Don't look now, but there's a new ballpark in Butler.

Actually, it's a storied old ballpark receiving a multimillion dollar facelift.

Pullman Park is back.

While construction on the 70-year-old facility continues, the Butler High baseball team will play Ambridge there in the Golden Tornado's home opener next Saturday afternoon.

American Legion and Eagle County League games will surely follow on the field as spring rolls into summer.

The field itself is ready for baseball. The ballpark itself might not be, but let the games go on while the construction does the same.

The baseball community will put up with the inconvenience because it's a small price to pay for the return of one of the city's landmarks.

But one big question remains:

Will minor league baseball return to Butler after being gone for decades?

At this time last year, minor league ball at Pullman Park looked like a virtual certainty. The Frontier League put the expansion Slippery Rock Sliders in the university's Critchfield Park. The Sliders would be run by the league and put up for sale in time for the 2008 season.

Alas, the Sliders drew poorly and played poorly — 700 fans per game, on average, and a 29-66 won-loss record — and no local investment group could finalize a deal to buy the franchise.

Now known as the Midwest Sliders, a traveling road show for all 96 games this season, the Sliders are headed for Michigan in 2009.

But is any team headed for Pullman Park?

The Frontier League makes no secret of the fact it would love to develop a Western Pennsylvania rival for the Washington Wild Things, one of the circuit's most successful franchises.

The league was hopeful the Sliders would fit that bill, until they slid away.

Pullman Park still isn't ready to house a minor league team. It needs more seating and parking — or lack of it — must be addressed.

But when this construction is finished, Pullman Park will be much closer to being ready for minor league baseball than it used to be.

When the Butler Yankees and Tigers pulled up stakes here years ago, they left a void in Butler that hasn't been filled since.

The feeling is the Frontier League wouldn't object to placing a franchise here — once Pullman Park became a viable host for one.

The ballpark is an old-fashioned place that's being modernized. Butler County teams are understandably excited about playing there again.

Butler City American Legion manager Jerry Piroch played a few games there last season because some of his 18-year-olds had never played on that diamond.

Covering baseball at Pullman Park this season will be like getting reacquainted with an old friend.

Bringing minor league baseball back there would be a reunion of far greater value.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle.