A revitalized park in northwest La Habra has experienced a full-circle moment, 65 years in the making.
To understand the journey, it’s necessary to turn the calendar back to La Habra Little League’s opening day festivities in 1960, when a baseball field on the 17.7-acre site was officially named “Vin Scully Field,” and dedicated by the legendary broadcaster himself, who was the guest of honor that day.
Scully, who was a few years away from achieving status as a broadcasting icon synonymous with Dodger baseball, was still a familiar presence when he delivered an inspirational talk to the Little Leaguers and spent time mingling and signing gloves for the youngsters.
Jumping ahead to Saturday, when another dedication ceremony took place to rename the newly beautified space on Las Lomas Drive as “Vin Scully Centennial Park.”
The refurbished park now features walking paths, open fields an accessible playground, sports courts, exercise equipment and the city’s first dog park.
When a centennial committee, formed to coordinate events for La Habra’s 100th anniversary this year, proposed several names for the beautified park, longtime La Habra Councilmember Jim Gomez said he favored naming the space after Scully.
Gomez, a lifelong Dodger fan, had the opportunity to meet the Hall of Fame broadcaster, who told the councilmember a story about once taking his family to see the field.
Scully said the field was the first place ever dedicated in his name, Gomez said.
Gomez promised Scully, who died in 2022 at age 94, after 67 years behind the microphone calling Dodgers games, that he would do his best to have the park once again named in his honor.
“I promised that I would work very hard to have the park re-named Vin Scully Park,” Gomez said. “Vin Scully is a national treasure, and it is the right thing to do.”
Speakers scheduled for the dedication included Ann Meyers Drysdale, wife of late Hall of Fame Dodger pitcher Don Drysdale, and Jimmy Campanis, a former Dodger who played for the team during the late 1960s.
“He was the greatest announcer to ever live in any sport,” Campanis said ahead of the grand opening event. “He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1982 and he didn’t retire until 2016, so that’s how great he was. Three generations grew up with him, in the ’50s, in the ’80s and in the 2000s. He’s just one of a kind.”
Jerry Molina, 75, was one of the Little Leaguers present on the day when Scully dedicated the former ballfield.
He doesn’t remember what Scully said, but recalls being excited that La Habra Little League finally had its own field.
“I always remember he signed my glove,” Molina said. “And I had that glove for a lot of years afterwards.”
A few years later, the name of the field was changed to Blake Field in honor of a Little League volunteer.
The name was then changed to Vista Grande Park before the city was forced to close the field in 1985 due to safety concerns stemming from aging infrastructure and the shifting and settling of the surface on the one-time landfill.
In 2016, soil engineers confirmed the land settling had stopped, and soon after air quality measurements confirmed there hadn’t been methane released in excess of clean air standards since 2017 – paving the way for a project to re-construct the park.
In 2019, city officials started working with residents on a vision for the park and, after several years of planning, design and public input, construction to build the park began in 2024.
Funding for the $9 million project came from a variety of sources, including the city’s general fund, a St. Jude Medical Center grant, CalRecycle and the Prop 68 bond measure, which allocated $4 billion in funding for water, parks and climate-related projects in the state.