This is Beautiful': Foundry Field Revitalizes South Bend's Southeast Park with First Games

Photo byAustin Hough / South Bend Tribune

SOUTH BEND — Eight years ago, while on a bike ride, Matt Insley had a vision of restoring baseball to Southeast Park. On Saturday, that dream became reality.

With the opening of Foundry Field, baseball returned to the park on a sun-drenched afternoon, marking a significant milestone for the South Bend community. The day began with kids' camps, followed by the inaugural South Shore Classic, a series of makeshift games featuring young athletes from both South Bend and Chicago.

“We’ve been dreaming about this for a long time,” said Insley, Chair of the Sappy Moffitt Field Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to baseball-related projects like Foundry Field. “The feelings are just excitement and joy. To see all these people out here — they’re enjoying it and excited about what’s going on.”

The park’s history was honored in a special way during the ceremony. Seabe Gavin Jr., one of the men chosen to throw out the first ceremonial pitch, stood beneath a mural of his father, Seabe Gavin Sr., a baseball star from South Bend Central High School in the 1930s and later a player for South Bend’s Foundry Giants, after whom the field is named.

Reflecting on his father’s legacy, Gavin Jr. shared, “Not only was he a great father, a great husband and a great family man, he was a great athlete. Even though it was during a time of oppression, he never let that deter him from what he loved doing, and that was being an athlete. That was a lesson in itself.”

While the field is now hosting games, the project is far from complete. Insley and his team are actively raising funds to add dugouts, grandstand seating, and a proper fence around the outfield. The park is more than just a place to play baseball—it is becoming a living museum. The mural of Gavin Sr. is just one of several adorning the leftfield wall, honoring not only players from the original Foundry Giants but also the women’s softball team from the American Negro Girls Softball League of the 1940s.

Looking ahead, there are plans to add murals depicting the Latin and Potawatomi baseball histories of South Bend, further deepening the park’s connection to the local community.

“This project really developed over time, and as we brought people along and invited them into the project, their interest informed what has now become a multi-faceted, deep project,” Insley explained. “It’s far more interesting than just a baseball field. It’s now kind of a living museum. It’s a place of beauty. It’s a place to play. It’s also a place for the community.”

For Gavin Jr., seeing the park come to life brought back memories of his own childhood, playing baseball every summer. "The most important thing is to see this beautiful vision, this field come to life in an urban neighborhood,” he said. “It’s a neighborhood that has been discounted in a part of town that people really don’t want to come to. But this is beautiful.”