Baseball and softball are back in Black Mountain
Owen Babe Ruth League returns to Veterans Park for first time since Helene
Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
April 5, 2025
The sounds of cheering parents, aluminum bats and children playing filled Veterans Park, April 5, for the first time since Tropical Storm Helene devastated the complex.
The Charles D. Owen Babe Ruth League, which includes more than 300 Swannanoa Valley children ranging from ages 3 to 12 years old, hosted its 2025 Opening Day.
The occasion seemed unlikely last September, when the Swannanoa River destroyed all four fields, including fences, bleachers, concession stand and press box, according to the nonprofit youth league’s treasurer and board member Tyler Atkins.
“It feels like we’re waking up from a dream,” he said. “It hardly feels real to think back to five or six months ago and then see where we are right now.”
The baseball and softball facility is owned by the Town of Black Mountain and operated by the Owen Babe Ruth League through a memorandum of understanding. While the entire Veterans Park was destroyed by flooding during the natural disaster, a volunteer initiative called Operation Love and Hope spearheaded efforts to rebuild the fields.
The initiative, established by a network of professional field builders and turf specialists, pledged to build three new high-end playing surfaces before Thanksgiving. Local volunteers and businesses, including Godfrey Grading, CB Land, Trillium Creek Property Enhancement, Gilliam Timber and Land, LLP Construction and Blue Ridge Waterscapes cleared debris and mud from the complex.
“The whole thing has really been a 100% community effort,” Atkins said. “Everyone should recognize the banners hanging up in the outfields, because those are the people who directly benefited the children of this community.”
Operation Love and Hope completed the project in November, while the town approved funding for Asheville Fence to construct backstops and fencing in the facility. Black Mountain Presbyterian Church donated approximately $65,000 for the backstops and new bleachers.
The community project lifted the spirits of hundreds of local children who were directly impacted by the storm, according to Atkins.
“My own children, after the storm, were asking if they would ever be able to play again,” he said. “I’ve had children and adults tell us they thought there would never be a baseball and softball facility again in Black Mountain. Everybody is as amazed as we are to be back out here and see these kids do something they love.”
Around 20 Owen Babe Ruth League teams competed in the home opener, with softball and Biddy Ball throwing first pitches in the morning. Baseball teams took to the new fields in the afternoon, as temperatures were well into the 80s.
The volunteer-led league “couldn’t have asked for a better day,” Atkins said.
“There’s still a lot of work to do, and there are continuing efforts right now,” he said. “We had a great little place before the storm, and of course after, we had nothing. But, Operation Love and Hope, and those folks from minor and major league organizations and field management organizations gave us top-notch fields. We have the same infield materials in our infield and the same turf in our outfields that they use in Major League Baseball right now.”
The league’s goal, Atkins continued, is to preserve the gift the children of the Swannanoa Valley have been given.
“We have a foundation here to build something tremendous for future generations of this community,” he said. “We want this to be a reminder that even when something like this happens, people can come together and turn it into something positive.”
Photos of the 2025 Charles D. Owen Babe Ruth League Opening Day can be viewed in the gallery at the top of the page.