseball teams across the region

A view of Michelle Krill Field at Historic Pullman Park in Butler from the second base is seen on Monday, April 7, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

Dess Schnur points to Pullman Park as Butler’s “diamond in the rough.”

The former longtime Butler area baseball manager and administrator’s written history of the venue dubs it as such, too.

The venerable baseball stadium has long been a staple in Butler, but its renovation nearly two decades ago helped it become a central location for various teams in and around Butler County.

“There are so many small towns in Pennsylvania that would die to have that stadium — and we have it here in Butler,” said John Morgan, who served on Pullman Park’s board of directors the past two years. “We have a great place to see (baseball), and a great place to play, for that matter.”

Despite previous upgrades and the hopes of attracting higher level baseball to the community harkening back to stints of mid-20th century minor league teams in Butler, Pullman’s recent history has seen highs and lows.

The Butler Area School District recently took control of the park, and Butler High School athletic director Bill Mylan said the district is collaborating with the City of Butler to make some improvements: a new artificial turf, roof repairs, and minor upgrades such as painting and replacing boards. Those projects will begin in August at the city’s expense.

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Initial revival and eventual decline

Renovation plans for the park were first discussed in 2001, with the City of Butler recognizing the deteriorating venue’s historical significance. Four years later, the original park ceased operations and opened anew in 2007. The Butler Eagle reported in 2006 a $5 million loan was granted by the state to be used for renovations to Pullman Park.

The additions included a new lighting system and an artificial turf infield. The same surface was later added at home plate and on the pitcher’s mound. The Butler BlueSox were introduced in 2008 and played in the Prospect League for the next decade.

Butler native Brian Minto fought in a boxing match televised by ESPN at the park. Concerts and even weddings were held there.

Butler’s high school team opened a campus baseball field in 2010, meaning “Pullman was now able to dramatically increase the number of games played now that the High School was not using the field,” Schnur wrote in “Butler’s Diamond in the Rough: Historic Pullman Park, 1934-2017.”

From 2008-13, Pullman Park went from hosting 45 games a year to nearly 300. Butler eventually began playing its games again due to water drainage issues at its on-campus field.

But Pullman leadership was inconsistent. Ten different people served as the park’s stadium director from 2014-17, contributing to a “lack of continuity ... (that) had a negative impact on the operation of the stadium.”

Role in nurturing community baseball

The BlueSox suspended operations at Pullman this year, but three teams in the Rust Belt Division of the North American Baseball Alliance have played their home games at Pullman Park this summer.

The wood bat collegiate league also does its part in promoting the sport to the community.

“It’s a highly competitive league that, being played at Pullman, it gives our community the opportunity to go see these guys play,” NABA commissioner Shawn Manning said in May. “And a lot of these guys are from local high schools, local colleges (or) played in the Little Leagues here.”

Morgan said the park’s policy over the past year and a half was any time there was an open time slot, Little League teams were allowed to use it, free of charge.

“That got a bunch of little kids playing on the field,” said Morgan, who grew up in Pittsburgh. “We played on dirt field — moderately well-maintained dirt fields, dirt pitchers mounds. Coming up here and seeing this and what the kids get to play on here, it’s like, ‘Man, they have it good.’”

Morgan’s 9-year-old son, Johnny, was inspired by the BlueSox to play youth baseball for Center Township. Morgan said that program’s 9-10 age group has “more (players) than they’ve had in the last quite a few years.”

“Last year, he was my assistant there at the park every time I went down,” Morgan said. “Every time I went down, he was just watching the game, catching foul balls, running around with the other kids at the park trying to chase the foul balls.”

Mylan said he’s had conversations with other athletic directors from nearby districts about whether they’d want to make Pullman Park their home.

“Through the spring into late May, it’s definitely going to be a huge hub for high school baseball,” Mylan said. “We plan to do some other things and try to promote the park as much as we can. We’ll be looking to hold other things there on the weekends, whether it’s AAU teams or things of that nature. ... Really, it promotes itself.”

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