Until at least Thursday, baseball players and fans at Kennedy Park won’t hear ‘batter up.’

The busy athletic park, which hosts softball and baseball games all summer was thrown into the dark when someone ripped out all the electrical copper wiring between the baseball park and the transformer box near the baseball field, according to Greg Coleman, city recreation superintendent.

“We had to cancel all of the softball games. We have about 1,500 people play softball, six nights a week at the field. We have had to cancel all of the games until we can get the electrical wiring replaced. Our goal is to be up and running by Thursday,” Coleman said.

The theft happened between Sunday night and early Monday morning.

“We estimate whoever did this pulled out 2,700-3,000 pounds of copper wire from the ground. Copper wire is a hot commodity on the black market,” said Coleman. “The wire stolen from the park would sell for about $3,000. It is going to cost us around $25,000 to replace it.”

Coleman said the wiring was “fully juiced and power was going through it when it was cut. It could have blasted them into places that weren’t worth the money they are going to get for selling it.”

At this time there are no witnesses to the theft.

“We had our last game Sunday around 10:30 p.m., and locked up everything. The next morning, a city irrigation specialist noticed there was a problem with the irrigation. There was no electricity to the system. We found out there was no electricity to not only the irrigation system, but to the whole park — the lights, the parking lot,” said Coleman. “We traced it down to find out the line had been cut and the copper wiring pulled out. They had to use a truck to pull it out,” Coleman said.

Anyone with information is asked to call Napa police dispatch at 253-4451.