ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - The Cardinals charitable foundation, Cardinals Care, joined Tuesday with the Gateway Regional YMCA and the Boniface Foundation to celebrate the opening of a $5 million complex in South County.
Tuesday marked the opening of the Y Adaptive Sports Complex on the campus of the YMCA in South County. The complex features a synthetic turf baseball field with barrier-fee dugout. Along that, there will also be a accessible field, walking track, and an accessible sensory-rich playground.
"(The complex) is just an all adaptive sports complex to provide the opportunity for children with disabilities to play baseball and also provide the opportunity for them to play on the playground," said Michael Hall VP of Community Relations and Executive Director of Cardinals Care on Total Information A.M. Tuesday right before the ceremony.
Hall says the Miracle League, a non-profit foundation whose is goal is to provide opportunities for children with disabilities to play baseball, helped with the project to make sure the field was safely designed and built for children with disabilities.
"The YMCA really got advice and the specifications from the Miracle League in order to build the fields," said Hall.
Hall says it was important for Cardinals Care to be a part of the project because they want every kid to be able to play baseball and softball regardless of their skill and abilities.
"This was an opportunity to provide that specific chance for children with disabilities to be able to play baseball," said Hall. "And it's giving back to the community, which is very very important to us as an organization."
As part of the opening of the complex, the baseball field at the complex was named after 2022 NL MVP and St. Louis Cardinals First Baseman Paul Goldschmidt. Goldschmidt, along with Cardinals President Bill Dewitt III and Cardinals President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak were also among those who were in attendance for the grand opening of the complex.
