NORWAY – With the call to “play ball,” Don Butters Field was officially dedicated Thursday evening as dozens of supporters watched.

Scores of players from town T-ball, softball and baseball teams lined the field off Grove Street as a large crowd hung over the fence listening to Norway Baseball Commissioner Steve “Zeke” Merrill speak about the efforts of the late Don Butters of Norway, a volunteer with a bulldozer and a passion to create a field where children could play ball.

“This field deserves to be named for Don Butters,” Merrill said.

“Don Butters Field rules.”

Butters, a 1970 graduate of Oxford Hills High School in Paris, died of lymphoma, a type of cancer, in October of 2007 at the age of 56.

Merrill said that with the exception of one 15-year-old player, every player in the league has only known Don Butters Field, since it replaced one at the Oxford County fairgrounds in Oxford nine years ago but was never officially named at the time.

“This is the only field the teams have ever known,” Merrill said of the Norway Recreation Department ball program. The first game ever played there was a no-hitter.

“We were off to a great start,” he said.

The former cow pasture was transformed into a playing field by Butters and others who donated time and materials.

“He did it right,” Merrill said. “We could have bought the stuff but it wouldn’t have lasted.”

Butters’ widow, Brenda, and daughter, Danielle, both of Norway, threw out the first pitches of the game between the Norway Vikings and the South Paris Reds after being presented a T-shirt with Don Butters’ name and a number 1 on it.