BB: New England Region Baseball Fields

Started by Paul Heering, April 06, 2007, 05:19:29 PM

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Paul Heering

WestConn is bad.  funny you would say there are much better high school fields.  I grew up in the next town over and i can actually attest to the fact that there are a handful of high school fields nearby that are better than WestConn's field.

DGilblair,

what are some of your favorites?

also wanted an Eastern guy to chime in on this, we were talking about pronounciations of schools on another board.  I grew up in CT and in my neck of the woods and from everyone i talk to there are two conn state schools in the LEC.  WestConn and Eastern.  doe you ever hear people call it EastConn?  Do you want to slap them?  maybe it is just me and the people i have been around but eastconn is not acceptable, there is no such place, but maybe i am wrong.  straighten me out.

ECSUalum

Eastern Connecticut State
ECSU

Then this year I learned "the Evil Empire"

I have not seen Southern Maine's field other than pics on thier web site, But Eastern's facility is Number 1 in my view ;D,  Nice sitting areas, scoreboard, bull pens, concession stand, press box, even a small practice infield.

EastConn for those outside the NE region who do not know better, a derivative of UConn.

I see USM will be playing UMaine.

Wonder why the big boys up Rt 195 from Storrs never want to give ECSU a shot.  Whimps >:(

Back in the old days Easter played a bunch of what are now D-I and D-II schools. Used to beat up on SCSU now a pretty good D-II school.

Split a double header with UNC in Willimantic back in the late 70's early 80's, cannot remember

Big rivelry back in early 70's was St Johns U and CCSU

hockeyfan77

Quote from: ECSUalum on April 28, 2007, 07:21:43 PM




I see USM will be playing UMaine.



USM beat U-Maine in the last meeting 6-2 on May 11 1999...U-Maine has nothing to gian by playing USM...If the win, the they should have if they lose, well than how does that look...

ECSUalum

U Minnesota plays St Thomas MN at the Metrodome every year.
UM does'nt seem to mind!

I respect UMaine in offering to play USM.  Class outfits -  UME and UMN

I remember when UMaine was making regular appearances in the NCAA D-I
CWS

ECSU and UConn are 15 miles away from each other!

Give me a break, A loss to ECSU would not be such an awful thing.


dgilblair

Quote from: don mattingly on April 28, 2007, 09:32:36 AM
WestConn is bad.  funny you would say there are much better high school fields.  I grew up in the next town over and i can actually attest to the fact that there are a handful of high school fields nearby that are better than WestConn's field.

DGilblair,

what are some of your favorites?

also wanted an Eastern guy to chime in on this, we were talking about pronounciations of schools on another board.  I grew up in CT and in my neck of the woods and from everyone i talk to there are two conn state schools in the LEC.  WestConn and Eastern.  doe you ever hear people call it EastConn?  Do you want to slap them?  maybe it is just me and the people i have been around but eastconn is not acceptable, there is no such place, but maybe i am wrong.  straighten me out.
ECSU is my favorite without a doubt.
S. Maine has a nice place.
Wesleyan U (CT) has a real nice setting in the middle of all those old buildings but no dugouts.
Wheaton is an accident waiting to happen with a major road right beside the field.  A foul ball could cause a wreck at that place.
Have not seen Keene yet but will get a taste this coming weekend.

Eastconn, ECSU, Eastern, Evil Empire......don't really care what they call us.

Catch08

ECSU is by far the nicest D3 field ive played on/seen. Ive heard Wesleyan had a great feel to it beacuse of everyone that comes out when you play there.  WestConn is a waste because it has one of the worst of outfields in the history of baseball its on a huge slope. WNEC isnt that bad as far as D3 fields go but nothing beats Eastern

kscer

ECSU is great for the fan, as is USM. Wheaton looked great for the players but I didn't like watching a game there. RIC has done a good job but you feel closed in as a fan.

dgilblair

Quote from: kscer on April 30, 2007, 08:14:15 PM
ECSU is great for the fan, as is USM. Wheaton looked great for the players but I didn't like watching a game there. RIC has done a good job but you feel closed in as a fan.

RIC is errorville........It's way to closed in to. Cordosa for RIC is a player to bad he has to field there half his games. 

Bob Maxwell

looks like you are having some good discussion on the quality of fields and complex's in the New England area.  After some brief debates about it on the SUNYAC board in the New York region... no one has put their opinion forward on the facilities thread I opened.

Must be they want to save that discussion for the winter hot stove time.

Interesting...

;)

MSG77

OK, my $.02 here as well

I have been to every field in the LE except KSU. I think UMB has a field now as well, but never went there in the past.  Just from a fan perspective, never played on them, I would say

1 ECSU - First class facilty all around - Stands, press box, etc.  The field drains really well (have heard the drainage alone cost hundreds of thousands of dollars).  Pro lighting.  Haven't seen a lot, but would be willing to bet that it is the best (if not, at least top 5) of all the college baseball facilities in NE (I know some teams might play at MiLB facilities, I'm not counting them)

2.  USM - Very Nice.  The new stand with the full seats and bricks is nice.  Not a whole lot of places to stand down the lines and could use some lights to really make it great.  Field itself seems good.

