PLYMOUTH — Some former Plymouth High School baseball 
players will be lacing up the spikes one more time for a good cause as past Pilgrims return from all over the country to play in an alumni game Aug. 5 at Bill Nixon Field.
All the players in that game have made donations to help replace the playing surface at the field, a project that is slated to start after the 2018 Pilgrims season.
“We’ve always wanted to do this, but with the prevalence of social media it’s become a lot easier,” said Plymouth Assistant Athletic Director John Scott. “We’ve had nearly 300 people who played as seniors since 1970 — and thanks to things like Facebook, we’ve been able to make contact with 185 of them, and if you add email, we’ve made contact with almost 250 former players.”
Scott is hoping for around 100 former Pilgrims to take the field one more time in August to celebrate the tradition of Plymouth baseball and especially reunite many of those players who were responsible for the exceptional success of the program over the years.
“This has been an interesting process,” said Scott. “In talking to some of these guys, we’ve figured out that we have a couple of players who set state records in certain statistical categories that would still stand. Kevin Weidner, for example, I believe has several pitching records that have obviously not been reported from back in the early ‘70s and we’re going to see if we can get those included in the record book. We’ve got copies of the old hand-written stat sheets from back then.”
“We’ve had a some guys say they can’t make it because they have other commitments and things like that, but I think about 100 guys will be back.”
Generations will also “re-unite.”
“We’ve got players from all eras and the neat thing is that we have fathers and sons who will be taking the field together,” said Scott. “The Arvesens — Mike, Matt and their dad Bob; Kevin Weidner is coming. I’m not sure if his brother Keith is going to make it yet, but we hope so. The Renz family — Greg with his sons Jeremy, Jason and Andrew. Some of them will be on the same team but some of them not. That could be interesting.”
Players will be divided up by their year of graduation, even years on one team, odd on the other.
“We’re going to open the cage up July 30 for everybody to come out and take batting practice if they want,” said Scott. “Some of the guys have said they want to get back on the mound again. If not, we have some stand-ins ready to throw to fill in.”
Scott added, “It’s just a chance to get together and reminisce and have a good time.”
Plymouth Community Schools and the Plymouth Park Department have put together a fundraising campaign to replace the surface and do some other minor touch ups to Bill Nixon Field, which still has the original playing surface installed in 1970. Along with seeding the field, some new drainage and irrigation systems will be put in as well.
First slated to begin directly after the game Aug. 5, weather has delayed the contractor in projects scheduled prior to this one, and not wanting to rush the process, the work was re-scheduled for June of next year.
Scott is hoping to make contact with any more players that he may have missed.
“If somebody is reading this that we haven’t contacted, please contact me at the high school,” said Scott. “This is a huge undertaking and it is entirely possible going through almost 50 years of records we could have missed somebody. There are also some players still living in the area that we know of that we haven’t been able to get an email address or phone number for. Just get in touch with us and we’ll make sure we include you.”
The Old-Timers Game is set for Saturday, Aug. 5 at noon. Batting practice will start at 10 a.m. for those interested. If you need information about donating funds to the field renovation project, email John Scott (jscott@plymouth.k12.in.us), or give the PHS athletic office a call at 574-936-3215.
