The Heart of the Game in Baxter Springs, KS
If you want to find the roots of the game in Baxter Springs, head to the Little League field at the corner of 14th and Grant. That’s where you are more than likely to find Wayne Metcalf.
Thanks to his care, passion, energy, and unwavering commitment, the kids in his community have been provided with joy and opportunity for more than half a century. He’s the man who has dusted off this wonderful home for so many young ballplayers.
Wayne moved to Baxter Springs—a town of 4,000 residents along the 13.2 mile-stretch of Route 66 that travels through rural southeast Kansas, in 1955. After graduating from high school in Crane, Mo., and then barber school in Texas, he opened a barbershop in Baxter Springs. He and his bride Mary ultimately bought a house a block away from the ballfield.
It had been months since my last haircut. I called Wayne and made an appointment to get my ears lowered and reminisce about baseball in Baxter Springs.
Now 84 and still spry, Wayne recalls that his involvement in amateur baseball began when he became an umpire in 1966 when the first of Mary and his five children decided to play Little League. Three years later, he became league president, a position he would hold for 38 years. He’s quick to credit Calvin Mishler, who in 1954 developed and managed the first youth baseball team in Baxter Springs. Mishler remained committed to helping kids learn the finer points of the game for 50 years.
With keen vision, hard work and considerable help from the community, Wayne has transformed what was once a non-descript sandlot into an intimate ballpark experience with infield and outfield seating for 1,000 fans. With the exception of the original center post of the backstop, every element of the ballpark has been upgraded during his tenure. Those 1,000 seats are often filled with the very neighbors who built them.
As part of the presidential duties he assumed 51 years ago, Wayne became the groundskeeper, cutting the Bermuda grass twice weekly in the summer and once a week in the spring and fall. He still edges the infield every week and makes sure that the red clay infield is always nicely raked. He’s a professional barber, after all.
“The local kids always helped me with the upkeep,” Wayne says. “They worked hard with me. It taught them something and kept them out of trouble.”
Today the field is held in such high regard that it’s reserved for games only—no practices allowed. Players warm up on the grass alongside the ballpark and take their cuts before games in an indoor batting cage, which Wayne built in a large storage shed.
In 1980, with the financial support of the community, a small museum dedicated to the history of Little League in Baxter Springs was built behind the first base grandstand. The museum displays many of the 20 state title banners won by Baxter Springs, as well as uniforms, photos, newspaper clippings, and trophies. Who is the curator, exhibitor, and tour guide? Yes, it’s Wayne.
Bill Russell, the Dodgers shortstop who grew up in nearby Pittsburg, Kansas, donated one of his jerseys after a visit. Dick Green, who played second base for the A’s, also came to see the museum. But the most esteemed visitor was Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle, who grew up 12 miles away in nearby Commerce, OK and was signed by the Yankees after playing a game for the Baxter Springs Whiz Kids in 1949. There’s a ball with his name on it in the museum.
Wayne added Little League District Administrator to his responsibilities in 1973, a position he still holds today. His district encompasses the entire state of Kansas. He also served on the Board of Little League Baseball for three years in the early 1980s. He has fond memories of meeting Carl Stoltz, founder of Little League in Williamsport in 1939, and also remembers the reverence for a former presidential candidate when he spoke at Board meetings. “The big voice on the Board when I served was George McGovern. When Mr. McGovern spoke, everyone listened.”
Hall of Famer Tom Seaver signed a baseball for him at a Board Meeting in the early 1980s. Wayne proudly displays the ball in his barbershop below a photo of himself with Davey Lopes, whom he met in Williamsport. He treasures his baseball memories, just as the kids of Baxter Springs treasure the memories he’s provided them.
Wayne realized just how much he was beloved in Baxter Springs when the Little League community named the ballpark after him in 2016.
“I’m so proud of our field,” Wayne told me, as he wrapped up my haircut. “I wanted to see a field that was the nicest one around, something I wished for when I was a kid. I grew up playing in a cow pasture.”
Wayne got his wish. The diamond in Baxter Springs is every Little Leaguer’s Field of Dreams.
And the haircut? I left Wayne’s barbershop as well-manicured as the field a block away.
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