Cal Ripken, Jr. is shown with Mike and Aleta Wilmoth of Wellington along with WHS graduate and Kansas RBI Executive Director Cle Ross. (Courtesy photo).

Submitted to Sumner Newscow —  The Kansas RBI program, Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation (CRSF) Royals Charities and the Baseball Tomorrow Fund today unveiled a youth baseball field built in honor of the late Kansas statesman, ambassador and influential lawyer, George W. Haley. George and Doris Haley Field will serve as the new home of the Kansas RBI program, providing more than 1,000 youth participants with a clean, safe place to play, learn and grow.

Ribbon cutting ceremony speakers included Cal Ripken, Jr., Baseball Hall of Famer and Ripken Foundation vice chairman; Doris Haley; Dayton Moore, Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations & General Manager, Kansas City Royals; Cle Ross, Executive Director, Kansas RBI; Cathy Bradley, Executive Director, Baseball Tomorrow Fund; and Steve Salem, President, Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation. Ross is a 1997 Wellington High School graduate.  Mike and Aleta Wilmoth of Wellington were guest of honors.

The new field will be part of the Barton-Ross Complex for which is named after Ross.

“We are proud to be a part of this project and honor our dear friend and mentor, George W. Haley,” said Cal Ripken, Jr. “What George and the Haley family have contributed to our society, the local community and everyone they have met and influenced along the way, is truly remarkable and worth celebrating. The kids from Kansas RBI have a great ball field to call home.”

George and Doris Haley Field features an all-weather, low maintenance synthetic turf surface, dugouts, digital scoreboard, backstop and bleachers. The Baseball Tomorrow Fund (BTF), a joint initiative of Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association, provided funding to Kansas RBI for the project. BTF is designed to promote the growth of youth baseball and softball throughout the world by awarding grants to support field renovation and construction projects, equipment and uniform purchases, coaches training material and other selected program expenses. Additional contributions to the field project include funding from proceeds from the 2012 MLB All-Star Game Legacy Dollars, Royals Charities Royalty Field program, Fields Inc. and other private donations.

“George and Doris Haley Field at Barton – Ross Complex provides the less fortunate youth in our program a state-of-the- art field that they can walk or ride their bike to which helps minimize the transportation issues we have had in the past,” Ross said. “We are truly grateful for our partners who helped make this dream a reality. The impact that George and Doris have had on our youth and community will last a lifetime.”

George W. Haley was a distinguished attorney, diplomat and Army Air Force veteran who served under five U.S. presidents. Haley served as one of the architects of the landmark civil rights case, Brown v. the Board of Education, and later became the first African-American Kansas State Senator. He was appointed Chairman of the Postal Rate Commission by President George H.W. Bush and was later named as Ambassador to the Republic of The Gambia in West Africa during the Clinton administration.

Follow us on Twitter.