One of the eternal joys of summer is sitting down with a hot dog, a cool drink and good company to watch the local sluggers take a crack at home plate. The endlessly entertaining Wausau Woodchucks play their opening game at Athletic Park next Thursday, May 28 — but that’s just the start of a season that will deliver nearly twice the entertainment spectators enjoyed in years past.
Last year, the organization doubled its offerings by introducing Wausau Ignite, a fast-pitch softball counterpart to the Woodchucks baseball team. Both teams compete in the collegiate summer Northwoods League, which brings college athletes from across the nation (sometimes the globe) to play ball right here at Wausau’s historic Athletic Park.
With the Woodchucks and the Ignite slugging it out all summer, along with Friday fireworks and between-inning crowd entertainment, Athletic Park will be hot-spot for nostalgic, good-natured fun well into August.
The first baseball game was played at Athletic Park, known then as Yawkey Park, on May 13, 1912. The land was owned by the Wisconsin Valley Electric Company and named after its president, Cyrus Yawkey. In 1919 the electric company deeded the property to the city and over the years people started calling it Athletic Park.
Today’s Athletic Park was built in 1936 and was home to the minor league Wausau Lumberjacks/Timberjacks. At this time, the park’s granite walls (still standing today) and the original grandstands were constructed. In 1975 the Lumberjacks became the Class A Wausau Mets minor league team (affiliated with the New York Mets), and later the Wausau Timbers, until the franchise relocated to Illinois in 1990.
Four years later, the ballfield was brought back to life with the Wausau Woodchucks, a collegiate summer league team. Athletes in this league play ball all summer, either to get reps and improve with hopes of walking onto a college team, to catch the eye of minor league scouts, or just for love of the game. The new name came from the local community through a public mascot-naming contest.
Over the years, more than 30 Woodchucks alumni have gone on to play Major League Baseball, including two-time World Series Champion (2015-16) and World Series MVP (2016) Ben Zobrist, 2011 World Series Champion Daniel Descalso, and MLB All-Stars Pat Neshek (2x) and Paul DeJong.
The team was purchased by Wisconsin native Mark Macdonald in 2012. During his time as owner, Macdonald has funded renovations of nearly the entire park across five phases in as many years. Macdonald said his goal was to draw two types of guests back to Athletic Park: local business professionals, who frequently bring traveling clients and associates to games during their visits to Wausau, and families.
“It was kind of old and run down, it wasn’t really a safe place for kids,” Macdonald said.
In addition to a suite of facility and guest services upgrades, the park added a playground (where kids are welcome to play outside of game days, too) and activities for kids, like a free face-painting station.
For Macdonald, owning a community baseball team and historic ballpark isn’t all about making money and expanding net worth — it’s about living out a rewarding second act of life. Macdonald, a retired portfolio manager, finds deep satisfaction in investing in the Wausau community and offering summer interns and young employees an opportunity to start their careers and learn a few valuable lessons along the way.
“In the summer our staff gets close to 200,” Macdonald said. “They’re a lot of young people getting their first jobs, which is very important to them. You’ve got to train them well and teach them well ... it’s like being a father on steroids.”
The players get a one-of-a-kind experience too. With most Woodchuck and Ignite players moving to the area for the summer season, they’re set up with local host families, where they can take in the full Wisconsin experience while often forging strong bonds.
“A lot of these host families get invited to weddings and baby showers or just get to be a part of that athlete’s life, which is pretty cool,” said Mariah Cox, the organization’s communications manager. “You’re taking in a kid from a completely different area and you get to show them the Wisconsin way. I know host families get excited to show their players cheese curds if they’ve never heard of them. And a lot of host families have younger kids, so it’s a great role model if that kid is interested in the sport.”
A season at Athletic Park isn’t just an opportunity for players to improve their game. If Woodchuck or Ignite players impress scouts and are signed to an NCAA team, they could be in for a financial windfall. With recent changes to collegiate name, image and likeness rights, skilled collegiate softball and baseball players can net six-figure deals by being a successful student athlete.
“The really good ones here are trying to get seen and it happens every summer, one of our players is having a really good summer, signs with a new college, he’s in the transfer portal, and he gets an NIL deal somewhere between $50,000-100,000,” Macdonald said. “Every summer we have some kid out there, making money — and it’s because of the experience here.”
Even those who aren’t remotely interested in baseball manage to find fun at Athletic Park. In fact, those “non-fans” fill up most of the grandstands on any given night.
“I’m guessing that 70% of the fans who come to our games are not baseball fans,” owner Mark Macdonald said. “They’re not there for the baseball. They’re there because it’s a beautiful stadium, they’ve got beer and brats, they’ve got their friends or their family, and they’re socializing. There’s lots of other things happening on the field between innings — we have entertainment acts come in and it’s a three-ring circus. If we had to rely on pure baseball fans, we wouldn’t be in business. You need to entertain everybody, you need to make it fun for everybody.”
The team hosts sponsored games between innings, including a Miller Lite dizzy bat race where adults spin around a bat ten times before racing; the kids’ ketchup and mustard race, where they dress in condiment costumes and race from first to third base; a smile cam, a flex cam, and a “dirtiest car in the car wash” cam; and performances by local high school bands, choirs, cheer teams and dance academies.
Every week the team runs recurring specials, including “Bang for your Buck” Tuesdays featuring discounted food and beer, Friday fireworks and an all-you-can-eat free hot dogs during their only Monday game of the season. Special giveaway nights include logo-etched cribbage boards on June 20, lunch bags shaped like jerseys, youth ice cream jerseys and various bobbleheads. The ZOOperstars, a group of inflatable mascot performers, will visit the ballpark on June 23 to entertain the crowd.
But the promos aren’t just about swag and discounts, the organization also uses the games to put a spotlight on outstanding community members through its Hometown Heroes program, where a locally nominated person is honored in a special pregame ceremony and receives four grandstand tickets with food and beverage vouchers to enjoy during the game.
“We want to hear from the community about who they believe is a Hometown Hero — and that’s not just frontline workers, police officers, firefighters and military, we also are looking for teachers or volunteers, anyone who makes an impact in the Wausau community can be nominated for this,” Cox said.
Other community-focused initiatives include Kid of the Month, Woody’s Reading Club, Team of the Night (free admission for a local youth sports team), and sponsored charity donations for every run the cleanup hitter drives in and every time a Woodchuck player walks at home.
When a fast-pitch softball branch of the Northwoods League was being organized in 2024, Macdonald didn’t hesitate to get a franchise up and running in Wausau. The Wausau Ignite played their first season at Athletic Park in 2025.
“Athletic Park is a beautiful ballpark that was being used by 50% of the population. Now it’s used by 100% of the population,” he said. “I don’t know how great of an investment it will ever be, but I knew that if I had the opportunity to bring women’s collegiate sports to town, I needed to take advantage of that opportunity.”
Bringing in the Ignite meant there would be further renovations to the field in order to accommodate softball play. Adjustable base paths were plotted for the smaller diamond and a removable pitcher’s mound was installed along with a removable outfield fence to shorten the field.
For Macdonald, the new population that the softball team serves, and the delight young fans find in connecting with those players, made the investment worthwhile overnight.
“We open the gates after the game, and those young Ignite softball players will sit around and talk to the families that come into the field for an hour. I have to throw the families off the field,” Macdonald said. “That’s really encouraging because those college athletes, those female athletes, are serving as a tremendous role model for these young girls here in town.”
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