The girls' varsity softball team at Lyons Township High School now has a brand-new home field — and the $3 million that built it came from a brother who spent years thinking about how to honor his sister.

The Stacy Ann Baker Charitable Fund donated $3 million to modernize the Girls' Varsity Softball Field at LTHS's South Campus in Western Springs. On April 7, the renovated facility was officially named Stacy Ann Baker Field in a public dedication ceremony that drew school leadership, Baker family members, and former teammates. LTHS pitcher Sofia Kettaneh threw the ceremonial first pitch before the Lions hosted Leyden at 4:45 p.m.

The man behind the gift is Mike Baker, a 1979 LTHS graduate from La Grange who has worked at the school since 1993 as a supervisor for student radio station WLTL 88.1 FM. He began shaping the vision in the summer of 2023, and the District 204 Board of Education formally approved the donation at its February 20, 2024 meeting — with Baker family members in the room.

"Yes, I've thought about this field for a long time," Mike Baker told the Riverside-Brookfield Landmark. At the April 7th ceremony, he said, "I wish I could have done this when she was playing. My father loved softball and that's why my sister was in softball. However, thinking about it and actually doing it are two different things because you need the money."

The field honors his sister, Stacy Ann Baker, a Brookfield native and 1985 LTHS graduate who was named the team's Most Valuable Player before earning a softball scholarship to Northern Illinois University. After college, she built a career at the Chicago Board of Trade and Chicago Mercantile Exchange, working in the trading pits and eventually serving financial futures clients at the CBOT. She died in a car accident on July 23, 1999, at the age of 32.

LTHS Principal Jen Tyrrell thanked Mike Baker at the dedication. Superintendent Brian Waterman called the gift transformative for the program. "District 204 is extremely thankful for the generous donation made to LT by the Baker family in honor of Stacy," Waterman said in the school's announcement. "Stacy's passion for our school and softball will positively impact student athletes in the future."

For families with kids in the Lions softball program, the upgrade means competing and training on a facility built to match the talent on the field.