If you want to experience baseball as it was meant to be, visit Rathert Field in Junction City.
This historic ballpark not only offers visitors a glimpse into the past, it also celebrates America’s pastime of today.
Rathert Field is home base for the Junction City Brigade, a summer collegiate baseball team.
Founded in 2012 with their first game in 2013, this team is no diamond in the rough. As of 2024, they’ve won the Mid-Plains League championship all but three years since the founding of the league a decade earlier.
Why is the Junction City Brigade such a winning team?
When I asked General Manager Cecil Aska, he jokingly said, “Me,” and then he turned serious.
He attributes their record to the community’s commitment to providing opportunities and to the local businesses.
“There has been always a history of of some baseball flowing through this community,” he said. He gestured to the signs hanging on the outfield fence. “We have great sponsors…the community support in terms of business, that’s a real key to us being successful.”
That community support stretches back to the very beginnings of this piece of Junction City’s past.
Related: learn more about Junction City, Kansas, a Main Street success story
History of Rathert Field
It was 1936, in the middle of the Great Depression, and Junction City wanted a baseball team. That meant they needed a field.
Fortunately, FDR’s Work Projects Administration (at the time known as Works Progress Administration) was helping communities like theirs all over the country.
Junction City submitted an application in September of the same year. On July 18, 1937, the “Jay Cees” played their first game in Rathert Field to a sold-out crowd of 1,400.
They named the field for city engineer Arthur Rathert because of the amount of effort he put into securing the project.
Not your typical stadium, Rathert Field is made of limestone and has several innovative features. The stadium’s architect incorporated tunnels under the stands and strategically placed windows to create natural air circulation, combating Kansas heat.
Cecil said it’s always about ten degrees cooler in the stands than anywhere else.
The Jay Cees joined the Ban Johnson league, the premier semi-pro league in the Midwest, and continued to play until 1941, when baseball was suspended due to World War II.
However, that didn’t mean the field was empty. Soldiers from Fort Riley, including one named Jackie Robinson, would come to Rathert Field to play ball, often with locals who hadn’t gone off to war.
Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Buck O’Neil played at Rathert during his time with the Kansas City Monarchs, a member of the Negro National League.
According to the Black History Trail of Geary County, “Rathert Field was one of the places that welcomed the K. C. Monarchs to practice and play.”
More recently, MLB star Albert Pujols stepped up to the plate while he played for the Hays Larks.
After the war, baseball resumed all over the country, including in Junction City, although the names and leagues changed. The Junction City Soldiers played in the 1950s, followed by the Hawks, the Merchants, and the Generals.
Learn more about Junction City history at the Geary County Historical Society.
Welcome, Junction City Brigade
Following the Generals’ last game in 2010, baseball took a sideline for a couple years until six locals, including Cecil, formed the Junction City Community Baseball Club.
In 2013, the club founded the Junction City Brigade. The next year, the team became a founding member of the Mid-Plains League. They won that first championship and six more, including in 2024.
While Cecil joked that he was the reason for the team’s success, his management style definitely fosters growth and independence. Both his players and his managers are college or university students, and they get real-world experience.
Instead of Cecil recruiting players, he gives the managers that responsibility. “I operate on a philosophy of, okay, you’re hired. Do your job.”
He said he keeps an eye on them and will reel them back in if they go too far off path. “I don’t overly interfere,” he said, “but trust me–I know what’s going on… I give them that experience and learning how to take that manager role.”
It seems to be working.
They also offer internships and work experiences for local youth, collaborating with universities like Kansas State. These internships cover various aspects of sports management, from marketing to game day operations.
Over the years, Rathert Field has undergone several renovations while maintaining its original charm.
The original ticket booth still stands, and the dugouts maintain their below-field-level design. “This is how the dugout has always been,” Cecil explained.
Recent improvements include turf installation in 2019 to address longstanding drainage issues.
“We used to call this Lake Rathert,” Cecil chuckled. “It would hold water, and you had to do a lot of rescheduling.”
GameTime Athletics, located in a suburb of Kansas City, installed the turf along with some other improvements. Although they repair athletic fields all over the country, this is what they had to say about Rathert Field:
“It would be hard to beat a better example of a ball field in our minds, one that speaks to history, and one that gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling like that of the Rathert Stadium Ball Park in Junction City, KS.”
TLTip: While many people call it Rathert Stadium, the official name is Rathert Field.
It’s fitting that Cecil now heads up his hometown team. He grew up a literal baseball throw from Rathert Field: if a player hit a ball over the fence, it could end up in his backyard.
He remembered when there was a wheat field between the stadium and the airport, and he and his friends would race the planes. He also mentioned the former rodeo grounds and sale barn that once stood nearby, painting a picture of how the area evolved.
“This is my field,” he said.
Today, the JC Brigade draws about 6,000 fans over their two-month season, offering affordable family entertainment.
Future renovations will include replacing the aging scoreboard and fence and updating the beer garden area. Any changes will keep the historic character of the field in mind.
With its long history and community focus, Rathert Field and the Junction City Brigade offer more than just baseball games; they provide a link to the past, opportunities for the future, and a gathering place for the community.
As you sit in the limestone stands, listening to the crack of the bat and feeling the breeze through those ingeniously designed windows, you’re not just watching a game–you’re experiencing a piece of living history.
To learn more about Junction City Brigade and their schedule, visit jcbrigade.com.
Ready to plan a trip to Geary County, KS? Reserve your copy of Discover Geary County, Kansas: Nature, History, and Hometown Hospitality in the Sunflower State
