Championship Park

Kokomo, Indiana: Where the Next First Belongs to You

At Championship Park, a tournament morning comes alive in white baseballs and bright yellow softballs. A catcher snaps the ball back. A batter takes one more practice swing. Across eight diamonds, players settle into the small rituals that make a new field feel familiar. The Indiana sky stretches overhead, and the day has plenty of room left in it.

Kokomo calls itself the City of Firsts, and its history gives that name some weight. On July 4, 1894, Elwood Haynes took an automobile he had designed and built on its first test run along Pumpkinvine Pike. It reached about seven miles an hour. For a moment, the future moved at the pace of a warmup jog. You can picture the curiosity: something people had imagined was finally moving down the road.

The city’s baseball history has its own extraordinary first. In 1979, Kokomo’s Pat Underwood made his Major League debut for Detroit against his older brother Tom, pitching for Toronto. Their mother reportedly hoped for rain so she wouldn’t have to choose which son to cheer for. Detroit won 1–0. Two brothers from the same hometown had carried their game all the way to opposite sides of a Major League box score.

That’s the kind of lineage we love: a hometown, a family, and a game that keeps opening new doors. At Championship Park, those beginnings stretch across baseball and softball, from younger players finding their footing to older teams testing everything they’ve practiced.

Four high school/college diamonds and four youth/softball fields give those ambitions somewhere to play. Turf runs across the entire playing surface, and lights keep the fields bright as afternoon gives way to evening. A ball finds the gap. A runner turns for home. Someone on the bench rises before everyone else realizes what’s happening.

Between games, the weekend gathers around the concession stands and batting cages. One player wants another round of swings. Another wants something to eat. Parents compare schedules, teammates compare stories, and the next game starts pulling everyone back toward the field.

For us, coming to Kokomo means watching firsts happen close enough to hear them. A first tournament away from home. A first clean double play. The first time a player realizes that something once difficult has become their own.

Bring your team to the City of Firsts.