On what had been a perfect day, Dehler Park turned into Dehler Dark.

The first game at Billings’ new baseball stadium was postponed in the bottom of the seventh inning after the lights failed to come on over a full house of American Legion baseball fans who came to watch the Billings Scarlets take on the Bozeman Bulls.

The game will be finished tonight at Pirtz Field before a regularly scheduled game.

Earlier Sunday, it felt like a carnival during the afternoon-long grand opening of Dehler Park.

With temperatures in the mid to high 80s and the sky a cloudless blue, thousands of people inspected every nook and cranny of the $13.7 million ballpark and enjoyed themselves on the expansive concrete concourse that runs around the field.

Just like any game day, there were concessionaires selling burgers, brats, soft drinks and microbrew beers, vendors hawking baseball cards and other baseball memorabilia. Representatives of numerous arts and cultural organizations advertised their events and venues, while at the Costco booth there were free slices of cake decorated with a baseball theme.

And everywhere there were people oohing and ahing over the spanking-new ballfield.

“Oh, it’s a great facility,” said Bob Lien, 83, who was wearing a red Mustangs hat. “Billings can be very, very proud of it. You’d have to go a long way before you’d find a finer minor league park than this.”

Lien said he was really impressed with the handicapped seating areas. “I may have to take advantage of that before too long,” he said.

With a straw hat shading his eyes, Gene Spildie stood on the concourse overlooking left field, enjoying a beer and the afternoon breeze.

“This place is sensational,” he said. “And we still got the view of the Rimrocks, which is great.”

Spildie remembers playing at Cobb Field in his days as an American Legion player in Laurel in 1949. He couldn’t help but wonder what playing on the field would feel like for Billings’ American Legion teams, who will share the field with the minor league Billings Mustangs and Montana State University-Billings Yellowjackets.

“It’s got to be like the major leagues,” he said.

Dolly Ryan also got on the field. She sang the national anthem, the first time in Dehler Park, and her first time for a baseball game. Her longtime friend, Jon Dehler, who donated $1 million to the construction of the ballpark, asked her if she would sing the national anthem on opening night.

She’d sung the national anthem a few times before for hockey games and indoor football, but had never sung the anthem in the open air.

As excited as she was to sing, she was more excited to say, “Let’s play ball.”

“I’ve always wanted to do that,” she said.

Barry O’Donnell, a season-ticket holder for 25 years, was wearing a Cobb Field T-shirt during the grand opening. He called Dehler Park “a beautiful stadium” and said he was impressed with the clean, spacious restrooms, a contrast to the cramped, leaky facilities at the old Cobb Field.

O’Donnell’s seats this season will be on the third-base line, a little past where the foul-ball netting stops, but he’s not worried about getting beaned.

“I come to the ballgame to watch baseball,” he said. “You’ve gotta pay attention.”

One of the first athletes lucky enough to get out on the field was 13-year-old Alex Williams, who plays for the Burlington Little League team. He was taking part in a baseball clinic for Little Leaguers put on by players from MSU Billings.

“I think it’s a lot nicer than the old one,” Williams said. “I like the big scoreboard and I like how it’s underground.”

The field isn’t quite underground, but it is sunken, with a drop of about eight feet from street level to the playing surface. That gives even those standing at the outfield railing a bird’s-eye view of the whole stadium.

The wide-open feel of the ballpark was something that appealed to Michelle Wohlgenant, who was taking in the sights Sunday with her three children. It will be easier to keep an eye on them at the new field.

“You can definitely see them from wherever you are,” she said.

Billings City Councilman Dick Clark, a member of the ballpark steering committee, beamed with not just a little sunburn. He was proud of Billings residents for their support, and couldn’t contain his praise for the numerous donors who contributed to the park.

“Every time it looked like we weren’t going to have enough money, someone would step forward,” he said. “I always knew the people of Billings were great, but to see them step up like they have — it’s been amazing.”

The entryway at the front gate is partly paved with engraved bricks commemorating donors, and a wall of marble plaques behind the new statue of Billings baseball legend Dave McNally bears the names of the deep-pockets donors.

Visitors strolled through the guests’ and the Mustangs’ clubhouses and milled around the Mustangs store, which was selling T-shirts, sweatshirts, baseballs, miniature bats and baseball caps.

Tickets for reserved seating at the Mustangs’ home opener have been sold out for three weeks, and tickets for general admission will go on sale at 4 p.m. the day of the game. The Mustangs will play nightly through Sunday. Even with a long line of people to buy tickets for games later in the week, plenty of reserved seat tickets are still available.

Making the circuit on the 360-degree concourse at least twice, visitors checked out the picnic areas and the new restrooms and peered into the training area behind the left field fence.

If you were there and the concourse looked huge, it wasn’t just your imagination. According to the Parks and Recreation Department, the construction of Dehler Park entailed the use of 5,050 cubic yards of concrete, enough to build a 4-foot-wide sidewalk more than 19 miles long, plus 43,000 concrete blocks, enough to build a wall 6 feet tall and 1.2 miles long.

Floating through the air all day, compliments of Dehler Park’s new sound system, was a loop of 10 baseball-themed songs, including John Fogerty’s “Centerfield,” Bruce Springsteen’s “Glory Days” and Terry Cashman’s “Talkin’ Baseball.”

Namesake’s father gives thumbs up

By LAURA TODE

Billings Gazette

BILLINGS — The immaculate field at Billings’ new ballpark met Bill Dehler’s approval Sunday.

The stadium — Dehler Park —was named in his honor after his son, Jon Dehler, a local businessman, donated $1 million to the new ballpark’s construction.

“It’s beautiful,” Bill said when he arrived Sunday just before ribbon-cutting ceremonies began. “What’s not to like about it?”

Bill, 83, should know what it takes to make a field look as perfect as the field looked Sunday night when the Billings Scarlets American Legion team took the field for the first game. Bill once maintained the baseball field in Battle Lake, Minn., taking time off from work in the summer to irrigate, mow and drag the infield before games.

“Baseball has always been my true love,” he said looking out across the field.

Although Jon and several other major donors threw out the first pitch from home base, Bill, who can no longer walk, took the field in a maintenance cart and also threw in one of the first pitches.

His was a short toss, but one he’d practiced a few times last week at the nursing home in Helena where he lives.

“It was a small miracle we got him here,” said Mary Chaet, his daughter.

Not long ago Bill broke both of his hips and although he has made a strong recovery he has to use a wheelchair and suffers from the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.

But on Sunday, Bill was having the time of his life.

“What I wouldn’t have given to have played even one game on this field,” he said.

Jon, a baseball fan himself, said the opening day was all for his dad.

“This is just a guy that loves baseball, from preparing the field to playing the game, he loves it all,” Jon said.

Bill stayed to watch the game, flanked by his family and friends, and when it came dinnertime, “I’ll have a hot dog,” he said.