Roy Reiman, Others Break Ground on New High School Baseball Field

Roy Reiman has about 9 months to get his arm loose.

Sometime next spring, when Greendale High School opens its completely renovated, $570,000 baseball stadium, it will be Reiman who is expected to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

The Reiman Foundation has provided a grant to cover about half of the project. The Greendale School District is matching the donation.

“We’re proud to be among the many who contributed to this facility,” Reiman said at a ground-breaking ceremony at Brinkman Field on Tuesday. “When you have foundations like ours, there’s a saying that goes ‘give while you live so you know where it goes.’ That applies to not only us, but a lot of people.”

Reiman coached Little League in Greendale for seven years. He said the baseball field renovations was an easy project to get behind after he learned it ranked at the bottom of a list put together by area baseball coaches and that several athletes had suffered concussions on the hard playing surface.

The first phase of the renovation includes repositioning the field and moving home plate toward Southway to increase the distances to the outfield. The new field will feature natural turf with an irrigation system and includes the installation of the infrastructure for light poles and lights.

Alterations to the field and dimensions create a WIAA regulation field to allow Greendale to host playoff games and tournaments.

This spring and summer, the high school baseball teams did not play any home games. All games were played on the road and the teams practiced at the community center.

Future phases include installation of light poles and lights, a press box, additional fan seating, a concession stand, parking lot repaving, and a patio.

“We’ll all look back on today and say we feel pretty good about it,” Reiman said.

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