Lowell Park (ballpark)

For the novel, see Lowell Park (novel).
Lowell Park
Map
Full nameElizabeth Lowell Park
Address10 Lowell Street
LocationCotuit, Massachusetts
Coordinates41°37′30.75″N 70°26′5.53″W / 41.6252083°N 70.4348694°W / 41.6252083; -70.4348694
Capacity2,500
Field sizeLeft Field: 320 ft
Center Field: 399 ft
Right Field: 320 ft
SurfaceGrass
Opened1947
Tenants
Cotuit Kettleers

Elizabeth Lowell Park is a baseball venue in the village of Cotuit, Massachusetts, home to the Cotuit Kettleers of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL). The former Elizabeth Lowell High School was located just to the west of the field. Lowell Park is one of three CCBL ballparks that does not have lights.

Members of the Lowell family originally donated a parcel of land and school building to the town of Barnstable in 1906. The school remained in use into the 1920s, but was demolished a decade later.[1][2] Harvard University president A. Lawrence Lowell maintained a home in Cotuit, and his presence attracted enough other members of the Harvard community that the village was often referred to as "Summer Harvard".[3]

The school building razed, the parcel remained in use as a ballpark, and has been managed and maintained by the Cotuit Athletic Association since the advent of the Kettleers in the late 1940s. A sizeable 2007 grant from the Yawkey Foundation and a subsequent multi-phase improvement project allowed for significant upgrades to Lowell Park.[4][5][6] In 2015, surrounding lands were purchased in an effort to maintain the ballpark's character by preventing the possibility of future adjacent development.[2][7] The campaign to "Keep Lowell Park Green" was publicly supported by 1967 Kettleers pitcher and later United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Bill Richardson,[8] and the newly-acquired acreage allowed for the establishment of a half-mile interpretive nature trail at the park in 2021.[9]

Lowell Park has been described as "a scene right out of a Norman Rockwell painting," and "a shining, secluded throwback to the golden age of baseball."[10][11][12] Nestled within a wooded area just one quarter mile from Cotuit Bay, the setting has been the subject of a two-page aerial photo spread in Sports Illustrated,[13] and has drawn comparisons to the Iowa baseball diamond portrayed in the Hollywood film Field of Dreams for the similar way it appears to have been carved out of the surrounding natural elements.[1][14][15] Lowell Park has seen the Kettleers claim a CCBL-high 17 championships, and has been the summertime home of dozens of future major leaguers such as Will Clark, Joe Girardi, and Chase Utley.[16][17]

  1. ^ a b Patrick Cassidy (August 15, 2014). "'Field of dreams' threatened in Cotuit". capecodtimes.com. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
  2. ^ a b Szmit, Kat (February 13, 2015). "Can center field be saved? Barnstable Land Trust brings appeal for Lowell Park to Town Council". Barnstable Patriot. Barnstable, MA. pp. A13.
  3. ^ Lynch, Brad (September 21, 2000). "Oyster Harbors: opulence meets environment". Barnstable Patriot. Barnstable, MA. p. 1.
  4. ^ John Garner, Jr. (March 12, 2007). "Yawkey Foundation Field Improvement Grant". capecodbaseball.org. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
  5. ^ Szmit, Kathleen (July 6, 2012). "The Campaign For Lowell Park". Barnstable Patriot. Barnstable, MA. pp. A14.
  6. ^ Bronwen Howells Walsh (April 19, 2018). "Cotuit Kettleers hard at work to keep Lowell Park one of a kind". barnstablepatriot.com. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
  7. ^ Rohma Abbas (December 23, 2015). "Barnstable Land Trust closes on 19-acre Cotuit parkland". capecodtimes.com. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
  8. ^ Matt Goisman (August 20, 2015). "Cape League: Former U.S. ambassador Bill Richardson pitches for ballpark". capecodtimes.com. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
  9. ^ "Barnstable Land Trust opens new Lowell Park Woodlands Trail". barnstablepatriot.com. June 23, 2021. Retrieved July 20, 2021.
  10. ^ David Albright (July 21, 2006). "Cape Cod league attracts premier players, fans". espn.com. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
  11. ^ Sean Walsh (May 19, 2015). "Top 10 Coolest Places to Watch a Sporting Event on Cape Cod". capecod.com. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
  12. ^ Walsh, Sean M. (June 30, 1994). "Greener Grass, Brighter Diamonds: Ranking the Fields of the Cape League". Yarmouth Register. Yarmouth, MA. pp. 5, 27.
  13. ^ Wulf, Steve (July 6, 1981). "A Parade of Young Pearls". Sports Illustrated. pp. 12–19. Retrieved August 4, 2021.
  14. ^ Bill Higgins (July 16, 2019). "Cape Cod baseball, where the grass is real and the price is right". bostonglobe.com. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
  15. ^ Bergen, Doug (June 18, 1992). "Opening Day at Cotuit's Little Park in the Woods". Yarmouth Register. Yarmouth, MA. p. 5.
  16. ^ Matthew J. Gill. "It's been 70 great years for the Cotuit Kettleers". capecodlife.com. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
  17. ^ Crosby, Ashley (June 11, 2009). "Kettleers ready for another title". Yarmouth Register. Yarmouth, MA. p. 18.