The Beast of Burden | Corinth Ballpark Part 1

Have you ever driven around your community, seeing deserted ballfields blossoming with shoulder high weeds, where you can barely tell the infield from the outfield? Wondered what it would take to make that field playable again? Had a vision, and then just said…’nah.’

Meanwhile, your team and several others in your community are desperately trying to find a place to practice while teams with more money, or influence have locked down local fields and cages, and due to an assortment of issues other open field owners would just prefer them to stay dormant.

This sort of scenario has played out in rural Georgia for years, and it took a former softball family to actually do something about it!

Corinth Ballpark had definitely seen better days. What used to be a county recreation department field had been sitting empty for years. The entire place became a disaster with rusted fences, abandoned buildings and overgrowth.

Looking at it, you would never believe that it would soon become a place of opportunity for ALOT of local young athletes. You would never assume that a revival would come with the potential to touch the lives of so many people.

And all because a former softball player still had her heart in the game!

Kyncade, #97 for years aged out but never grew out of her love for the game. She volunteered to coach baseball at the local rec, and ended up with an All Star team with nowhere to go… Seeing their potential, their hearts combined with her love of competitive ball – she took the initiative and spoke life into Corinth BallPark like only a young person could.

Her family had run a West Georgia travel softball team called “The Beasts” for years. Back in the day, this team practiced at the Corinth Fields themselves – but now the place was in shambles.

She quickly realized how difficult it was to find proper fields for her baseball team to practice and initiated a whole lot of ‘what if’s” that would literally transform the ballfield.

Just when her family thought that they had ‘retired’ from the ball-life, would have free weekends – the dream of the new West Georgia Beasts was born, and hinged on the dream of restoring a ballpark that was in ruins.

After 10 years of abandonment, the brick dust (even though you couldnt see it) far beneath the foilage began to sparkle just a little bit…

Coincidentally, The Wade family – a friend of Kyncade’s family purchased the ballpark at a county auction and reached out to Dennis Pace and Melanie Pace (Kyncades parents) about the possibility of that field once again echoing with the crack of bats!

There was no turning back… Likely to the temporary dismay of Dennis & Melanie after a very brief ball playing retirement, the plan was set in motion…there were not going to be anymore free weekends for any of them. It was going to take a whole lot of people a whole lotta time and grunt work to get this dream to fruition!