New shale for fleming’s Green Acres ball diamond

June 23, 2025, 8:25 am
Ryan Kiedrowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Fleming locals will have noticed some activity over at the Green Acres fastball field recently. Some major preparations have been made in advance of the double header game between the WayWay A’s/Fleming Jets and the New Zealand U19 team on July 3.

“We’re going to be able to go ahead with the touring New Zealand team here on the third of July,” Phil Hamm confirmed after what he described as a ‘very constructive’ meeting of the Fleming Community Organization. One major donation that helped cement hosting the Kiwis after a few years’ absence came from Tony Huggard of SP&E.

“He heard that we were looking at adding to the red shale on the infield, and we had to postpone that until next year because we just didn’t think we could afford it this year,” Hamm explained. “He stepped up, and he said, ‘no, I will purchase the shale that you need, and I’ll arrange for somebody to truck it, and I will do the installation of the red shale.’ That was very welcome, so we took that to the meeting and the community organization were very receptive to it.”

Thanks to Huggard’s contribution, all the FCO would need to cover was the trucking costs.

“We were able to let Tony know, he’s made the arrangements, so we’ll have that in time for the game on the third of July,” Hamm said. “That put some wind in the sails, it’s really welcomed!”

Huggard said he was more than happy to help out.

“I’ve always been community-minded anyway,” he said. “We want to get the field looking pretty decent.”

When the World-Spectator spoke to Huggard, the truckload of shale had arrived and he was about to begin spreading it.

“It’s pretty involved, because it’s got to be all done to grade,” he said. “I have all the equipment for that, so it will take me six hours to get it to where it’s supposed to be. We didn’t take the truck across the field because we didn’t want to rough the field up, we just dumped it on the corner by the gate, and then I’m going to carry it in with my tractor and spread it where needs to be.”

Huggard says that seeing Green Acres at night is when the diamond really shines.

“It’s a wonderful field, well-lit, too,” Huggard said. “Night time is the best time to have games here because it’s so lit up, the lights are so bright.”

As for the upcoming double header with the New Zealand team on July 3, Huggard is looking forward to seeing the visitors perform the traditional M?ori Haka.

“If they had weapons on them, you’d be scared,” he described. “It’s pretty loud, pretty aggressive—you’d be almost intimidated by it, to tell you the truth.”

Still a few final touches

A separate committee dedicate to the Green Acres Ball Park has been formed under the FCO, responsible for maintaining the historic ball park. As with many prairie towns, Fleming can trace its baseball history back to the early 1900s when the Colts constructed their diamond on a slough. While modifications had to be made in converting the field from a baseball to a fastball diamond, Green Acres retains the sunken look that sets it apart.


Prior to the outbreak of World War I, the Town of Fleming decided to drain the two large sloughs in the middle of town, deciding it would be a great location for a diamond.

“A sports field, is what they called it,” Hamm said. “Mr. Engdahl, had a team of horses and a Fresno scraper, and he was hired to do all the work.”

In the early 2000s, more work was done including a new infield.

“They went down quite deep into the ground and put in stone and all kinds of stuff, then some pea gravel, some sand, and then they packed that all down, and they put in new weeping tiles to drain that diamond so that after a rain it doesn’t take long to dry it up,” explained Hamm.

“We’re looking positively for the future that it’s going to be looked after,” he continued. “It’s just a gem of a place to have right in the middle of our community.”

Hamm and his brother, Rick, have been involved with the Fleming Jets for around 50 years

“The park is an asset to the community, so we’re prepared to stay involved and help with what we can,” Hamm explained.

The committee is putting the call out for folks who would be willing to host the New Zealand travellers when they arrive in Fleming.

“We need to have billets, we’ve got a couple so far, but we expect to get the rest of them hopefully before too long,” Hamm said.

Future work will include restoring the legacy signs that blew down a few years back, honouring the Fleming Jets’ 10 consecutive league championships.

“They had two or three more that they added over the years, so we want to recognize those teams, and we want to recognize the three provincial championships that they had,” Hamm said. “We had the Gliders, they have a sign up, and they were the western Canada Bantam champions way back in ’76 and so we’re going to do that as we have money, and we’re going to raise money for it.”

The scoreboard is another area that could use an update, as well as the public address system, but Hamm says those projects will all come to fruition as sponsorship and fundraising dictates.

Another task of the Green Acres committee will be promotion of the field in an effort to increase usage.

“We get some minor ball games down there, and some ladies games and we’re looking at possibly hosting an invitational senior fastball tournament,” Hamm said. “One of the ideas that was floated was, we have connections with Indigenous teams in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and we thought maybe we could sponsor a day of fastball and reconciliation, invite them to come, put up some prize money and, because the Indigenous teams have some very good players, they put on a good show.”