{"id":802040,"date":"2026-07-15T14:56:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T14:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/802040\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T14:56:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T14:56:14","slug":"mlb-player-gives-back-to-hometown-baseball-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/802040\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB player gives back to hometown baseball field"},"content":{"rendered":"

CINCINNATI \u2014\u00a0Many athletes remember the first field or court they played on fondly. But few get the chance to help give the place they fell in love with the game a facelift. But one Major Leaguer is helping the next generation.<\/p>\n

Madeira baseball players Nate Hyland and Evan Cissell are working hard to stay sharp in the offseason. The two grew up around the game.<\/p>\n

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Evan Cissell (left) and Nate Hyland have played baseball for as long as they can remember (Spectrum News 1\/Katie Kapusta)<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been playing for as long as I can remember,” Cissell said.<\/p>\n

They have seen their baseball field slowly improve piece by piece<\/p>\n

\u201cThis turf is so much better than the old dirt we had,” Cissell said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The turf playing field surface was installed two years ago (Spectrum News 1\/Katie Kapusta)<\/p>\n

That turf was installed two years ago, funded by the school district. But the rest of the field was up to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s turf the field first and then, as a parent group, try to raise the money to come in and bring the rest of the field up to standard,\u201d said Dave Hyland, Nate Hyland\u2019s father.<\/p>\n

Dave Hyland said he and other parents have worked to raise over $220,000 toward their goal of $500,000 to replace dugouts, fencing and scoreboards. Part of that money is coming from a hometown hero.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dave Hyland hits ground balls to the boys (Spectrum News 1\/Katie Kapusta)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a great gift from Andrew Benintendi,\u201d Dave said. \u201cYou know, all these boys grew up watching him play in the World Series, watching him make his Major League debut.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benintendi is now in his 11th major league season playing on his fourth team. Perhaps most well-known for his game-saving catch in the ALCS that ultimately helped the Red Sox win a World Series. But his roots were planted here, graduating from Madeira High School in 2013.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Benintendi grew up in Madeira playing on the same fields as Evan and Nate (Photo Courtesy of Madeira Field of Dreams)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you come into this community, the big name, especially if you\u2019re a big baseball fan, is obviously Benintendi,” Cissell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAndrew\u2019s been my role model since he\u2019s been in the majors,” Nate Hyland said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

New dugouts are part of the plan with the new funds (Spectrum News 1\/Katie Kapusta)<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom Dumont to Sellman Park to Fenway Park to Dodger Stadium, I climbed the baseball mountaintop and realized my baseball dream\u2026,” Benintendi said in a statement. “I ask that you join me in helping Madeira create a new \u2018Field of Dreams\u2019 for a new era of Madeira baseball players. Big dreams do come true.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a gift helping a new generation of baseball players.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing to see your role model supporting you,\u201d Nate Hyland said.<\/p>\n

Coming full circle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the little kids coming to our games it almost feels like them is how I supported Benny,” Nate Hyland said. “It\u2019s really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CINCINNATI \u2014\u00a0Many athletes remember the first field or court they played on fondly. But few get the chance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":802041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[58195,16738,64,63,10027,110995,376013,591,44,12293,162888,296359,85,39,87249],"class_list":["post-802040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-app-sports","tag-app-top-stories","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cincinnati","tag-ctv","tag-katie-kapusta","tag-mlb","tag-news","tag-ohio","tag-ohio-cincinnati-top-stories","tag-ohio-what-you-need-to-know","tag-sports","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}