MEDINA — Walking into Jim McDermott's back yard is stepping into another
time and place. Make that several places -- all of them baseball parks. Neighbor Bob Verbiak noticed after moving to Medina more than 20 years ago.
"We're out walking up Smith Road," he said, "and I look in the back
yard and see this green wall" -- a wooden fence topped by a wire screen
20 feet high. "I said, 'My God, that looks like Fenway Park in Boston.
The Green Monster and Fenway.' "
A 25-foot flagpole near one corner of the lawn reminded him of the
center field pole in old Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Ivy climbing a
trellis called to mind Wrigley Field in Chicago. Behind it, a
hand-lettered sign for the family pet cemetery evoked Monument Park in
Yankee Stadium. It only took a little imagination.
McDermott named his creation Berg-Bobey Memorial Field at Sportsman's Park, to honor his sports-minded grandmothers. But the scores of friends and neighbors who play there on summer
holidays call McDermott's yard the Wiffle ball capital of the world.
They'll start arriving before noon today, bringing covered dishes and coolers, upholding a storied local tradition. "We've never had a rainout," McDermott, 61, said. "We play through the rain."
A retired Medina County probation officer, he built the ball field
after he and his wife, Pat, a music teacher, moved to the residential
neighborhood in 1986 with their three young children. It wasn't strictly for the kids.
McDermott, who grew up loving
baseball in St. Colman's parish on Cleveland's West Side, built a
similar field in 1973, when he lived in Brunswick. But kids kept the
Medina yard jumping. "We used to play nightly when the kids were young," he said. "I kept,
not all the stats, but I kept track of numbers. One year we played 122
games. Another year we played 118."
The games moved to weekends and then became holiday-only
invitationals as the kids grew up and out. Son David, 25, "probably the
best player overall," will miss this year because he is serving with the
Peace Corps in Cameroon, Africa. Son Ed, 27, is in Dallas.
But daughter Beth, 23, the only woman who's homered in the park --
"and that boggles my mind, because we've had some athletes here" --
still lives in town. She'll join the crowd playing ball today until it's
too dark to see.
"I thought putting up lights was pushing the envelope too much,"
McDermott said -- much like the loudspeakers he sometimes displays "just
for the look of it. I never hook them up."
Vintage advertising enhances the old-time look. East End Market,
Pepsi, Stop-N-Go, Pure Oil signs dot the fences. "I try to keep it
tasteful. I've got other signs, but I don't want to overburden it, like
Major League Baseball is now.
You get sort of turned off by that. I used
to have cigarette signs up, but I don't really like cigarettes. If I
ever get a Chesterfield sign, though, it's going up. Or Pall Mall.
"I used to put corn in left center, for the 'Field of Dreams,' but it
kept getting in the way. It never grew high, but it affected the play." That wouldn't do. The play's the thing, Shakespeare's Hamlet said, and play is the thing for McDermott and his park.
"We usually have a huge crowd on Memorial Day, and you've got to
control that," he said. "You don't want too many people on the field. If
you get too many, you can't score, you can't get a hit, or people
collide. You want no more than six, and the pitcher makes seven.
"We keep track of the games. Our record is 18 in one day, five-inning
games. They go quick. The pitcher controls it. His job is to umpire and
let the batter hit the ball. There's no fast pitch, it's just
underhand, and if you're under 13, you can't strike out. Any age can
play. If they can walk, they can play."
Older guys get only two ups per game to swing the fattest Wiffle bats
at the plastic ball. They use broomstick-thin bats the rest of the
time. Kids can swing the big bats anytime.
It's 30 feet, 6 inches from the mound to home plate, and 45 feet
between bases. Deep center measures 121 feet. The inviting right field
corner is 102 feet away, and the Green Monster in left beckons hitters
from 92 feet.
"The key position is center," McDermott said. "He has to cover second
base, he's got the flagpole and the deep corner, and he's got a lot of
decisions to make."
"We let the younger people play where they want and then fill in,"
Verbiak said. "But playing that left field wall is definitely a thrill." 
