Something I think needs to be pointed out in a move to Cal Ripken is that it means fewer kids at our park. If the 11-12 year old boys are playing on 70 foot bases and go to John Hunt Park to do so, then we have quite a lot fewer games and boys down at Fern Gully in the future. I would say based on current year numbers, we are talking about 55-60 fewer boys in the American League baseball program as it exists today. And 5-6 fewer teams playing on the 7 fields that make up Fern Bell and Fern Gully.

My son is 13, and has moved on to Sandhurst, so none of this makes a difference to me personally. However, I think everyone needs to think about this aspect of it too. Are you ready to send the 11-12 year old boys off to John Hunt or Sandhurst Park?

Can the 11-12 baseball be played at Fern Bell/Gully? I saw something about both 60' and 70' field options for that age division....

Jim

This is another good discussion point. We are going to play Majors70 at John Hunt this FALL but if we adopt to go to Cal Ripken for next spring, each park will have a field that will accomodate 70' bases for games. There are many ways to do this. They will probably need to cut the infield out a little deeper and set a second set of anchors. There are ways to configure the mounds to have both 46' pitching rubbers and 50' pitching rubbers. The city is even considering using temporary mounds that they can move easily. I don't see this as "less" players but MORE players in our park next spring. We will probably attract kids who are playing exclusive travel baseball to come back to the park.

Bottom line, we will have a field that can be used for either 60' bases or 70' bases for very little cost.

This won't be any different than some fields are currently. For example, we can set bases at 50', 60', 65' and 70' on Fern Bell South and we have multiple pitching rubbers on most softball fields. This will just make our fields more versitile.