Price Cutter Park

U.S. Baseball Park (formerly known as Price Cutter Park) is a baseball park in Christian County, Missouri.

Location

The facility is located off U.S. 65 just north of Ozark, Missouri and south of Missouri's third largest city, Springfield (pop. 151,500). Price Cutter Park (cap. 4000), was built in four months in early 1999 and was named after a local supermarket company.

History

It was home to the Springfield/Ozark Mountain Ducks minor league baseball team of the Texas/Louisiana League, Central Baseball League and, in their final year, the Frontier League (all independent leagues) as the Springfield/Ozark Ducks as well as the Southwest Missouri State Bears. The Ducks discontinued playing in 2004 after the city of Springfield landed the Springfield Cardinals (formerly El Paso Diablos) minor league team of the Double-A Texas League. One year earlier, the Missouri State University Bears (formerly Southwest Missouri State) baseball team also moved from Price Cutter Park to the new Hammons Field (cap. 8,000) in downtown Springfield.[1]

In June 2006, organized baseball returned briefly to the stadium with the Ozark Generals of the collegiate wood bat M.I.N.K. League.

In 2009, the Springfield Metro Baseball league moved into the stadium and began play. The open registration league operated in the park with 19 & under, 15 & under, and 12 & under divisions through 2014. Players registered starting each January and new teams are drafted each year in April. The Summer season ran from mid-May through the end of July. There was also a fall league which operated on weekends in September and October. The league's annual ceremonies in May had been host to a number of former MLB stars including Jack Clark, Willie Wilson, and others. Every third year (2011,2014) the league ran a unique "retro" season with all the teams outfitted as MLB teams of the past including teams like the St. Louis Browns, Kansas City Athletics, and Washington Senators. The 2014 season was the first where the league operated entirely with wood bats only. Just prior to the beginning of the 2015 season, the league was informed that the ballpark ownership and the city of Ozark were negotiating with fledgling semi-pro baseball leagues and Springfield Metro moved out of the stadium and Ozark to ballparks on the near west side of Springfield (Barnhouse & Optimist Fields). No baseball ended up taking place at Price Cutter Park in 2015.

The playing surface was rededicated as "John Pittman Field" in 2009 for a primary designer of the ballpark.[2]

In 2016, U.S. Baseball Park was resurrected and purchased by the Williams Grocer Corporation.[3][4]

References
  1. "US Ballpark". Queen City Crush. Retrieved 2020-10-28.
  2. Spedden, Zach (2016-03-31). "Price Cutter Park Receives Upgrades". Ballpark Digest. Retrieved 2020-10-28.
  3. "Baseball stadium | US Baseball | United States". Mysite. Retrieved 2020-10-28.
  4. Connell, Jim. "Howard has come a long way since Price Cutter Park days". Springfield News-Leader. Retrieved 2020-10-28.

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