At the December 2023 meeting, the Park Board of Commissioners approved a renovation project to modernize the existing baseball field at Larry Fink Park. The newly renovated field will serve as a regional destination with reduced maintenance requirements and improved amenities for the players and spectators.

The new turf will more than triple the number of usable hours of the field each year and reduce the cost of maintenance by more than 50% every year over its projected 10-year lifespan. Hundreds of hours of play are lost each year due to flooding of the current field. This project is part of a larger Park District Athletic Fields Master Plan, which includes long-term plans to renovate the athletic fields and Danny Cunniff Park and Sunset Woods Park.

The project costs $1.02 million and will be funded with $500,000 from the Park District’s Capital Fund and the remainder from community donations.  The groundbreaking is expected in Spring 2024 with completion in Summer 2024.

The Board also approved naming the new ballpark Jeff Fox Field, after longtime Highland Park resident Jeff Fox. It’s a wonderful story of how much the park, especially baseball, meant to Jeff and his family. You can read it here.

To help fund the project, a group of dedicated community members formed a fundraising committee called the Giants Athletic Boosters, an affiliate of the Parks Foundation of Highland Park. To date, the Boosters have raised $471,000. Only $29,000 is needed to reach their goal to fund this exciting project.