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When gathering information and stories about Edmonton’s sporting past and history, many locations were brought to attention. One such was Diamond Park, located at the base of Bellamy Hill below the Edmonton Journal building.
In this picture, commissioned by the Edmonton Journal and justly named “Field of Memories”, Tag Kim inspires many memories of Edmonton’s past, such as the youngster who delivered the newspaper or groceries or perhaps worked for the local meat market or hardware store to earn money to pay for their bicycle or buy a ball glove and head to the park for a game of scrub. The streets of Edmonton were also marked by green “Rest and Read the Journal” benches at each bus stop which were for years a common place to gather and swap a story.
This mural also pays tribute to the many local athletes who played their way through the years providing
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entertainment for countless Edmontonians who came to cheer them on. They include and the mural depicts, umpire John Ducey making a call at Renfrew park and pitcher “Lefty” Belter who pitched ball for Edmontons top baseball teams for over a quarter of a century and was a sought after arm for hire by many a ball tournament throughout Northern Alberta.
For many years top athletes came off the streets and fields of Northern Alberta and their athletic ability made them pocket money and provided entertainment for their neighbours and friends.
When looking for a subject (as Tag Kim calls them) for this mural, we put out a call for names of people who could represent this picture and consistently the name “Lefty” Belter was mentioned. After a short meeting, it became obvious why “Lefty”, commonly known as “Mr. Colour” was the person who could bring life to this painting.
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