DeWITT -- More so than other sports, there has long been a romantic way people look at a baseball field.

After all, basketball gyms are mostly the same, and football doesn't allow you to notice the tiniest details, such as a perfectly straight foul line done with white chalk.

Baseball, at least here, has sunsets over outfield fences, crickets chirping and red-clay dirt that, even if it's only smooth for a few moments before each game, makes you proud.

About three smiles south of DeWitt near Tri County School and just off Nebraska 103 sits a baseball field that a community of people say they don't just like.

If they just liked it, many volunteers wouldn't know that every night at 10 minutes before 8 p.m., a UPS plane flies over the field headed for Beatrice, and that there are 80 underground sprinklers keeping the field the perfect shade of green.

No, they love this field, and that's probably OK to say after the thousands of hours they spent the past 15 years to make this affair with a field and a game possible.

Baseball enthusiasts in the Tri County district have been working for years to build a top baseball facility, and the payoff comes this week when they host the American Legion Class C Seniors State Tournament at one of the nicest Legion fields in the state.

The tournament started Friday morning with a perfect matchup of area teams: David City vs. Daykin. The real fun came Friday night when host Tri County played Creighton, making it the first time the Tri County senior team had played in a state tournament.

Having a team of their own and a tournament at Cody Park was just a vision in 1994. None of the core towns that now make up the Tri County team -- DeWitt, Plymouth and Swanton -- ever had a Legion team. So, after Little League, most players quit playing baseball. A few players played for nearby Legion teams in Wilber, Beatrice or Daykin, but only if there were open spots not filled by local players.

That began to change when Jeff Reynolds called Bill Waltz, his neighbor in Plymouth, and told him to meet at the fence in their backyards. We need to start a Legion team, Reynolds said. Waltz told his friend he was crazy, but they went ahead and did it anyway, since both thought it was sad that players had to quit playing after Little League.

They were truly starting a program from scratch. No money, no coach and no field.

The first part of the plan was to get the American Legion posts in the area on board, and the posts in DeWitt, Plymouth and Swanton did just that.

Legion members Fred Meyer in Plymouth, Gaylon Koch in DeWitt and Don Shutts in Swanton are the baseball program's liaisons in each community, and Reynolds and Waltz both coached a few years and still manage the program.

Tri County began playing Legion ball in 1995, but for the first five years only played road games because it didn't have a field. Still, the junior team won state in 1997, and home plate from that championship game is still on display.

Soon the communities got more involved in the program. One of the more memorable events was a dance in Plymouth, where 840 raffle tickets for a Chevrolet pickup were sold for $20 apiece. About $12,000 was raised that night, enough to buy some land from Tri County Public Schools.

The Tri County Legion team started playing at the field in 2000, but only during the day until 2006, when a big donation from an estate allowed the team to install lights that are nicer than at some college stadiums.

During the season, Tri County doesn't draw huge crowds, but good for a Class C team playing far from the nearest town. It's an interesting mix of fans, including families and girlfriends and two widows that come every game. And when people do come for the first time, they usually return.

For Waltz, it doesn't get any better than looking out at the field during a game.

"When you sit up here and look out of the press box, you're 22 feet above the field and you're totally surrounded by trees, you've got the light on at night on that American flag in center field," Waltz said. "To me, if you can't get your heart pumping when the national anthem plays then you're probably dead. You've got guys here that help, like Fred Meyer, who is a Vietnam veteran, and I was a reserve.

"This is really beautiful at night, and I just love hearing the people down there in the grandstands."

More than $250,000 has been spent on the field, and it's been a true community project. Supporters have been able to make it so nice because most of the labor has been donated, from the major projects such as siding the press box to making sure there isn't one piece of trash on the 14 acres. Some of the workers with special talents say they'll send the team a bill, but they rarely do.

Two nights before the state tournament began, local farmers Jim Ensz and Daryl Riesen brought equipment to spray the field and prepared the restrooms.

The list goes on and on. Waltz's wife, Janet, helps run the concession stand and bakes rolls for volunteers. Reynolds' wife, Karen, did the tournament programs.

In small towns, everybody has something they do, whether volunteering for the fire department or the school board. For many, the baseball field is what they do.

"Make no mistake, this is the ultimate community project," Jeff Reynolds said.

Tri County hosted the Legion district tournament two years ago, and learned last winter it had been chosen to host state. For the Tri Country team, that means an automatic spot in the tournament, much to the delight of first baseman Anthony Rahe, a UNL sophomore from DeWitt who will play his final game at home in the state tournament.

Unlike many town-owned ballparks, volunteers do all the fieldwork, and it shows, Rahe said.

"What makes this special is the way it's maintained," Rahe said. "If you look at this, especially compared to the Class C fields we play on, it blows them away. I think the closest thing we play on is Sherman Field in Lincoln."

Volunteers and contributors went all-out to make the field great here, from the covered grandstands to the traditional dugouts to the bright-yellow piping along the fence.

The baseball field has enhanced the school district during tough times, and now the rest of the state will get a look.

"It's a field of dreams," Reynolds said. "This is the real one."

Reach Brent C. Wagner at bwagner@journalstar.com or 402-473-7435.