Dave Carter doesn’t do things halfway. A little more than a year ago, when he decided to make a documentary on Central Park’s baseball impact on Ashland in the 1950s, he did it with an open slate.

Like any good project, “Ashland’s Field of Dreams” has evolved into something even bigger than he first imagined. He calls it his most satisfying work and if you consider Carter’s body of work, that’s quite a statement.

Carter grew up in Flatwoods, but the park was his place, too. His passion for the CP-1 is obvious.

Not only has the documentary become retrospect of the 1950s, which was the original intent, but his broad brush touched players from before and after as well. So many good baseball players — and even more good people — have a personal connection to CP-1. If a place can be considered a friend, the park was it. It was a comfort zone, a place where youth comes alive again. It was the gathering place for neighborhood games.

Any of us who have had any ties to the place can relate to Central Park’s main baseball diamond. You can remember digging in at shortstop, with sand filling your cleats. You remember how it felt to be in right field with the sun setting and causing those blind spots behind the backstop.

And you better have a good catcher on your team because that backstop was extra long. A wild pitch could mean two bases, so that 55-foot curveball had to be blocked.

There were actually two home plates as the field was a 2-in-1 design for softball and baseball. There was the baseball home plate and the softball home plate that was much closer to the backstop.

Softball, fast-pitch softball, was so good here from the 1940s to the 1960s. It was a way of life in the park, too. Slow-pitch softball was big for years, too. But the fast-pitch games drew crowds into the hundreds.

CP-1 was special. It wasn’t near the showplace that it is today but more everybody’s back yard. CP-1 was where everybody eventually wanted to be playing because that’s where the idols played.

They would come out to the park early on a hot summer day, riding bikes from all over town to be the first to get there. The games would last from early in the morning until late at night. Parents didn’t worry. It was essentially a free babysitting service. It wasn’t until the 1950s that youth baseball truly got organized although from the 1940s and into the 1950s there were fathers who did their best to make sure these young boys knew how to play baseball.

One of those was T.R. Wright, the father of Gary Wright, who is the man who got all the CP-1 buzz rolling with a sizeable donation to upgrade Central Park’s field. It was through the impact of men like the late T.R. Wright, one of the early youth baseball organizers, where Ashland’s baseball heritage grew.

Wright’s name is attached to a sparkling press box that is the centerpiece for the renovation at the park field, Gary Wright’s only caveat for handing over $125,000 to make CP-1 a showplace. His generous gesture has spurred so much more goodwill from other CP-1 alum.

There have been so many great baseball players that have played on that field, some from Ashland and many others from the surrounding area. Don Gullett, perhaps the greatest athlete in our area’s modern history, played there. Former No. 1 draft choice Drew Hall’s fastball zipped and dipped in the park with sturdy catcher Daniel Smith, a future Dodger farmhand, catching him in the late 1970s. WVU record-holder Steve Rolen, a future Giant farmhand, showed off his trade there in the 1980s as one of the best hitters I could remember covering. Future major leaguer Joe Magrane of Morehead had some pitching moments in the park. Larry Conley, Billy and Bobby Lynch, Tim Huff, Jody Hamilton, Jim Host … the list goes on and on. It’s like a who’s who of area athletes who were part of the CP-1 alum.

I don’t know for sure, but it’s also likely that future major league All-Stars Al Oliver and Larry Hisle, who both played American Legion baseball for Portsmouth on their way to the major leagues, probably took some swings on the CP-1 diamond. Ken Griffey Jr. made an appearance for Cincinnati Midland during one of the Fourth of July Tournaments.

Arizona pitcher Brandon Webb, of course, was a park star in the late 1990s. Brandon’s father, Phil, an outstanding pitcher in his day with Catlettsburg, rocked the park mound a few times, too.

And who could forget some of the prodigious home runs of Juan Thomas, who blasted nearly 275 on various minor league levels.

Carter has secured interviews with many other CP-1 alum who made it and some whose recollections of the park are just as special to Ashland. They fought their battles in the park, learned how to win and how to lose.

Last summer, the first CP-1 reunion took place on the park field. It was something to witness. So many from out of town came back to Ashland and walked out on that park field that day, reminiscing about their day. It was like they’d taken a long sip from the fountain of youth. I saw the twinkle in their eyes as we interviewed many for the documentary on that sun-splashed Saturday afternoon.

That twinkle, that slice of Americana, is what Carter has captured in this hour-long documentary that will make a world premiere at the Paramount Arts Center on Aug. 28.

You’ll see it on their faces and hear it in the voices. It’s heartfelt drama as the stories, some of the great stories, are told over and over.

His special effects work intertwined in the documentary will put you back in the 1950s when Ashland — and the world for that matter — was a lot less complicated place than it is today.

MARK MAYNARD can be reached at mmaynard@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2648.