Longtime Virginia baseball supporter and donor Les Disharoon harkened back to the greatest moment in program history as he accepted the honor of having his namesake unveiled at the team’s home ballpark.
He remembered back to the moment when Nathan Kirby got a strikeout to seal the Cavaliers’ 2015 national championship. It was reported, he said, that head coach Brian O’Connor turned back to pitching coach Karl Kuhn and said, “How the hell did that happen?”
This time, Dishroon turned back to the new sign behind him that read ‘Disharoon Park.”
“So I turn around and say to you, ‘How the hell did this happen?” he said.
The donors and team supporters present before UVa’s game against Georgia Tech on Saturday afternoon roared with laughter. UVa athletic director Carla Williams and UVa president Teresa Sullivan were in attendance, as well.
The venue was named Disharoon Park prior to the season starting. An anonymous donation was made, and the donor requested the ballpark be named after Disharoon and his late wife, Ann.
According to Virginia’s ballpark renovation website, any donation to change the name of the ballpark would require a $6 million donation.
“This vision of this ballpark and this expansion really started about eight years ago,” O’Connor said. “We’d made our first trip in 2009 to the College World Series. Our administration and our coaching staff and a few individuals started talking about what’s next.”
The newly expanded Davenport Field at Disharoon Park is nearly complete. It will be finished in the summer following the completion of the season. The program aimed to raise $18.76 million for the project.
Disharoon and others spoke on Saturday of how the program has grown. It used to be that fans totaled in the hundreds rather than the thousands. O’Connor said a big reason for the expansion was the demand for chairback tickets that the team gets every year.
“To all the donors, the great fans, it takes all of us for great facilities like this,” Williams said, “which I consider to be the best in the country.”