Weird Baseball Fields

[Isualum13]

In my home town the outfield of the baseball field doubled as the football field for many years with snowfence making the temporary outfield wall every summer. Football field survived okay but after many years the toll to the football field started to show. Instead of a slight slope as most high school field have to help drain water, over time a slight valley happenned so if it had rained recently it would make for muddy games. There were quite a few years that by the end of the football season the football field was in terrible shape. This paired with the fact that the temporary bleachers on the visitor sidelines were less than ideal left a fair number people upset when they had to travel here for post season football games.
They have since built a new baseball field that is very nice. Was voted best high school field in iowa a few years ago.

Football field eventually got moved as well when the new elementary was built on the old one. Put in a new all weather track replacing the cinder track. The track was built/replaced right before high schools switched from yards to metric so the track couldnt host high school meets until they rebuilt the track to accepted standards. Apparently that wasnt urgent. They hosted their first track meet in 40+ years a couple years ago. Went from having some of the worst facilities in the state to some of the best.

It all started with the baseball field.

 

[IcSyU]

Was going to mention this one. They play BB with west bend now. Son played left there one game. Besides the school being the wall, about halfway from third to the fence starts a nasty uphill grade. Kid said any hit out there was horrible to chase because as you ran you would keep going up a foot in height here and there and it was hard to run and not fall plus tracking the ball was awful.

Speaking of ****** fields...West Bend might as well have played in a gravel pit. I think that was the only field in high school I played on that didn't have a grass infield. It was cloudy and you still had to wear sunglasses to keep rock out of your eyes.

 

[Clonefan32]

I kind of enjoy the quirkiness of it, but the idea that all baseball fields are not a uniform size has always been odd to me.

 

[JayV]

I kind of enjoy the quirkiness of it, but the idea that all baseball fields are not a uniform size has always been odd to me.

That's one of the beautiful things about baseball. Home field can be a huge advantage if you build your team around it.

Also, no clock. Both teams get equal chances to score.

 

[Clonefan32]

That's one of the beautiful things about baseball. Home field can be a huge advantage if you build your team around it.

Also, no clock. Both teams get equal chances to score.

I do kind of appreciate the oddity of it. But can you imagine if this applied to other sports? We just decide to make a football field 70 yards? Play on rims that are 9 1/2 feet?

 

[Cyforce]

Mingo was by far the weirdest field I played on. The field was on their football field which was elevated above the surrounding area. I believe the FB field ran east-west. East goal line was 1B line. 180ft. To the corner. IA HS rules required a HR that clears a fence to travel a minimum of 210 ft. So they had a gate in right center marking the HR/ground rule double designation.

It had a dirt infield and we played football there the falling fall. Rained so bad the mud was easily ankle deep. So they decided when we reached midfield we would turn around and play on the grassy half. Only exception on the night was a fumble recovery that was returned thru the mud for 6.

Green Mountain had a creek behind the OF which chopped a large portion of the CF area. Fence was not far from a straight line between the foul poles.

 

[JayV]

I do kind of appreciate the oddity of it. But can you imagine if this applied to other sports? We just decide to make a football field 70 yards? Play on rims that are 9 1/2 feet?

Golf (a game, not a sport) is like this.

 

[Clonefan32]

Golf (a game, not a sport) is like this.

In a sense, yes. But there's no "home course". Everyone plays each different course.

Here you're allowed to create a field you play 1/2 your games on.

 

[JayV]

In a sense, yes. But there's no "home course". Everyone plays each different course.

Here you're allowed to create a field you play 1/2 your games on.

Very true. Tennis doesn't vary the dimensions, but the surface can be different, with clay, grass, and hard surfaced courts being all relatively common. I can't think of anything else that has different dimensions.

 

[throwittoblythe]

I don't remember how it was pre-renovation (2006ish) but Algona High if the ball is hit to the left field fence you can only see the left fielder's head because it falls off so much. You also may get interference from trees that hang over the fence. The right field fence feels like it's about 170 feet from home plate because of a railroad track.

We played somewhere that the flag pole was in play but I can't remember where. Carroll maybe?

