ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Rochester Hispanic Youth Baseball League says the fields it plays on at Baden Park need serious upgrades.
News10NBC’s Erin Mahon visited the league’s home turf on Upper Falls Boulevard. The main concerns are uneven field conditions and drainage issues after it rains. After an incident a few years ago where a player stepped on a needle in the field, coaches also routinely check the fields and bathrooms ahead of games.
Baden Park has been home to the Rochester Hispanic Youth Baseball League since 2002. League coach Emilio Rivera showed Mahon around the fields.
“We got a bunch of dirt bike marks here. And that’s just, you know, it’s just can’t happen. We got a couple holes over here where, you know, it goes flat, and then it just sinks in, you know, which should have been covered a long time ago,” Rivera said.
League coaches say the uneven fields cause players to trip, but they can’t change the conditions since it’s city property. They also spend hours cleaning up fields before a game if they’re waterlogged.
On the season’s opening day, the field was covered in standing water. When this happens, games are delayed or canceled.
“We want these kids off the streets and this is one way to do it. But with the lack of help and lack of resources, you know, again, we can only do so much here,” Rivera said.
The other issue is field size. Last year, the league performed so well that it moved up to an intermediate division.
But the fields at Baden are not up to code for this level of play.
“Well, that posed an issue for us, although it’s great and our kids get to play at that level, we don’t have a field to accommodate that. So it left us scrambling to figure out how do we accommodate it. And our first question was City of Rochester, can you please help us to accommodate a 50-70 on our fields?” said Terra Rivera, league treasurer.
A 50-70 field refers to the dimensions on a field — 50 feet from the pitching mound to the home plate and 70 feet base paths. This kind of field is used by intermediate teams, usually with players ranging in age from 11 to 13. Right now, Baden Park has three fields for lower level play that are smaller.
The league sent a proposal to the city detailing its requests — better drainage, lighting and enhancing one of the field’s size. The city said it received the proposal and is actively considering it.
But with the proposal sent after the season’s start, the city said it didn’t have time to make the changes.
Regarding the needles in the field, the city says it sends maintenance crews to the park every weekday and several times per day over weekends. The needles are a concern for the city, but sometimes they’re left behind after the city sweeps through the park.
The ability to use the park for home games and practices, however, for the league’s intermediate team, remains a frustration. The league is proud of this team for it’s success in last year’s season, and with this advancement to a new level, it could bring more players into the league and more sponsors.
“It’s amazing to me that we can’t find anywhere in the city of Rochester where we can find a 50-70 playing field for an intermediate division to play baseball and I don’t know why the inner city youth shouldn’t have the ability to play at a travel ball level,” Terra Rivera said.
The league charges $250 in registration fees, compared to the $600 or $1,000 that other leagues charge to play at this level. It wants to keep this opportunity open for kids so they can continue to play at the level they earned.
The city said it’s willing to make the field bigger, but it was unable to do that this year because the season already started. It asked the league to propose again after the season finishes, when the fields will be unused.
‘We want these kids off the streets’: Rochester baseball league asks city for help with field conditions WHEC.com.
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