The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-03-20
'MUNICIPA AL IN
 NAME ONLY SAYS COMMITTEE OF 5
BY JOHN A. CLUNEY

AS II LLle CuIIGIlJ SCIdIIlUlc lIlVOIN~ ing the p year old City Amateur baseball league and two private promoters for the Sunday use of Municipal Stadium, were not enough to occupy the immediate attention of the Board of Park Commissioners; there now comss upon the local sports horizon written request by the Industrial Recreation 'Associa- tion, representing 26 industries in the greater Waterbury area for the use, WITHOUT COST, of the mu- nicipa1 stadium on Watertown av- enue; for I. R. A. baseball and soft ball games.
 Municipal?
 A committee of five, Edward T. McGrath, U. s. Rubber and physical committee chairman; Clarence Allen of American Brass; George T. Ryan of Chase Companies; Joseph Bren- ran of U. s. Time and Paul A. An- derson of Bristol Company; says the stadium is municipal 'in name only" suggesting that, because of its cost (about $350,000) it should be used for activities lon a continuing na- ture."
 Gist of the I. R. A. request and suggestion is continued in the fol- lowing letter to Thomas F. Moore, secretary of the Board of Park Com .misSioners, as follows:
 March 20, 1945 MT. Thomas Moore, Secretary Board of Park Commissioners Waterbury, Connecticut
 Dear Sirs:
 At the Industrial Recreation Asso- ciation meeting of March 9th, it was voted that 8 committee should con- tact your Board relative to the pos- sibility of opening the Municipal Stadium for use of our baseball and softball leagues, without cost, for the coming season.
 On February 18th, we applied to MT. James Curtin, Superintendent of Parks, for use of various Park ball diamonds on several nights a week to meet the minimum require ments of our leagues. His reply of February 27th did not offer much hope of our obtaining more than about half of the fields asked for. MT. Curtin says, in part you must realize the scarcity of softball and baseball fields in the we know our park system is too small for city of this size and our play fields too few" -"Because it is im- possible to meet the eyer-increasing demands for playfields we are care full to assign fields in fair and inn partial manner
 The value of recreation in wartime for industrial workers and the many advantages derived from an active program have been stressed time and again and needs no reiteratior here. The demands for recreation will be even greater during the post war period with our boys returning home from overseas seeking recrea- tional outlets to compensate for the rigours of warfare so recently en- dured.
 The Municipal Stadium on Wa tertoWn avenue, erected at consider able cost about ten years ago, has been municipal in name only. It has been used very little and instead o1 being an asset it has been a liability to the city. The high schools use il a few Saturday afternoons in thu fall for football, and professional baseball was promoted there last summer. No other activities of 2 continuing nature have ever beer held there.
 The present layout of the Muni cipal Stadium is particularly wei suited for setting up at least fou softball diamonds, one in each cor. ner of the stadium area, at very lit. tie capital outlay and with no re- construction necessary. The only ex' pense would be for the erection O. the backstops Although base path! should be cut in the grass, sucf would not be absolutely necessary it were deemed unwise to do so.
 We respectfully submit this pro posal for your consideration with thu hope that favorable action will bt taken permitting use of the Stadium this season. The I. R. As preSen plans call for a sixteen team mem softball league, twelve team girls softball league, and six team men! baseball league providing for ap proximately 800 active industria participants to say nothing of tht many more industrial workers ant others who will be getting their rec reation as spectators at league games.
 Any action you take on this mat. ter leading to realization of tht above stated plan will be greatly ap' preciated by the I. R. A., represent ing 26 industries in the Greater Wa. terbury area, by the Y. M. c. A., 5y other fraternal and athletic groups and by the people of Waterbury 1T general.
 Yours Sincerely,
 EDWARD T. McGRATH
 Physical Committee Chairman