The photograph shows a 10-year-old boy in a red and white baseball uniform, facing down a pitch in the batter's box. His face, shadowed beneath an oversized batting helmet, is intense as his skinny legs stride into his swing at the oncoming baseball.

His mother, embracing the large framed photograph, leans into her husband's shoulder and weeps.

There were many meaningful words spoken at yesterday evening's ceremony renaming the tiny baseball field in Bloomfield "Officer Paul J. Sciullo II Memorial Field," put nothing struck home as hard as seeing Officer Sciullo's parents, Sue and Paul J. "Max" Sciullo, accept the framed photograph of their son playing in an All-Star game in the early 1980s.

Officer Sciullo was one of three Pittsburgh policemen shot and killed in an April 4 ambush in Stanton Heights. Yesterday, the Bloomfield Citizens Council and the city honored his memory by renaming Dean's Field after him.

"This is a historic event to ensure that Paul is remembered as part of our past, our present and our future," said Janet Cercone Scullion, president of the citizens council. "This field belongs to everyone in the neighborhood, and it's been where everyone has been through their rites of passage.

"If you've lived in Bloomfield, you were on that field. His grandfather, his parents, himself, they all played ball on that field."

Squeezed between the buildings and back lots that line Liberty Avenue and the Bloomfield Bridge, the field is little more than a patch of green space with a dirt infield. Surrounded by towering chain-link fences and aluminum bleachers, it is where generations of Bloomfield kids have learned how to play. And, very often, it is where they learned how to deal with losing.

Those bittersweet lessons now will be learned behind a large blue sign bearing the name and badge number of Officer Sciullo.

"It's important for us to continue to remember the legacy of Officer Sciullo and the other two officers that were taken in April," said Mayor Luke Ravenstahl who attended the ceremony with numerous city and police officials. "This is a small gesture in an effort to remember him and really thank him and his family for the sacrifice that they paid on behalf of the residents of the city. I know he grew up here, he played baseball here as a kid.

"It is an honor to have that field renamed, and he'll forever be remembered in Bloomfield. It's with mixed emotions that we're here."

Mr. Ravenstahl said he was not at all surprised to see dozens of Bloomfield residents turn out for the event.

"It's Pittsburgh, and we know how Pittsburgh unites," he said. "And it's Bloomfield, a very strong, tight-knit community that always comes out and supports one of its own. It's a great neighborhood."

Mr. Ravenstahl said the renaming of the field was initiated by the Bloomfield Citizens Council for the Sciullo family, and the mayor's office and members of City Council gladly undertook it on their behalf. He said city officials are open to doing something similarly honoring the families of the other two officers, but they are leaving it to the families to make their wishes known.

Paul J. "Max" Sciullo, joined by numerous family members, spoke briefly at the ceremony, thanking everyone involved.

"Thank you for honoring our son," he said. "We were always proud of our son in life, and we're overwhelmed with pride now.

"And [thanks] to all the fine men and women of the Pittsburgh police department for their kindness and compassion and helping us get through these most difficult days, and making us part of your extended family."