Sunday, April 02, 2000

Love of game built diamond

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Man lets teams use 'Yard' for free

BY MICHAEL D. CLARK
The Cincinnati Enquirer

        SHANDON — From home plate your gaze down the right field line is stopped short by the tall outfield fence, where many a home run shot died in mid-flight.

        Behind the baseball field's fence, rising far in the distance, is one of the many rolling hills of rural, western Butler County, this one dotted with grazing cows.

Dave Schneider and his baseball field. | ZOOM |

From his heart
        Often on early summer evenings, the wet creek air will mix with the moist cornstalks creating a gentle, dreamy fog. It drifts high over a beautifully sculpted baseball diamond that Shandon Village businessman Dave Schneider has created from his own wallet and heart.

        “This is my Field of Dreams,” Mr. Schneider said, referring to one of his all-time favorite movies. The 1989 film, starring Kevin Costner as a farmer mystically inspired to carve a ball diamond out of his corn field, helped Mr. Schneider rediscover his early love of baseball. “I'm 51 going on 18,” said the father of three.

"The Lumber Yard'
        A swing and a drive to right center field might bounce off the wall of a small barn that is part of the outfield fence, but don't worry — the ball is still in play. If you break one of the barn's two small windows, that's even better — an automatic home run.

        The center field fence in late summer is enveloped by tall corn. Left field, too. And don't foul off too many pitches down the left field line because there is a creek nearby where waters gurgle over lost baseballs.

        The baseball field, off of Millville-Shandon Road in Morgan Township, is adjacent to Mr. Schneider's lumber business — Panel Barn. Understandably, the official name of his field is “The Lumber Yard.”

        As he strolls the finely mowed infield of the diamond he built in 1997, with more than $40,000 of his own money, he talks lovingly of the game of baseball. But it is what baseball teaches the young that excites him the most.

"Lessons about life'
        “The good thing about baseball is that it teaches lessons about life. Discipline. Respect for others. And it teaches kids to concentrate,” said Mr. Schneider, who is an assistant coach of LaSalle High School's freshmen team as well as three other teen baseball teams and his company's adult team — The Lumber Kings.

        The hundreds of children and teens who have played at The Lumber Yard were also on the receiving end of another vital life lesson — generosity.

        Mr. Schneider charges nothing to teams who use his field. The area, and much of the Tristate, he said, has a dearth of well-maintained baseball diamonds, much less affordable ones.

        “If you leave the field the way you found it, you are welcome to come back. If you don't — you're not,” he said.

        “I've been really blessed and this is a way to give it back,” he said. “I get more out of it than all the kids that have gone through here.”

Generous neighbor
        Like many in the area, Sally Francis, co-owner of the Periwinkle House antiques store in Shandon, knew of the private ball field nearby but not of its philanthropic owner.

        “I think it's great. It's unusual that anyone would build that ... and not charge to use it.

        “It's nice that he feels that way about the community,” Ms. Francis said.

        Shandon resident Jeff Neal said “it's not cheap to build a big field like that ... That guy does a lot for our kids and I'm sure they appreciate it.”

       

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