In 1942, Jim moved from Yates Center to El Dorado to become the head football coach at El Dorado High School. After his successful youth programs in Yates Center, he decided to start some programs in El Dorado, his new home. In 1943, the playground program was started with three baseball teams. By the following year, swimming lessons were taking place and supervised play was implemented on a much larger scale. By 1962, the program had grown so much that there were ten baseball games and four softball games being played each night of the week except Sunday. This posed a problem because there needed to be additional fields. Construction of the fields occured and each field was dedicated to a baseball follower. Jim McDonald was named "Mr. Playground". In 1962 there were more than a thousand Little Leaguers and nearly 1,700 softball girls.

As started by the National Baseball Congress president in 1962. "The National Baseball Congress salutes El Dorado Youth baseball. We consider this program, per population of city, the largest not only in Kansas but in the nation. Jim McDonald and his associates are to be congratulated for their outstanding achievements throughout the years." Without a doubt, Jim McDonald is the reason that El Dorado has a great baseball program.