Jack created this baseball field during the 1920s with benches, diamonds and a back stop, because he believed that his children and other young men and women should immerse themselves in sports and the great outdoors. The field hosted many baseball games seeing since Kingsville didn’t have many other areas for such activities. He named it after one of his best friends, legendary Hall of Fame Major League Baseball player Tyrus (Ty) Raymond Cobb. Jack and his son Manly were such good friends with Cobb that they regularly invited him out on hunting trips, and Cobb returned the favour with tickets to the Detroit Tigers games. Ty wrote in his autobiography that knowing Jack was “one of the finest things that happened to me in the wonderful world I found away from baseball.” Jack’s other son, Jasper, was a very good baseball player and was invited to play professional ball but declined to stay home to help with the Sanctuary.

Today the baseball diamond is just a large grassy field where school group some of gym class and where we host concerts, movie nights and other events. The cabin and memorial(sarcophagus) are located here as well. We hope in the future to expand our events and create a pavilion in this space and add playground equipment to entertain the children further.