Baseball star's $350K donation goes to build ballpark for MLB summer college team in Royal Oak

ROYAL OAK, Mich. (FOX 2) - Memorial Park on 13 Mile and Woodward in Royal Oak will now become a first-class baseball field not only for high school but for the Major League affiliated Summer Collegiate Baseball League and the new home of the Royal Oak Leprechauns.  

"We are making our field of dreams, it finally came through, it finally came through," said Mark Sackett, a 5th-grade teacher. 

Sackett is also the general manager of college baseball's Royal Oak Leprechauns.

"You wouldn't believe how excited I am," he said. "These are kids that play in college now, colleges all over the country. And they're going to come and play right there in Royal Oak against teams from all over the Midwest."

One donor came forward with $350,000 to make this field happen - and he's a superstar Major League baseball player.
     
"He's an anonymous donor right now, a super person, quiet, humble down to earth, you'd never know it, good kid," Sackett said.

Sackett said he is going to change the field and put in turf, excavation, some fencing, and more.  

"The program that we do with these kids for the college kids, they run camps.  So we're gonna bring little kids in, they will be playing around the field, it is going to be great for baseball, it's gonna be great for baseball, it's going to be great for Royal Oak, and great for Oakland County," he said.

And just like a minor league game, there's fun stuff too.

"In between eating activities going on, we've got theme nights, we've got food trucks coming in so it's going to be quite a spectacular event for families to come out and enjoy a good night of wood bat college baseball," he said.

Sackett said that the first game will be in April, that's for high school. And then in June for college.