River Islands Hits Home Run With ‘Field Of Dreams’

Islanders Field is very much a “Field of Dreams” in the City of Lathrop.

That was apparent when River Islands celebrated the Grand Opening of its state-of-the-art baseball stadium on Wednesday evening.

A large crowd turned out to take in the pristine park, four years in the making, and the game between the Lathrop-Manteca Fire District and Lathrop San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Department. The scene offered a timeless slice of American culture, with lush grass and smooth infield dirt, bats, gloves, lots of kids, and a brilliant scoreboard adorned with American and California state flags.

A beaming Don Johns took part in a ribbon-cutting along with Susan Dell’Osso, Board Director of River Islands; Lathrop Mayor Sonny Dhaliwal; Lyn Hale of Hale Construction; Field Designer Dan Coleman; and San Joaquin County Board Supervisor Bob Elliott.

“It’s like the movie: ‘Build it, they will come,’” said Johns, who was brought in by River Islands to usher in the ballpark and baseball program. “People want to play at great facilities, so it’s great. This is a great facility. Parents love the community, the River Islands community.”

Dhaliwal described Islanders Field as an “excellent addition to our city that’s growing, that we are building. It will take some time, but it will be a city that people will be proud of.”

A baseball treasure in Northern California, Johns formed the Danville HOOTS, one of the nation’s top amateur baseball organizations, in 1991. His teams won five West Region Connie Mack championships and made five World Series appearances as well as earning a 2017 national championship runner-up finish. So, River Islands is starting out with a tremendous baseball man.

Johns is good friends with KNBR 680 baseball voice and Giants expert Marty Lurie and Giants coach Ron Wotus.

“The new ballpark is beautiful,” Lurie said after a recent visit. “I've seen it grow from an idea to a pearl of a baseball park. The feeling one gets when you see a baseball park for the first time is indelible on one's memory. I got the same feeling seeing the new ballpark. The green grass, the dirt infield, the stands, the grass seemingly glowing in the outfield, that's baseball.”

Addressing the crowd before the ribbon-cutting, Elliott called it “great day for the City of Lathrop and for River Islands … We just want to offer our congratulations for another great project here at River Islands. I know it’s going to be a great benefit in the years to come.”

Located across from the Bradshaw Crossing Bridge, the stadium has bleachers and stadium seating, a press box, snack bar, restrooms, and large dugouts. Additional seating on the sides brings the capacity up to about 700. The front of the stadium and signage draws from the San Francisco Giants’ Oracle Park.

The ballpark, located next to six brand new soccer fields, will make its mark quickly on the baseball scene with high-level tournaments and showcases from now through Halloween, before eventually adding the younger kids’ leagues.

Last weekend, Johns opened Islanders Field with a Northern California Travel Ball Elite League event with about 100 players, ages 13-14, in the 7^th and 8^th grade, including top players from Bakersfield to the Oregon border. This weekend they’ll have Prep Baseball Report, a national scouting report, and they’ll have the Bay Area World Series (June 1-2).

Before Wednesday’s game, Lathrop Fire Chief and baseball skipper Gene Neely, who owns a home at River Islands, was beyond thrilled about the new ballpark.

“It’s phenomenal. When we drive by and we see the field … River Islands, they don’t spare any expense,” Neely said. “Everything is professional quality. The builder did a phenomenal job with the dugouts to the turf to the whole field.”

Lathrop Police chief and baseball skipper Ryan Biedermann said the stadium shows how much “River Islands and the city has invested in extracurricular activities for the city and its citizens. It’s probably one of the better fields in the whole county. It’s going to be great for everybody, kids, adults. I’m just honored that we get to break it in for the first time. That’s kind of a neat deal.”

Johns is thrilled that the ballpark is part of a Town Center in the master-planned community.

“It starts with River Islands and Cambay and Susan Dell’Osso, the president, and the vision to do something great,” Johns said.

Some four years ago, the stadium was basically a design-as-you-go production in which Coleman would hand Hale napkin drawings and say, ‘Go build this,’” Hale recalled with a smile. “’Here’s what the dugouts are going to look like,’ and so we kind of rolled through it.”

Coleman says they started out trying to implement elements of AT&T (now Oracle) Park along with the Baltimore Orioles’ park Camden Yards and Colorado Rockies’ Coors Field. “They’re all part of the same genre,” Coleman says.

Neely was excited to learn from Dell’Osso that local high school teams will be using Islanders Field as their home field. “How exciting is that for a high school baseball team to have this as a home field? So, we’re excited,” Neely shared.

As a resident in the engaged community, Neel’s looking forward to coming out with his family to watch games and “having just a good time. It really brings out that community, of that sense of belonging and so it’s exciting times,” he says.

He figures to have plenty of company at this Field of Dreams nestled by the San Joaquin River.