Adaptive complex includes a playground, walking track and soccer fields for athletes with disabilities

A baseball-related project in St. Louis had better be done right. Baseball is to St. Louis as music is to Nashville or seafood is to Boston — with local experts everywhere, eager to weigh in.

Perhaps no one understands this better than the Gateway Region YMCA in the St. Louis area. The YMCA swung for the fences when it decided in 2022 to build an adaptive sports complex at its South County location.

By all accounts, it hit a home run.

The centerpiece of the $5.5 million project is a Miracle League baseball field with a cushioned, synthetic surface and barrier-free dugouts to provide accessibility for players with disabilities. Across the U.S., Miracle League provides youths and adults with disabilities the opportunity to play baseball in an organized environment.

The St. Louis field imitates the look and feel of the MLB Cardinals’ Busch Stadium, with brick accents and a silhouette of the Gateway Arch across the outfield. Extras include a plaza with sun canopies, an electronic scoreboard and separate buildings for restrooms and concessions. A playground, soccer field and walking track also are part of the adaptive complex.

The project’s partners included the Cardinals, Cardinals Care (the team’s philanthropic arm) and Boniface Foundation.

The field, with a capacity for 200-plus spectators, will host the 2025 Miracle League All-Star Game, bringing players from across the country to St. Louis. It is named after former Cardinals player Paul Goldschmidt, who played on YMCA fields when he was growing up.

“The directions we got were to make it feel like a big-league ballpark — that was our starting point,” says Joel Kerschen, an architect and senior project manager for KAI Enterprises. “The desire was to have a unique, high-quality field, something several steps above the ordinary.”

Kerschen and landscape architect Andy Franke had observed that fans usually enter stadiums at a point above the field. They wanted a similar dramatic entry for this site, even at its smaller scale.

“We weren’t just putting a baseball field out there,” Franke said. “There was a high level of detail, and it has been received really well.”

Martin Caupp is the associate executive director for the Gateway Region YMCA, which serves more than 1,000 children and adults with disabilities. He said the YMCA has been working to grow its adaptive programming in several sports, including basketball, water polo, gymnastics, bowling and rock climbing.

The baseball field’s first fall season of Miracle League play was a success, he said. Practices were held on Tuesdays and games on Saturdays over two months.

“The field itself, it’s hard to describe the enjoyment we’ve seen,” Caupp said. “We’re proud of partnering with the Cardinals. It puts us on our toes to make sure we’re providing an excellent program.

“One of the coaches said on the last day of the season that he has been (in south St. Louis County) his entire life and had been looking forward to this for a long time.”

By Doug Carroll, Contributing Writer

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