WASHINGTON — During a ribbon cutting ceremony on Saturday, Washington Nationals Ryan Zimmerman spoke humbly about the new Little League field that bears his name.
“That parts cool,” Zimmerman said of having a field named for him, “but I think more importantly I wanted to do it for kids in this area.”
“I had a nice place to go play and whether it was baseball, basketball, soccer, whatever it was,” Zimmerman said. “These kids should have the same opportunity.”
And judging by the turnout of hundreds of Little Leaguers who attended despite the snow and rain, young athletes intend to take every advantage afforded by Ryan Zimmerman Field.
Located in Southwest D.C., on the corner of South Capitol and I streets, the synthetic turf field can host football and soccer games, as well as baseball.
“You can do whatever you want, just get out, have fun, be active. Learn to be good teammates. Learn to be good friends. Stick up for each other,” Zimmerman said.
The refurbished complex was funded, in part, by Zimmerman, as well as Under Armour, the Cal Ripken Senior Foundation and the Nationals Dream Foundation. You can see the giant scoreboard from the Interstate 395 exit.
Prior to the ceremony, Zimmerman met with several Little League players and took pictures with them. Later he stepped up to the mound and fired a first-pitch strike to officially open up his new facility.
“Sports is one of the beautiful things because it parallels life, I think, a lot,” he said. “You can learn a lot from being on a team, winning, losing, playing in the rain and now.”
Zimmerman credited his former manager, Matt Williams, for getting the ball rolling.
“In Arizona, where he was before, where he played and coached, they have a number of these types of fields. And he was really the one who came to me and asked if I’d be interested in this,“ Zimmerman said of Williams. “He was really a champion to this effort, he had to go through a lot of steps to kind of get this done. So I really want to thank him (Williams) and all his efforts to do this.”
