Field of David’s Dreams

No more will Sunday softball in Chilmark be played at Peaked Hill Stadium. The new name (at the same place) will be Flanders Field in memory of David Flanders. Without a doubt he was the best player ever to play softball in Chilmark. His legendary homers at Toomeys’ are in the record book. He bit six on one Sunday in a double-header in the 1950s. I forget the pitchers that day. It might have been young Percy Tilton or perhaps that red-headed psychiatrist Bob, who was so enraged he buried his glove on the spot. He never came back to the Island, after David hit his sixth home run. It’s all there in the newspaper columns of the Gazette. You could look it up.

On Sunday, July fifth somewhere around nine o’clock in the morning we will commemorate Flanders Field and David with a champagne toast, bagpipes and rides on the fire truck. A softball double-header will follow. You can try and beat David’s home run record. He would have loved it.

A man with a big heart as well as a big bat. A man for all seasons. We hope one of the Flanders’ daughters will throw out the first pitch in his honor.

— Bill Edison