Glory Days at Sullivan Field in Grand Rapids

Fans of the Valley Field gather to create their own Glory Days at Sullivan Field in Grand Rapids.

Glory Days at Sullivan Field

I got a message from my friend and superb photographer/videographer/musician Seth Thompson (co-owner of Green Frog) asking if I wanted to come out to Grand Rapids and play guitar with a bunch of other folks to the song “Glory Days” by Bruce Springsteen. Being more of a metalhead, I passed on jamming and instead offered to help document the day with my camera.

Sullivan Field

Sullivan Field (formerly known as Valley Field, located at 650 Valley Ave. NW) is a vintage wooden grandstand ballpark on the west side of Grand Rapids. Built in 1937, this ballfield has a rich legacy having played host to the Grand Rapids Colored Athletics (Grand Rapids first Black American team led by Jess Elster), The Grand Rapids Black Sox (led by Ted Raspberry – another Black American team) and The Grand Rapids Sullivans, a National Baseball Congress team who won four national amateur baseball championships.

In 1996, a group from Grand Rapids petitioned the city to rename the field in honor of Bob Sullivan and his contributions to the community and amateur baseball.

Paul Soltysiak, VP and Co-founder of Fans of Valley Field – a non-profit established to protect the heritage and promote the usage of Sullivan Field mentioned in a WZZM (Channel 13) story “Famous players like Al Kaline, Mickey Stanley, Kirk Gibson and Dave Rozema started their careers playing here,” said Soltysiak. “In fact, there were over 70 Major League players that came up through [Valley] Field, four of which eventually became big league managers.” On top of that, the legendary pitcher Satchel Paige played on Sullivan Field.

Fans of Valley Field and Glory Days

Fans of Valley Field is a volunteer-led non-profit group that works with the City of Grand Rapids on the activation and renovation of Sullivan Field. The non-profit hosts a number of community events at the ballpark and is actively working to raise awareness of this Michigan treasure. They are also working to raise funds for renovations. As of 2023, they have raised $3.7 million of their $4.1 million dollar target.

Raising awareness and hopefully funding is where “Glory Days” comes in. Paul Soltysiak roped in Seth along with Mike Dodge, Caleb Elzinga, and Steve Tibbe. The idea was to create a sing-along video featuring local musicians and music enthusiasts to perform the song “Glory Days” by Bruce Springsteen. As Soltysiak mentions, “‘Glory Days’ was the perfect song because it’s an easy song to learn, it’s reference to baseball, and because we are bringing the ballpark back to its glory days of the past.” Besides, who can’t get behind singing with The Boss?

Making of Glory Days at Sullivan Field

Everyone gathered early on the morning of June 14th to shoot the video. Sunshine and crisp blue skies greeted everyone when the tape started rolling shortly after 10 am.

Seth took the role of director (as well as production and editing duties) for the video shoot. The film crew, comprising Seth, Erin Wilson, Steve Tibbe, Josh Tyron, and Dan Terpstra, utilized a total of nine cameras and drones to capture the performance. Handling the audio engineering for the shoot were Mike Dodge and Rick Falk.

On the musical side, the team rounded up a who’s who of local talent including members of Comments Of Aether, Big Band Nouveau, Yacht Rocket, Joe Hertler and The Rainbow Seekers, Coffin Problem, The Slow Goodbyes, Two Beers In, The Frog King, Barenaked90s, Scott Veenstra, and Mark Lavengood. Adding a bit of dancing pizazz for the video were members of the C. Glass Dance Co.

With a vintage sky blue Cutlass Supreme in the outfield and musicians with the dancers on the infield, the cameras started rolling. Drones buzzed overhead while the camera crew on the ground captured the action on the field. The audio team dialed in the sound as the musician sang and played their hearts out. Meanwhile, the dancers provided the moves that make videos rock.

There were many takes, but it all seemed to go perfectly without a hitch—no small feat considering the number of people involved. I think part of what made it look easy was that everyone was having a ball. No one minded resetting and taking it from the top. In fact, I think many folks were a little sad when the announcement went out that we were done for the day.

That’s A Wrap!

I’ve had the privilege of seeing the completed Glory Days at Sullivan Field video, and it is fantastic. It captures the joy that everyone felt in playing The Boss’s tune and being part of something special. You can check out the world premiere at SILVA in the Big Room in Grand Rapids at 6:30 on July 8th. Afterwards, the video should be out on Youtube (we’ll add the link when available).

Many thanks to Seth for inviting us out to be part of the fun at Glory Days at Sullivan Field. Cheers to Green Frog Photo, Sidecar Studios, Legit Drone, Terpstra Photography, Real Space, RF Live Sound, C. Glass Dance Co., all the musicians, and of course, Fans of Valley Field for putting this on.

Pictures

We’ve got a slew of photos from the Glory Days at Sullivan Field video shoot in our gallery.