The Dayton Dragons Play At Day Air Ballpark!

The Dayton Dragons now call Day Air Ballpark their home.

Since its inception, the Dayton Dragons baseball team has been one of the staples of the community.

They had 20 year partnership with Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bank for its stadium naming rights.

Now the ball club announced they entered a partnership with Day Air Credit Union for the unveiling of the new name of the stadium. The name of the stadium will be titled, Day Air Ballpark.

Fifth Third had naming rights to the stadium since 2000 when the team became affiliated with the Cincinnati Reds and started playing in the Midwest League. The team has nearly 1,400 straight sold out games since April with millions of fans watching games at Fifth Third Field.

Now the time for renaming has come.

"We are extremely proud that one of the true landmarks of Dayton will now be called Day Air Ballpark, "said Bill Burke, the president of Day Air Credit Union. "Together, the Dragons and Day Air Credit Union, will uphold he outstanding tradition at the ballpark and look forward to the new experiences and programs to impact and engage the community, fans, members and associates."

I remember then Senator Barack Obama of Illinois came to the venue when he was the Democratic nominee. I took my former girlfriend and her daughter to the event. We had to get up really early and I was a volunteer for the Obama for America (Ohio). I had an opportunity to get as close to the senator and managed to get a picture of him shaking hands with supporters.

I also remember the infamous fight at the stadium. A Dragons baseball player got hit in the head with a ball from the Julio Castillo of the Peoria Chiefs, the managers got into a heated argument. The umpires ejected them. Then as the teams started clearing the benches, Castillo got angry and threw a ball at the Dragons ballpin. The ball missed and it hit a fan. The Dragons and Chiefs would soon brawl and become one of the nation's most talked about fights. The fan got seriously injured. Castillo had to face criminal charges and possible deportation due to the incident being called felonious assault. He was convicted and sentenced to time served. He would end up being cut from the team and forced out of the MiLB.