Baseball field gets makeover

In a world where first impressions matter, everybody wants to look their best when the party gets started.

For Carrington Youth Baseball and Softball, that means making needed facility upgrades to the American Legion/Babe Ruth baseball diamond for what promises to be a fun summer.

Ahead of the main event in the Central City in late July-early August, the 2024 State "B" Babe Ruth Tournament, City Park's field is busy getting spruced up.

Brand-new, bigger dugouts are under construction, and freshly-poured concrete around the backstop, seating and concession stand areas are going a long way towards, to put it colloquially, "classing up the joint."

"We planned to update our backstop and concrete dugout to dugout, which turned into adding updated dugouts. Then the twists and turns began," wrote the Carrington Youth Baseball and Softball page in a Facebook post from Wednesday, May 29.

In order to get elevation constant throughout the complex, mudjacking, or pumping mud under the concrete to raise it to proper levels, was done under both the grandstand and concession stand.

Original plans were to detach the previous dugouts and affix them to the new pavement base, but new information came that building new ones from scratch would end up being a cheaper solution.

The new dugouts will be several feet deeper than the previous ones, as well as taller. Another new wrinkle will be that the structures do not have chain link fence covering them as in the past, but now have an unobstructed view of the field of play.

The concessions area will receive a coat of interior paint in the expansion which was added a few years back and was not painted previously, as well as the original portion of the structure. Also, the floor of the building is getting a fresh coat of red paint.

The backstop will receive new protective netting as part of the renovation, and the previous wooden supports holding up the grandstand have been removed in favor of steel beams.

All of this is being done under a time crunch, as the first home game for the new-look City Park is scheduled for this Thursday, June 13, when New Rockford Post 30 comes to Carrington to face Post 25 for a District 4 Legion contest.

Workers from Carr Construction, along with park volunteers, have been tirelessly on the scene, ensuring that all goes according to plan when the first pitch hits the catcher's glove.

Following the state Babe Ruth tournament, the second phase of the project will begin. That involves leveling out the dips and low spots in the outfield grass, installing drain tile to improve drainage, and a new outfield fence.

"It is our hope that this field will not need any major fixes for many years to come," the club posted.

Carrington Youth Baseball and Softball expresses their appreciation for the planners, decision makers, construction workers and Park Board crew involved with the project, as well as to the Carrington community for supporting the club through fund-raising and concessions.

"This is how we make these projects happen," they said.