You can see the dropoff if you view it in 3D, but hard to show on here. The trees make a unique challenge as well. What are the rules if a ball hits the tree without going over? Ground rule double like hitting the roof at Tropicana field?

 

[throwittoblythe]

Speaking of ****** fields...West Bend might as well have played in a gravel pit. I think that was the only field in high school I played on that didn't have a grass infield. It was cloudy and you still had to wear sunglasses to keep rock out of your eyes.

Our HS field was also the semi-pro field which was owned by the Legion and was very well maintained. Pristine grass infield and green grass all summer when other fields would burn up. It sucked so much to play on the road where fields were not well kept. Lime infields with clumps of grass growing in them...combine that with aluminum bats and hard hit ground balls were quite an adventure.

 

[JP4CY]

I don't remember how it was pre-renovation (2006ish) but Algona High if the ball is hit to the left field fence you can only see the left fielder's head because it falls off so much. You also may get interference from trees that hang over the fence. The right field fence feels like it's about 170 feet from home plate because of a railroad track.

We played somewhere that the flag pole was in play but I can't remember where. Carroll maybe?

Not sure if it was Carroll but they had half the State games and Marshalltown had the other half.

 

[Cy4Lifer]

Played at Dumont (pre Hampton-Dumont) on a shared BB/SB field. Only had lights for SB, so there were poles in the BB outfield with car tires strapped around them for “protection”! Sorry, no photo.

 

[SEIOWA CLONE]

I do kind of appreciate the oddity of it. But can you imagine if this applied to other sports? We just decide to make a football field 70 yards? Play on rims that are 9 1/2 feet?

It used to be that way in basketball as well, some courts were very short, examples being Seymour, Russell, Mormon Trail and others. The bottom of the backboard was the baseline, so there was not that 3 feet behind the hoop. You also played the restraining line to get the ball in court. A 2 feet line that the defender could not enter when the ball was being inbounded.

It was great playing under those conditions, but when we went to a full size floor, we would get lost under the basket, many times a player would post up where he had at home, and then realize he is now under and behind the backboard on the bigger floor. That was one of the main reasons teams splits were so different from home and away, the size of the court.

 

[clonehenge]

The oddest one I played on was the HS field in Dyersville, IA (not the Field of Dreams field). It used to double as their FB field as well. It's roughly 310 ft to right center, 410ft to left center, and 312ft down the LF line.

View attachment 71347

Yes! Was trying to remember where this was, knew it was a small town. Played there in high school. Just remember CF being no man's land.

In fact I'm pretty sure the CF fence came to a point back then and wasn't rounded off like the picture.

 

[BCClone]

A tricky HS field is Forest City’s. They have a field turf infield that is very short and firm. Then the outfield is usually longer than most. So any grounder to the outfield changes speed when it leaves the turf. The other 8 teams in the conference aren’t used to the turf Infield (including base paths) and the bounces are unnatural

 

[drlove]

Faith Christian High School in suburban Denver Colorado. they are looking to build a new diamond.

 

[IASTATE07]

Playing baseball on football fields used to be common for small schools, besides the two places you named, Harmony, Moravia, were the same way. SEW did not even have an outfield fence, and they allowed parking in center field. One time we had to look under a car to retrieve the ball, and it was still in play.

I forgot about playing baseball at Harmony. They had light poles in foul territory on the field.

 

[SEIOWA CLONE]

I forgot about playing baseball at Harmony. They had light poles in foul territory on the field.

Yes they did and so did Cardinal between the visitors dugout and home plate at around 4 o'clock from home plate. They had padding on the pole in case anyone ran into it.

At Cardinal only a road separates the baseball field and softball field, you couldn't start one game while the other was going on, as foul balls from either would land on the others field.

 

[tim_redd]

I do kind of appreciate the oddity of it. But can you imagine if this applied to other sports? We just decide to make a football field 70 yards? Play on rims that are 9 1/2 feet?

Soccer doesn't have an official pitch size, just some min and max dimensions. But most top leagues specify the dimensions for play so they end up basically the same.