Robert J. Bobb Stadium at Hyames Field is a baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 stadium located in Kalamazoo, Michigan

Kalamazoo, Michigan

The area on which the modern city stands was once home to Native Americans of the Hopewell culture, who migrated into the area sometime before the first millennium. Evidence of their early residency remains in the form of a small mound in downtown's Bronson Park. The Hopewell civilization began to...

. It is currently the home to the baseball team of Western Michigan University

Western Michigan University

Western Michigan University is a public university located in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. The university was established in 1903 by Dwight B. Waldo, and as of the Fall 2010 semester, its enrollment is 25,045....

. Originally constructed in 1939, it was part of a $250,000 project that also included the construction of Waldo Stadium

Waldo Stadium

Waldo Stadium is a stadium in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It is primarily used for football, and is the home field of the Western Michigan University Broncos. Opened in 1939, it now has a capacity of 30,200 spectators.-History:...

.

The baseball field was dedicated and opened in the spring of 1939, and was named for Judson Hyames

Judson Hyames

Judson A. Hyames was the head baseball coach at Western Michigan University from 1922 to 1936. In his 15 years at WMU, he posted a 166–62–2 record. In his honor, WMU's baseball stadium—Hyames Field—was named after him. He also played for the WMU baseball team in 1915...

, who had coached the baseball squads at WMU from 1922–36. He accumulated a record of 166–62–6, and had accomplished one of the more successful records in the region. Hyames had also served as athletic director. The field was renamed in 2008 after a $1 million donation by Robert J. Bobb.

Playing environment

Carved out of a hill alongside Stadium Drive, Hyames Field was able to offer a unique playing environment. Features include hill banks down both foul lines, in particular the right field side, which is an open grassy knoll

Hillock

A hillock or knoll is a small hill, usually separated from a larger group of hills such as a range. Hillocks are similar in their distribution and size to small mesas or buttes. The term is largely a British one...

 popular with spectators. The original construction also included concrete seating behind home plate

Home Plate

Home Plate is the fifth album by Bonnie Raitt, released in 1975 .-Track listing:#"What Do You Want the Boy to Do?" – 3:19#"Good Enough" – 2:56#"Run Like a Thief" – 3:02...

, along with restrooms, concessions, and storage facilities located beneath the seating. This structure had been completely covered by a permanent roof

Roof

A roof is the covering on the uppermost part of a building. A roof protects the building and its contents from the effects of weather. Structures that require roofs range from a letter box to a cathedral or stadium, dwellings being the most numerous....

, however the roof had fallen into disrepair in recent years and was removed in the winter of 2005. The 2006 baseball season has continued without the roof, although the steel girder

Girder

A girder is a support beam used in construction. Girders often have an I-beam cross section for strength, but may also have a box shape, Z shape or other forms. Girder is the term used to denote the main horizontal support of a structure which supports smaller beams...

s for it remain. Other renovations and additions over the years have included an electronic scoreboard

Scoreboard

A scoreboard is a large board for publicly displaying the score in a game or match. Most levels of sport from high school and above use at least one scoreboard for keeping score, measuring time, and displaying statistics. Scoreboards in the past used a mechanical clock and numeral cards to...

, batting cage

Batting cage

A batting cage is an enclosed cage for baseball players to practice the skill of batting.It is usually made of netting or a chain-link fence and rectangular in shape. A batter stands at one end of the cage, with a pitching machine at the opposing end...

s, and more effective turf management.

College World Series

At the time of construction, the facilities of Hyames Field were considered to be some of the best in the country. The site was the home of the first two College World Series

College World Series

The College World Series or CWS is an annual baseball tournament held in Omaha, Nebraska that is the culmination of the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship, which determines the NCAA Division I college baseball champion. The eight teams are split into two, four-team, double-elimination brackets,...

 in 1947 and 1948. The 1947 contest was particularly memorable, featuring future American League MVP Jackie Jensen

Jackie Jensen

Jack Eugene Jensen was an American right fielder in Major League Baseball who played for three American League teams from 1950 to 1961, most notably the Boston Red Sox...

 of Cal

University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

 in the outfield

Outfield

The outfield is a sporting term used in cricket and baseball to refer to the area of the field of play further from the batsman or batter than the infield...

. In the same contest, future United States President

President of the United States

The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

 George H. W. Bush

George H. W. Bush

George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...

 played first base for the Yale

YALE

RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...

 squad. The CWS moved to Wichita, Kansas

Wichita, Kansas

Wichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas.As of the 2010 census, the city population was 382,368. Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita is the county seat of Sedgwick County and the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area...

 in 1949, and to Omaha, Nebraska

Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium

Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium is a baseball stadium in Omaha, Nebraska, the former home to the annual NCAA Division I College World Series and the minor league Omaha Royals, now known as the Omaha Storm Chasers...

in 1950, where it has been featured since.

External links

• Satellite view