Don Vogel’s granddaughter Kaija Penner throws out the first pitch.

Nancy Edmonds Hanson

Thanks to the Dilworth Lions Club, hard-working volunteers and the city, Dilworth’s youth baseball teams finally have a home.

Don Vogel Field was dedicated last week in Cottonwood Park on the south side of the city. Mayor Chad Olson reports that it solves a long-standing problem for the young baseball players of DGF Athletics: “They’ll finally to be able to play home games here in town.”

Until this summer, youth baseball games have all been played away on fields all across the rest of the F-M metro area, from Centennial Park in Moorhead to Rendezvous in West Fargo. Creation of the new ball field in the Little Italy neighborhood truly makes a dream come true, he observes.

The idea was four years in the making. When a group of determined parents brought the idea to city maintenance manager Don Vogel, he was all for it. “Don lived right across the street from the park and could see the possibilities,” Olson says. “He had a can-do attitude

Vogel died in 2019, but the dream lived on. The 60-member Dilworth Lions Club contributed $2,500 toward the ball diamond’s completion. Volunteers led by Jason Wardien and Jared Hoover supplied the elbow grease, bringing shovels and sod cutters last fall to lay out the field. A new backstop, fences and a pitcher’s mound completed the plan. After finishing touches were applied this spring, it was ready for play in June. The DGF 12-U traveling team, including the mayor’s sons Chase and Charley, was the first to play an official game there in June.

While Dilworth children have spent summers enjoying the park itself for generations, they had only a makeshift ball diamond for their games. “There was an old backstop when I was a kid playing over there,” Justin Vogel, Don’s son, remembers. “We used the lids of five-gallon plastic buckets for the bases. To see DGF Athletics teams out there using this field would mean a lot to Dad. It’s fantastic for our whole family.”

Five of Vogel’s six grandchildren got to throw out the first pitches at the dedication ceremony. His widow Delaine was there to watch, along with Justin and sister Shannon Lien.

“Don Vogel Field is important, not just for our kids, but for the rest of our citizens,” the mayor emphasizes. “This is living proof that with persistence and patience, we can get good things done together.”