Baseball has always been a father and son tradition in America.

In 1972, my dad took me to my first baseball game at Shea Stadium in New York City to see the Mets and Cardinals. Thanks to my mom putting the date of Sept. 9, 1972, on the back of a picture from that game, I have been able to discover that I saw Hall of Famers Lou Brock, Joe Torre, and Bob Gibson, but I was too young to realize the greatness of the players.

I just knew that baseball was now going to be a major part of my life.

It was around that same time that my dad took me to another ballpark. This one was closer to home and filled with players who were out there just because they loved the game. I have no idea of the exact date or who was playing, but the game was at Limeport Stadium.

Limeport is a small community balanced on the border of Lower Milford and Upper Saucon Townships and has a long baseball history.

In 1932, the United States was in the heart of The Great Depression, but to quote James Earl Jones in Field of Dreams, ‘The one constant is baseball.’ In Limeport, Howard “Lefty” Fegeley, who was somewhat of a local baseball legend, ran a pasteurization facility in Limeport and was a co-founder of the semi-pro East Penn Baseball League (EPBL). Fegeley’s two sons were going to play for the aptly named Limeport Milkmen, but the team needed a ballpark.

Certainly, there were no government grants for such an enterprise, and banks were not going to loan money, so Fegeley took on the expense and built a ballpark across the street from his business, using his own money to hire local laborers.

The grandstand was designed to match Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia, and there were no shortcuts with most of the original grandstand – with the exception of portions of the iron flooring and 266 seats located outside the boundaries of the grandstand roof – still in use today.

The wooden fence surrounding the stadium was also replaced, and likely will need to be replaced again before too long. The entrance was redone years back to allow fans to go up just four steps and enter at the bottom of the grandstand rather than having to climb a steep staircase that took them to the top of the seating area. The concession stand was also brought from the top of the seating to the entrance lobby.

The first game was played in 1933 and now, 91 years later, upwards of 120 games of baseball are played there annually.

“We host a lot of games here between high school, the Blue Mountain League, Legion Baseball, and Connie Mack,” said Tom Fulton, president of LSI, the non-profit group that operates Limeport Stadium. “We have a full schedule during the summer and then Tim Neiman, the coach at DeSales, uses it for clinics with his Pride of the Diamonds group.”

Both Southern Lehigh and Allentown Central Catholic call Limeport home, as do two Blue Mountain League teams, the Limeport Dodgers and Limeport Bulls. For the past 15 years, Connie Mack Baseball has held their state championship tournament at Limeport Stadium in late July, with Southern Lehigh taking the state title for the second straight season.

A new scoreboard was installed a couple of years ago thanks to a donation made by the estate of Charlie Schaffer, whose family has a long history at Limeport Stadium. LSI is planning to replace the metal cyclone netting in the front of the grandstand with the regular type of netting used today in ballparks, and it will also be extended to protect all of the fans. Currently, the netting does not extend to the very ends of the seating area, leaving some fans exposed to foul balls. New dirt and infield conditioner will be put on the field in September as an additional upgrade.

“We’re always trying to do things to make it a better field, but also to keep the fans happy and comfortable,” said Fulton. “A lot of these things are expensive to do, but we are dedicated to keeping this ballpark in good shape. We sometimes have people who are fans of old ballparks stop by just to look around and take a few pictures, and we always try to accommodate them.”

Like any old ballpark, Limeport Stadium has its quirks. When Fegeley built the ballpark, the cost to remove huge boulders under the outfield grass was simply too much for him to afford. So, the outfield has a distinct uphill field, especially just to the right of center field where it is an all-out hill leading to evergreen trees and a flagpole in front of the corner portion of the fence. Speaking of things buried at Limeport Stadium, Howard Fegeley gave one of his prized hunting beagles a proper burial in a place of honor under third base, and that’s where he lies to this day.

“We get a lot of comments about the outfield and people ask why we don’t fix it. I say, ‘Give me a million dollars and we will,’” said Fulton with a laugh pointing to the cost of taking on the project.

Beyond the center field trees the outfield fence is 486 feet away from home plate.

Legend has it that Alex Sabo is the only player to have hit a home run to that deepest part of the park. Sabo played a total of five games for the Washington Senators in 1936 and ’37 before his career ended. His historic home run at Limeport came in 1947, and history has it that he may have been a member of the Milkmen at that point.

A small garage in the parking lot serves as both a meeting room for the LSI board and a ballpark museum, housing plenty of stadium artifacts including Fegeley’s original ledgers from when he was building the park, to scorebooks from as far back as the 1930s.

Even with the upgrades, the ballpark maintains its classic feel. Small fans connected to the ceiling of the grandstand turn quietly to produce even just a slight hint of a breeze on hot days. Old photos, including one of Alex Sabo, decorate the entrance and the concession stand knows how to make a perfect ballpark hot dog.

To donate toward upcoming projects or to learn more about the stadium, visit LimeportStadium.org.