By Jen Fifield | Arizona Republic
When Dusty and Jerry Gaines look out onto the field where they once played ball, they still see a dirt lot in the middle of the desert.
They see their father in his pickup truck, dragging a chain-link fence around the infield to loosen up the big rocks. They see their father installing the field’s first grass and helping build the field’s first backstop. They see him beaming from the sidelines as one of his “boys,” many just back from the Vietnam War, hit it out of the park.
That was more than 40 years ago and now their father, Floyd Gaines, is gone. Soon the ball field will be, too. They say it’s almost too much for them to take.
“It would break his heart,” said Jerry Gaines, leaning on the dugout’s chain link fence. “It’s breaking our hearts, actually.”
