Stadium Renovation for Kivalina

October 1, 2010March 12, 2022

Yuma Sun

28 December 2012: Yuma, AZ – The Yuma Bulldozers announced today that a million dollars has been set aside to complete renovations of their minor league stadium in Kivalina, Alaska.

Surviving on the edge: Kivalina before the storms of 2012 The Bulldozers’ short-season A affiliate, the Bowheads, play their home games in one of the most remote baseball fields in the world. Kivalina is a tiny village of 400 residents on a spit of land that separates the Chukchi Sea from a lagoon formed by the Kivalina River. The nearest village, Kotzebue, is 80 miles away by plane – the only way to get in or out of Kivalina.

Since the conclusion of the 2012 Surf and Snow Amalgamation League season in September, the ballpark has been home to the entire population of the village of Kivalina. The seawall that protected the village from rising ocean tides, resting just eight feet above sea level, was swept away in a violent series of storms last fall, the most devastating of which occurred on August 5^th while Bowheads’ pitcher Tomás Espinosa was hurling a no-hitter. The coincidence was not lost on Kivalina residents.

“It’s as if the ocean were trying to sweep us into the ballpark, to merge the identities of Kivalina and its ballclub,” said tribal leader Colleen Swan.

“Yeah,” said former mayor Galen Swan, Colleen’s uncle, “that stadium sitting on the mainland became our salvation. Baseball saved us.”

The million-dollar investment on the part of the Yuma ownership will adapt the stadium to serve as the new, but hopefully temporary, home for the villagers. In the crisis immediately following the storm, as Kivalinans were ferried to safety across the lagoon and huddling beneath the stadium roof to keep dry, any available space in the ballpark was forced into service as temporary dormitory rooms. The new funds will transform ballpark seating areas into more spacious accommodations for the Kivalinans.

“The ballpark has never sold out,” said Bulldozers spokeswoman Pam Postema. “Instead of empty seats, we’ll have filled dormitories. It’s a way for baseball to give back to the community.”

The stadium, officially named “Avondale Grounds” – for reasons no one can figure out, since there are no grassy grounds anywhere to be found along the northwest coast of Alaska – has been informally referred to as The Sanctuary by locals since the emergency evacuation of their village. On Opening Day in Kivalina this summer, Bulldozers GM Bob Mayberry will make the trek to Kivalina to ceremonially open the new ballpark/residence and officially rechristen it The Sanctuary.

For years, residents were aware they would have to move their village. Rising sea levels made it impossible to stay. Each storm sucked another home or community building into the sea, but the estimated cost to move their entire village across the lagoon to higher land was far beyond the means of the subsistence fishing families that comprise Kivalina. The storm and emergency evacuation changed all that.

“Nature was telling us something,” said Joe Swan, Jr., former Kivalina bingo parlor host, now unemployed and living in the stadium. “Nature is always telling us something. We just don’t know what.”

Yuma Sun

28 December 2012: Yuma, AZ – The Yuma Bulldozers announced today that a million dollars has been set aside to complete renovations of their minor league stadium in Kivalina, Alaska.

The Bulldozers’ short-season A affiliate, the Bowheads, play their home games in one of the most remote baseball fields in the world. Kivalina is a tiny village of 400 residents on a spit of land that separates the Chukchi Sea from a lagoon formed by the Kivalina River. The nearest village, Kotzebue, is 80 miles away by plane, the only way to get in or out of Kivalina.

Since the conclusion of the 2012 Surf and Snow Amalgamation League in September, the Kivalina ballpark has been home to the entire population of the village of Kivalina. The sea wall that protected the village, resting just eight feet above sea level, from rising ocean tides was swept away in a violent series of storms last fall, the most devastating of which occurred on August 5th, while Bowheads’ pitcher Tomás Espinosa was hurling a no-hitter. The coincidence was not lost on Kivalina residents.

“It’s as if the ocean were trying to sweep us into the ballpark,” said tribal leader Colleen Swan. “To merge the identities of Kivalina and its ballclub.”

“Yeah,” said former mayor Galen Swan, Colleen’s uncle, “that stadium sitting on the mainland became our salvation. Baseball saved us.”

The million dollar investment on the part of the Yuma ownership will adapt the stadium to serve as the new, but hopefully temporary, home for the villagers. In the crisis immediately following the storm, as Kivalinans were ferried to safety across the lagoon and huddled beneath the stadium roof to keep dry, any available space in the ballpark was forced into service as temporary dormitory rooms. The new funds will transform ballpark seating areas into more spacious accomodations for the Kivalinans.

“The ballpark has never sold out,” said Bulldozer spokeswoman Pam Postema. “Instead of empty seats, we’ll have filled dormitories. It’s a way for baseball to give back to the community.”

The stadium, officially named “Avondale Grounds” —for reasons no one can figure out, since there are no grassy grounds anywhere to be found along the northwest coast of Alaska— has been informally referred to as The Sanctuary by locals since the emergency evacuation of their village. On Opening Day in Kivalina this summer, Bulldozer GM Bob Mayberry will make the trek to Kivalina to ceremonially open the new ballpark/residence and officially rechristen it The Sanctuary.

For years residents were aware they would have to move their village. Rising sea levels made it impossible to stay. Each storm sucked another home or community building into the sea. But the estimated cost to move their entire village across the lagoon to higher land was far beyond the means of the subsistence fishing families that comprise Kivalina. The storm and emergency evacuation changed all that.

“Nature was telling us something,” said Joe Swan, Jr., former Kivalina Bingo parlor host, now unemployed and living in the stadium. “Nature is always telling us something. We just don’t know what.”