Howie Minas Field, Midlothian, Ill.

Howie Minas Field

Entrance to Howie Minas Field, Jul-2004.

The main seating bowl.

The ridge beyond the field carries the Tri-State Tollway.

Quick Facts:

Location: Homan Avenue and 144 Street, Midlothian, Ill.
Opened: 1955
Home team: Cook County Cheetahs, Heartland League (1998); Midlothian White Sox, National Baseball Congress
Capacity: 800

Howie Minas

In 1955, Howie Minas cleared a cornfield in what had just been designated Midlothian Memorial Park, and he put down a baseball stadium for an amateur team, the Midlothian White Sox. The town fathers recognized Minas’ accomplishment in 1982 by naming the field for him.

Minas’ White Sox became a force in the National Baseball Congress in the 1980s, finishing second twice and then winning the championship in 1992. The NBC tournament is held annually in Wichita.

When the Will County Cheetahs relocated from Lewis University in Romeoville to the south Chicago suburbs, they played one season here at Howie Minas Field while waiting for their new permanent home, Hawkinson Ford Field, to be completed. A former Mid-sox player, Joe Skarbek, confirmed in July 2008 that the ballpark had extra bleachers during that 1998 season.

I interviewed and photographed Howie Minas at a Windy City ThunderBolts game in 2004. After 48 years tending “his” field, the ThunderBolts hired Minas as their groundskeeper for 2004, and he brought the playing surface at Hawkinson Ford Field back to respectability.

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