A billboard at the Grace baseball facility provides a rendering of the planned stages for its renovation, as well as a list of donors to the project. Additional funding, including corporate sponsorship, is still being sought.

By Keith Knepp
InkFreeNews

WINONA LAKE — The 2023 baseball season for the Grace College team has come to a close, but for the program, the work has just begun.

Almost immediately after the final out of the season, demolition work at Miller Athletic Complex began, with plans to usher in a new chapter of Lancer baseball.

The renovated facility will be known as Tom Roy-UPI Park, after its longtime coach and advocate and his worldwide baseball outreach ministry. Roy is pictured between two of his former players from the early 1980s, Randy Roberts, left, and Bill Garris Jr. InkFreeNews photo provided by Tom Roy.

One of the oldest collegiate baseball programs in the state, Grace teams have been playing on the same field for more than 50 seasons. While the 2024 team will be playing on the same basic footprint, there will be numerous changes on what will be known as Tom Roy/UPI Park.

A former professional baseball player, Roy has spent his life using the game as a platform for spreading the Gospel around the world. A graduate of Grace, he’s been a part of Lancer baseball since the early 1970s, including as head coach from 1980-83, and most recently as a special assistant and team chaplain.

An author of several books, Roy spent many years as a professional scout and has taught and coached in more than 65 countries through Unlimited Potential Inc., an organization he founded many years ago.

A few years ago, then-Grace President Dr. Bill Katip proposed the idea of naming the school’s baseball field after him, to which Roy was hesitant. Soon after, Katip revisited the subject, suggesting the venue be called UPI Field after Roy’s international ministry.

Roy, Katip and others formed the BAT Committee, an acronym for the “Baseball Advancement Team.” After Katip stepped down due to health issues, his successor, Dr. Drew Flamm, was eager to continue the project, re-branding it Tom Roy/UPI Park.

“I’m totally humbled and honored that they’d do that,” said Roy. “I was there when we built the current field in 1972. Chet Kammerer was the head coach, I was the pitching coach. Chet had this great idea and went into a chapel service and said, ‘Chapel on Friday is going to be a rock festival.’

“The entire student body came out to the farm field and used buckets to pick up rocks. So from that very beginning, I was involved with the field, so it has some sentimental value to me. We were just happy because we had been playing in the center of campus with snow fencing and a (makeshift) backstop. We didn’t have dugouts. Now we were at a facility that has a real infield, fence and dugouts. We thought we were living the dream.”

Today, Roy says the playing surface is “looking really good, but the rest of it needs a little lipstick.” The footprint will remain the same. As part of phase one, the dugouts, press box and seating areas will be moved 20 feet closer to the playing field. There will be new protection screens as well as a 3-foot cement riser from dugout to dugout, elevating the bleachers.

“Phase two, then, is building the actual stadium,” said Roy. “It will be small, much like softball has. We hope to have individual seating wrapped around the field.

“The third phase is adding a press box with a VIP lounge and a room for discipleship.”

The current blueprint includes a room for meetings and team activities. Roy said the players are now dressing in their dorms, so he hopes a locker room can be included as well.

“There’s no meeting space to build camaraderie,” he said. “Our dream is not just a baseball field, but a ministry experience, even for the fans.”

Roy also hopes there will be two additional phases in the future, which would include adding artificial turf and lights.

Funding is still needed for the first three phases. Roy estimates the price tag at just under $1 million, with another million for turf and lights if that ever became a possibility. While it will be called Tom Roy/UPI Park, a corporate sponsor could add its name to the field itself.

“If there’s anyone out there who wants to donate, every little bit helps,” Roy said. “My prayer is that we will have enough for all three phases, to at least frame in the press box and make it functional if not beautiful.”

For more information, search for Tom Roy/UPI Park on Facebook, or contact the school’s athletic department.

The Grace baseball team celebrates during its final game of the 2023 season. The program has utilized the same facilities for more than 50 years. As part of a renovation project, new dugouts, a press box and seating areas will be built closer to the field. The facility will be named Tom Roy/UPI Park.