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Thursday, February 19, 2004

Madrid Goes to Bat for Old-Time Ballpark

By John Arnold
Journal Northern Bureau
    A8 Mountain View Telegraph Thursday, February 19, 2004
    Old-timers from Madrid celebrated the historic mining town's glory days at the Roundhouse on Monday, as preservationists sought state funds to restore an important part of Madrid's past.
    The nonprofit group Madrid Cultural Projects is raising money to restore Oscar Huber Memorial Ballpark, home of the pre-WWII semipro baseball team, the Madrid Miners.
    In recent years, the deteriorating park has hosted blues festivals and other cultural events. But in the 1920s and '30s, championship Miners baseball ruled, according to group co-chairman Kent Black. The ballpark and its 70-year-old grandstand hosted the first night game west of the Mississippi, he said.
    In 2001, the New Mexico Preservation Alliance listed the ballpark as "endangered."
    "(The ballpark) is part of New Mexico history," said Danny Wright, an octogenarian who in the late 1930s and early '40s worked in the coal mine by day and played outfield for the Miners by night. "The whole town is part of New Mexico history."
    Wright was on hand to share his experiences at a Madrid Miners display set up by Madrid Cultural Projects in the Roundhouse rotunda.
    "That's me," Wright said as he pointed to an old team photograph. Wright said that he and other miners played alongside former pros, including Emmett "Chief" Bowles, a Cherokee from Oklahoma who pitched for the Chicago White Sox. Wright said some players came to Madrid after suffering injuries in the majors. Others headed to New Mexico when hard times fell on pro baseball outside of the major leagues.
    "The teams broke up during the Great Depression, and those guys wound up coming here to play," he said.
    Black said the covered grandstand at the ballpark needs to come down piece by piece and be rebuilt on a new foundation. The WPA-era stone walls need to be restored as well, he added.
    "The stonework they did out there is some of the finest in the Southwest," Black said.
    Two years ago, the Legislature appropriated $45,000 for restoration work at the ballpark. This year, Rep. Rhonda King, D-Stanley, has requested $275,000 in capital outlay money for the project. She said it will cost about $350,000 for the entire restoration. Santa Fe County is working to make up the difference, she said.
    "It's not only the history I think is important, but it's important to help (Madrid) be more economically viable," King said, referring to the town's growing popularity among tourists.
    While King attended to business in the House chamber, Julia Goméz walked into the rotunda with a photograph of her father, Tommy Goméz, a former Miners shortstop who died in 1996.
    "I loved my dad, and my dad loved Madrid," said Julia Goméz, who was raised in Madrid. She and her mother Lugardita Goméz reminisced with other former residents not only about baseball, but about life in a company town.
    The Madrid ballpark is named after Oscar Huber, a former superintendent and owner of the Albuquerque and Cerrillos Coal Co.
    "They all took care of each other," Julia Goméz said of her father and his co-workers and teammates. "They were all poor coal miners and they took care of each other."
    Black said the Madrid Landowners Association, which owns the ballpark, is working to arrange a long-term lease with the county. Once that happens, publicly funded restoration work can proceed, Black said.