The West Chester Adult Baseball League was founded in 1956 by Charlie Fryer of West Chester under the auspices of West Chester Recreation, Harold Zimmerman, director. The Borough of West Chester, which first boasted a team - the Brandywine AA - in 1865, had no baseball from 1952-1955 after the West Chester Community League folded for the lack of a fourth team.  Charlie Fryers was the first league director and served till 1960.  He was forced to step down mid-season because of work commitments allowing Frank Farley to take over becoming a Hoopes Park fixture and serving as the league director for the next 14 years. Farley guided the league in requesting and obtaining West Chester Borough approval to run its own affairs.  Up to this time, the West Chester Borough controlled everything – the bills, baseball, umpires – were all paid through the borough.

When Frank Farley bowed out, the WCABL was placed into good hands and under the leadership of Tom Taylor, an avid baseball fan who served as a Major League Scout until he passed away in 2012.  Since 1956, the league has come a long way.  Today the number of teams has increased to eight – the most ever – and the number of games played per team – 30 – have maximized the usage of a second baseball field – Flagg Field in the West Goshen Community Park.

Farley Field at Hoopes Park, Ashbridge Street, West Chester, is used seven days a week with games Monday through Friday start at 6 p.m.  Doubleheaders on the weekend are played each Sunday and Saturday beginning at 12 p.m. and 2:15 p.m.  From mid-July on, the WCABL gets daily use of Flagg Field West Goshen Community Park, Fern Hill Road.   Tripleheaders are schedule one weekend a month as well at Farley Field at Hoopes Park.

It is a far cry from the early years when the WCABL only scheduled games Monday through Thursday evenings. Friday nights were left open so games wouldn’t conflict with the merchants’ extended store hours in downtown West Chester. Friday was traditionally the borough’s big shopping night, the stores and banks remaining open until 9 p.m.  At the time, the teams played anywhere from 16-20 games per season.

And as amateur men’s baseball leagues have declined over the years, the WCABL continues to get better and to build upon the sound foundation that Charlie Fryer began over 50 years ago.

THE WCABL IS AN INDEPENDENT AMATEUR BASEBALL ORGANIZATION.

 In March, 1926, Dr. Edward Jackson of Denver, Colo., wrote a letter to the West Chester Borough Council, offering a 16-acre parcel of land he owned in the borough’s northwestern quadrant to be developed as a park.  Jackson wanted to have a park serve as a memorial to his mother, the late Emily Hoopes Jackson, and her father, Thomas Hoopes, and if accepted to be known as Hoopes Park.

Upon receipt of the letter, council president John H. Speer, councilmen Howard K. Moses, Frank W. Temple and Joseph Kift and Jackson’s brother-in-law, Herbert P. worth of West Chester toured the tract.  Following the tour, council accepted Jackson’s gift.  The ground for Hoopes Park was deeded to the borough on Dec. 20, 1928 for the express purpose of becoming a park according to an article in the Daily Local News on Sept. 10, 1955.  The tract would lie dormant until 1956.  Councilman Dewees Mosteller, also a member of the borough’s recreation Commission, pushed for the development of the park in 1955.  He ordered final plans for the park be drawn up.

Supports of the park pushed for a baseball field as the top priority with the addition, as money was forthcoming, of an amphitheater, four tennis courts, a child’s wading pool and play area, a bandstand, picnic area, grandstands and bleachers around the ball field and parking for 114 cars.  In May, 1956, clearing of the area for a baseball field began following the announcement by the Board of Trustees of the Wes t Chester Foundation of a gift of $12,000 for the park development.  The Foundation was established in 1928 to solicit and receive gifts, bequests, endowments and memorials to build a fund for community purposes.

One month later – on June 19, 1956 – the first West Chester Adult Baseball League game was played at the all-dirt Hoopes Park.  As the league grew and matured, the playing field was upgraded.  Originally, there was no fence in left field, leaving the outfielders to climb the bank in left and center fields to chase down, or chase after long drives.  After the initial work, Roland Willard, league vide president and manager of the West Chester Legion team, took it upon himself to make sure the job was finished correctly.  He raked and rolled the infield, and cut the base paths to MLB specifications.

In 1972, a league work party began the task of putting in a grass infield by leveling the dirt and planting seed.  The next spring, as the grass began coming up, the bank in left field was leveled and a four foot high, chain link fence was installed around the outfield and a combination four and eight foot fence around the remainder of the field.  In 1989, a new backstop was installed at a cost of $11,492.  The majority of the cost was paid by the borough via a state grant.  Bishop Shanahan High School, West Chester, which played its home games at Hoopes Park, contributed $500.  The league contributed a $1,492, a portion of that coming from the “Nat” Polidure Memorial Fund.  Polidure, long-time umpire and sitting board member, died in November, 1987 at the age of 68.

The baseball field at Hoopes Park was renamed Farley Field at Hoopes Park in 1994 to honor Frank Farley, league director from 1960-1974.  The rededication and naming of the field followed an ambitious capital improvement program undertaken by the borough and the league in the fall of 1993 and spring of 1994.  The league, under the direction of Beeson Builder’s Manager Doug Souder, built 40-foot long dugouts along each baseline.  The league received permission from West Chester Borough Council to cut down a tree in center field and to slop the bank in left and center fields to allow a new, 12-foot high chain link fence, installed 30 feet deeper – from 363 feet to 393 – in center field.  The dugouts cost the league about $2,500.  The $16,700 price tag for the fence was paid via a state grant awarded to the borough recreation department and a contribution from the league of $1,500 – the difference between the 8-foot fence contained in the grant application and the 12-foot fence the WCABL requested.

 Through the efforts of Architectural Concepts manager Ted Mondzelewski, the WCABL acquired a new 18x8-foot, electric scoreboard in 2003.  The scoreboard was purchased following a $6,000 donation from Red Robin Restaurants.  The $6,000 needed to have the scoreboard erected in left center came from the league’s capital improvement fund, which was developed from proceeds from the WCABL’s annual golf tournament.  Builder Steve Smith, a member of the leagues board of directors, provided the man power and the expertise to install the board.