By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Since 1990, Carter Park has been making memories for young sluggers, sharp-eyed umpires, and seasoned groundskeepers.
On Wednesday, the families of Ronnie Dunmyer and of Jim and Kathy Snyder ensured more years of memories will be made – with a new scoreboard on Dunn Field at the Bowling Green ballpark. The two families have seen the wonders of ball seasons each summer at the Carter Park program and wanted to do their part to keep it going.
Dunmyer spent many of his summers at the ballpark. His days consisted of maintaining the fields, lining the diamonds, umpiring and playing ball.
“Then we’d do it all over the next day,” said Dunmyer, who now lives in San Diego. “This place was a huge part of my life growing up.”
He had two requests for the scoreboard – that his dad’s name, Ron Dunmyer, be on the board, as well as his “second father,” Marion “Woody” Tracy, the long-time groundskeeper of Carter Park.
“This is a dream come true for me,” Ronnie the son said.
While he learned baseball from his dad, who coached teams, Ronnie learned how to maintain the fields from Woody.
“He was a gentle giant,” Dunmyer said, remembering Woody as 6-foot 4-inches, weighing in at 275-300. “He had an even bigger heart.”
Dunmyer also remembered learning from Woody’s sons – Andy Tracy, the “best player I ever played with,” who now manages the Columbus Clippers, and Rich Tracy, who “taught me how to throw a curveball.”
Like many former ballplayers, Ronnie Dunmyer remembers his best season with a Bowling Green American Legion team.
Now in his early 50s, Dunmyer said his playing days are over. But the friendships live on. Whenever he returned to this area to see his parents, Ron and Linda Dunmyer, he would make sure to meet Woody for breakfast.
Woody passed away in 2023, but his widow and two daughters were at the dedication on Wednesday. Oldest daughter Sandy Didion said her dad just couldn’t get enough of the ballpark.
He was a long-time volunteer, coach and grounds supervisor. With six sons and two daughters, he was a natural at teaching kids how to play.
“He helped a lot of kids learn the fundamentals,” Didion said. Some went well beyond that, like her brother, Andy, who went on to play first base in the major leagues.
In Woody’s honor, the family started a fund to help underprivileged children afford team memberships. “He was all about the kids,” Didion said.
“He was such a hard worker,” his wife, Dorothy said. “He wanted to do it all for the kids.”
Of course that meant long days and evenings at Carter Park for the entire Tracy family.
“We spent a lot of hours here as kids. Our jobs were to clean up the park,” Didion said with a smile.
Jim and Kathy Snyder felt that same pull to donate to a program that gets kids outside and off their screens.
“I grew up in an era when we couldn’t be outside enough,” Jim Snyder said. “We didn’t even like to come in for meals.”
Carter Park has come full circle with the Snyder family, with great-grandchildren on teams this summer, a granddaughter serving on the baseball program board, and son Steve working as groundskeeper.
“There’s no clover at all. No dandelions,” Jim Snyder said with pride as he looked around the well-manicured field.
It takes a community to create and maintain such a program, he added.
“It’s amazing. It’s an example of what can happen when people get together,” Snyder said. “It has such a tremendous benefit to the community.”
“Kathy and I are honored to be part of this group here that supports Carter Park,” he said. “We stand on the shoulders of other people. We are honored to be able to contribute a small part.”
Snyder praised Tim Dunn, president of the Bowling Green Youth Baseball Program, for his dedication to keeping the ballpark running strong.
Dunn recalled the old Pee Wee park founded in 1950 on Mercer Road. It was there that he played on teams with Ron Dunmyer Sr., who coached and umpired into the early 1990s.
And he remembered the opening of Carter Park in 1990.
“When Woody and I came out here, it was a farmfield of weeds,” Dunn said.
Now it is made up of nine well maintained fields that teams love to play on, he said.
But that only happened with a lot of donated time and dollars from families and businesses.
“There were a lot of givers to make this happen,” Dunn said.
Since 1990, each ball season has seen 35 to 40 teams competing – adding up to 15,000 kids involved, he said. Plus, the complex hosts six tournaments a year.
“The impact we’re having is just tremendous,” Dunn said. “That’s countless memories for thousands of kids and families.”
After years of scraping by on candy sales and team registrations, the program has turned a corner, he said. “We are finally in the black.”
Last year, several improvements were made at the Carter Park fields. There are now 280 parking spots, updated restrooms, and new field lighting – with the city helping with some of those expenses.
But this spring, it became clear the scoreboard on diamond 4 was not reliable – sometimes working, sometimes not. That created a problem.
“We didn’t have it in the budget,” Dunn said.
That’s when Dunmyer and the Snyders stepped up to the plate.
“Both families jumped in. We’re blessed with that,” Dunn said.