3. RIC - don't know why everyone is so hard on this one.  Its not that bad.  Could be a little better infield and it has no foul territory, but it has gotten better in the last few years I would say.  The infield is more level now and they've added some new stuff down the LF line for the home team (redid the BP and Cage I think).  Plenty of seating around the plate and a real press box.

4 UMD- Nothing remarkable.  Kind of like a good HS field.  Field seems in good enough condition.  No press box and I don't like the evergreens behind the plate.  Only place to sit is those little HS portable bleachers down the line.

5 - PSU - Both times I have been there it has been gray and cloudy and cold.  The dirt is like a gray gravel.  And the grass is not smooth, its clumpy and splotchy and ususally a brownish color.  So instead of green grass and brown dirt and blue sky, its gray dirt and brown grass and gray sky.  Just kind of a depressing field.  Only made more depressing for the home fans when they look at the scoreboard. (Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week.  Don't forget to tip your waitress!)

6 - An absolute abomination.  The worst field I have ever seen HS or college baseball played on.  They couldn't have even spent the money to at least cut and fill so the field is level.  Just a shame.  I guess they used every cent they had for the football field (which is awesome).  Should have cut a corner here and there with the FB field to at least make the BB field playable.

Other than that, I can't think of any really great fields in NE.  Wheaton is good, but I would agree that it doesn't have the best vantage points for fans.  Tufts isn't that bad.  Neither is Babson.  Springfield I would say isn't that bad either.  Never been to WNEC.   Have driven past MIT, which looks OK, looks like they have done some work on.  I don't think anyone other that USM or ECSU has a "stadium" feel to it though.  I don't know how Trinity gets recruits with their field.  It is sub HS level.  Hate how it is so open.  Didn't even know you were allowed to have a college field without dugouts.

RE - WestConn and Eastern.  Would agree that no one calls it EastConn.  In fact, I call WCSU "Western" most of the time and ECSU "Eastern" all of the time.  Its UConn and Eastern.

Agree that DI teams don't want to play Eastern (and I would guess vice versa).  For the DI teams, it doesn't help them.  If they lose, it hurts their image and if they win they were supposed to.  I also think that now with 40 game limits on DIII and the criteria used to select teams for the NCAAs, it doesn't help Eastern.  Most of the time they would lose (maybe not so in the past, but UConn has been pretty good the last few years) and wins against DIII teams helps them.  In the past, things were a bit more wide open.  But now with conference games and "Quality Wins" to get, it is harder for DI teams to play DIII teams.  FWIW - Eastern used to play UMass in the fall before there were tighter regulations on fallball and they usually held their own, even winning a few.

quailman

Fortunatley, I have had the privledge to see every field in the nescac, lec, njac, most in ny and just many D1 fields in the northeast.  As far a strictly a college field (no minor league or independent team) ECSU has the best facility in the region.  St John's (used to be minor league) is a close rival but i enjoyed Eastern's more.  Actually, Eastern old field (almuni field) would probably still be the best in the  northeast.  NJAC fields are nice but the good one's are all pro parks. NESCAC fields have a nice setting but the surfaces are awful except for amherst on a good year. Wesleyns (sp) field is actually a football field/parking lot in the fall and plays like it too.  UMaine has a great facility but the surface is below avg.  Southern Maine has done a nice job but the field is very uneven, but they have done a nice job. Sorry to jump around alot, but thats what ive seen.

Bostonian

Williams' field is on par with the best. I think Steinbrenner actually had the Yankee groundscrew do alot of the infield installations. The landscape is gorgeous, too.
Middlebury also has a great field.

soxfan42585

Anyone think they'll have a field ready to play on in March or even April?  I'm not a scientist but I believe Maine's got 416 meters of snow which is something like 5,280 feet.


How do the likes of Eastern or RIC show now a days?  Mud? Frozen Tundra? Snow?

ECSUalum

Quote from: soxfan42585 on March 12, 2008, 08:57:15 PM
Anyone think they'll have a field ready to play on in March or even April?  I'm not a scientist but I believe Maine's got 416 meters of snow which is something like 5,280 feet.


How do the likes of Eastern or RIC show now a days?  Mud? Frozen Tundra? Snow?

All is clear of snow in Southern NE since last weeks rain deluge.  Temps slowly moving higher as the good ol sun moves higher from the horizon.  ECSU has a week and a half in California, so hopefully when they return, the Eastern's baseball complex will be in good shape.  They typically cover the infield with a tarp. if they predict rain.

wordsmith

Keene State field is under 2-3 feet of snow. Their access road from the campus is a sea of mud; even the paved access roads along the third and first base sides are under a couple of feet of snow. The west access road has large drifts of snow from the snow being blown off the turf field for Lax teams.

Keene State Staff was on a local radio sports talk show last Saturday. The Franklin Pierce SID called in to talk about Pierce's Basketball team success; the subject of Keene using the turf baseball field at Pierce came up and the Pierce SID laughed at the notion. No love loss between Pierce and KSC. Too bad hope they can work something out.
Word