Horses Mess Up White Rock Baseball Field Renovations

La Grange Little League officials discovered an ugly sight on one of their baseball fields Sunday. Someone apparently decided to race a couple of horses around the bases.

The Little League recently completed $30,000 in ground renovations to one of the fields at White Rock Park. The work required heavy watering and no activities on the field for 40 days straight. The alleged horse race mired the freshly-graded infield dirt, leaving a muddy path of deep-trodden hoofmarks.

“CT Landscape did the (rennovations), and they’re going to come out and see what needs to be done,” said La Grange Little League President Eric Tillery. “It’s going to cost, though.”

Tillery said the gates to the field were closed but not locked. Signs reading “Construction in Progress, Please Stay Off the Field” were posted on the gates. Tillery said the damage was discovered Monday morning. He believes the damage occurred sometime Sunday afternoon.

“Somebody saw some kids with horses tied up playing basketball on Sunday,” Tillery said.

“All of this open area and they had to get in there and ride,” said La Grange Animal Control Officer Dean Ahlschlager, who stopped by the park Tuesday morning to see the damage.

Tillery said Little League registration begins this Friday, Dec. 11. He said Little League will need to fix the field before next month, when tryouts take place. Team practices begin in February.

La Grange Police Chief David Gilbreath speculated that the culprits may have been some local youths who did not understand the damage they were causing.

“I think that’s what it was, some kids riding their horses,” Tillery said. “Someone needs to talk to them and make them understand what they did.”