It was a night to celebrate the past, present, and future of America’s pastime. The Prospect Park Alliance hosted a fund-raiser Saturday night to celebrate the $15 million restoration of the Prospect Park Parade Ground, where the likes of Joe Torre, Sandy Koufax, John Franco, and Fred Wilpon played ball in their youth.

Since the Parade Ground reopened in June, a new generation of children has a baseball diamond in which to take pride. And the alliance’s president, Tupper Thomas, is pledging to keep the fields pristine, with a $500,000 annual investment to maintain them.

No one appreciates this more than the borough’s major and minor league teams, which depend on the youth of Brooklyn to become fans – and future players.

“The success of the Cyclones depends on the youth of Brooklyn playing baseball,” said the general manager of the Cyclones, Steven Cohen.

Echoing the sentiment – and experiencing a wave of nostalgia – were the owner of the Mets, Mr. Wilpon; its captain and pitcher, Mr. Franco; and the general manager of the team, Omar Minaya.

The Cyclones received a warning from Brooklyn’s borough president, Marty Markowitz: “It doesn’t matter how you do this season, as long as you beat Staten Island.”

Brooklyn pride swelled beyond its baseball heritage.

The commissioner of Parks & Recreation, Adrian Benepe, confessed, “The biggest mistake of my life was not moving here 10 years ago.” He added, “Brooklyn is the new center of New York City, and Prospect Park, as everybody knows, is the park Olmsted and Vaux designed after figuring out their mistakes in Central Park.”

After a dinner of rib eye steak by the Brooklyn-based caterer Naturally Delicious, the chairman of the Prospect Park Alliance, Henry Christensen, gavea tribute to the owner of the River Cafe, Michael “Buzzy” O’Keefe, who also owns the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, the Water Club, and Pershing Square Cafe. Mr. Markowitz added his thanks to Mr. O’Keefe for paying the electricity bill for the lights on the Brooklyn Bridge, a view of which is one of the best parts of a visit to the River Cafe.

The event was a home run, mostly because everyone had so much fun. Perhaps it was the Crackerjack and popcorn on the tables, or the free carousel rides.

“Brooklyn events are more relaxed than in Manhattan. People here really don’t care what other people think,” observed cater waiter Ricardo Rivera, who lives in Brooklyn but works mostly in Manhattan.

He noted that people were drinking their Brooklyn Lager out of the bottle. “You’ve got to respect that; that’s how it’s supposed to be done,” Mr. Rivera said.

The band kept the dance floor full, playing Cole Porter early in the evening and 1960s rock ‘n’ roll after dinner.

The bandleader was Alan Bernstein, who knows Brooklyn society well from his years teaching at Packer-Collegiate.

He’ll play again at the Yuletide Ball on December 11, a fund-raiser for the Brooklyn Kindergarten Society at the Heights Casino.