Legends Field to stand beyond Ruxer Field at Jasper Baseball's newly minted Gobert Family Ballpark
By Kris Norton
Jasper - Jasper Baseball's Ruxer Field will have its name amended and will share its campus with a wiffle ball field at the newly minted Gobert Family Ballpark.


The 2025 baseball season will be the first played on artificial turf, it's also the first season on record at the Gobert Family Ballpark.
In nearly 40 years at the helm, Terry Gobert and the Jasper Wildcats have set the gold standard in Southern Indiana baseball - six state championships and 912 total wins. By graduation day, every Jasper senior has seen an appearance at Victory Field.
Though, as referenced by the new signage, success has been a family effort. Off the field, whether it's running concessions, to cueing the National Anthem, to helping spread Quick Dry, the Gobert family stays busy.
Wife Caroline, and children have their fingerprints all over Ruxer Field. Sarah's Place offers a safe place for younger children to enjoy a day at the ballpark.
'Alvin C. Ruxer Field at Gobert Family Ballpark' will be the familiar venue for fans, players, and opposing teams alike, though renovations and additions won't end with Jasper Baseball's Ruxer Field.
In 2021, at the height of COVID precautions, sanctioned school sports were off the table. Students of all ages had to find a new avenue to baseball. Leading Gobert to make his own field in an empty lot at the entrance to the Jasper Athletic Complex.
Metal stakes and fluorescent orange plastic construction fencing would serve as the makeshift outfield.
"I put it up and we went for a walk," Gobert said at a Monday evening school board meeting. "When we came back, there were nine kids there."

Terry Gobert presenting at Jasper School Board meeting on Monday.
The little, unlined field has stood since. The field where many young players have dreamed of Major League Baseball moments or suiting up for Jasper at Ruxer Field will bring them a step closer, in proximity at least. Thanks in part to a generous, anonymous donation, the to-be constructed 'Legends Field' will move to the Gobert Family Ballpark.
"It might be the only all-turf wiffle ball field in America," Gobert said. " It's not going to have striping like (Ruxer Field), it's going to be solid turf with brown, like it is in an infield and around the bases."
Wiffle ball markings will be permanently set on the field, where Ruxer Field's old foul poles will stand at the end of the foul lines.
Aerial map of Ruxer and Legends Fields with key.
The viewing deck atop Ruxer Field's new left field bleachers will serve a dual purpose. Parents will be able to keep a watchful eye on their varsity sons while younger children play nearby.
"When the (anonymous) family donated the money, we looked at each other and laughed," Gobert said. "And he said, 'Who in the heck does something like this for a wiffle ball field?'. We laughed and said, 'Only in Jasper'".