Over the past half-century, John Masinelli Field in Lincoln-Douglas Park has been the place many memories have been made for countless baseball players, coaches and fans in and around the Ottawa area.

In recent years, the Marquette Academy High School teams have captured many victories and championships on the field, but before that, the summers saw squads — thanks in part to the Ottawa Baseball Boosters — from the Mickey Mantle, Connie Mack and American Legion levels gather their share of the same.

In 2009, award-winning Ottawa artist Laurie Ragan was asked to capture some of that history while honoring some of those who made the field such a special place to play. She recently completed a brush-up of the fading mural painted on the back of the pressbox.

“Ottawa is and has always been a baseball town, so to be asked to do this mural years ago was such an honor for me.”

—  Laurie Ragan, mural artist

“Phil McNally of the OBB contacted me back in 2009 and asked me to do the mural,” Ragan said. “I was very excited, because I’ve had my kids and grandkids play on the field, so it brought back a lot of memories from me watching them play baseball there. Ottawa is and has always been a baseball town, so to be asked to do this mural years ago was such an honor for me.

“I found out a lot about the field and the history surrounding it in talking with Phil. There are so many people that have played on the field, coached on the field, helped maintain and improve everything in and around the field or donated time and money towards it.

“The mural is a thank you to anyone who has helped in any way make it a special place to play the game of baseball.”

Ragan was honored by OmniArts with its Visual Arts Award of Excellence in 2016, and has other paintings/murals all over town, including one at Lincoln School and one inside the A’Lure Aquarium Bar. Her work “Winter’s Friends” was also featured on streetlight banners in the downtown area earlier this year.

She put together the original plan of how she wanted the Masinelli mural to look and what she felt needed to be included.

“I wanted to make sure the dominant focal point was the field and a pitcher on the mound,” Ragan said. “There have also been so many great people in and around the game, and so many movies made about baseball, so I thought having a few famous and funny quotes around the edges of the mural would be pretty neat. I wanted the mural to be more than just something to look at; I wanted it to be something that would start up their imaginations.

“The hope is that reading those quotes may strike up a conversation, or have someone think, ‘Oh, I remember that person or saying.’ ”

Ragan also said she wanted to make sure the founding fathers of Ottawa Baseball Boosters — who were Louie Gama, Pete Gama and Jack Elias — were each pictured in the mural. All three coached and devoted countless hours to the summer baseball programs.

She also said that while working on the original mural and the brush-up earlier this summer, she also had people like John Masinelli, Don Claus, John Pickett, Jack Cassidy, Larry Johnson, Milford Johnson, Tom Paquette, Nick Shank, Tom Guerrero, Ray Perez, Bud Walsh, Pat Nagle, Vern Cates, Steve Scherer, Will Tongate, Tim Creedon, Tom Waldron, Phil McNally and so, so many others on her mind while her brushes and paints created the mural.

“Back in May, Phil called me and asked if I would be able to do some renovation to the mural,” Ragan said. “With it facing the southwest, the mix of sun and winter winds from the west had really faded the colors. It had been 14 years since I’d painted the original mural, so I guess it was time for a brush-up.”

Ragan said she reworked the mural in the morning for a couple of weeks. She said she repainted the entire mural and added some more detail — including adding Pete Gama, who passed away last December, and more highlighting. She said she also applied two coats of weather sealant that she hopes keep it looking sharp for many years to come.

“I’ve been involved in the art community in Ottawa for a very, very long time,” Ragan said. “So doing this originally and working on the touch-up was just a real pleasure and honor.”