Gutless Punks Vandalize Baseball Field

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  – Parents are worried about their kids safety after vandals robbed and left some alarming trash at a local high school ball field.

Rio Grande High School parents are frustrated according to local sources. One parent with two kids on the team, Jerry Lopez, helps clean-up and repair the baseball field.

“The week before tryouts, that’s when I came out here to start cleaning the field,” Lopez said. A hypodermic needle and a bottle of Fireball whiskey was discovered in an area where the players practice.

“Let’s say a ball rolls and a kid goes and picks up a ball next to the needle. It was uncapped, the needle was exposed,” Lopez stated, worried about the students' safety.

With a fence no longer fully enclosing the batting cages and equipment, thieves and vandals have been attracted to prey on the field. “The first thing that we had stolen was our water jug stolen, $100 water jug. It was brand new,” said Lopez.

The thieves have stolen two water jugs, two trash cans and have destroyed safety netting. “We found the entire batting cages, both sides were down on the ground and all the holes that you see where I patched,” Lopez said.

Although Lopez and his son spent eight hours on a Saturday repairing the net around their batting cages, someone keeps putting holes in it.

“It’s frustrating. It makes me angry that we’re not getting any help,” Lopez said. After reaching out to the administration he still has received no word.

The Albuquerque Metropolitan Arroyo Flood Control Authority, or AMAFCA, has a large flood reduction project that meets the field that they have been working on, and the Executive Engineer said Albuquerque Public Schools complied with their request to remove some fencing for the project.

“One of the reasons APS wanted to remove all the fencing is because they wanted to keep it for their use,” Lovato said. However, Lovato said AMAFCA’s work shouldn’t have been affected by the fence that surrounds the baseball team’s field and practice area.

“I’m not sure why that section of fence was removed,” he said. APS said the fence was removed a couple years ago, but as for when or if it will go back up, a spokesperson only said the school will schedule a meeting for Tuesday morning to discuss the future plan there.

Parents said they have been pitching in to help repair the old, damaged equipment in an attempt to avoid using fundraising money that students collected to fund necessary equipment and gear like uniforms.

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Baseball Training System

88 Game Winning Streak Coach Dehmer's Program

MLB Coaches Train Kids On India's First Professional BaseballField

Several years ago, two childhood friends Raunaq Sahni and Jackson Golden, began Grand Slam Baseball with expectations of crafting the mainly American passtime in India. They worked together with many private and public schools in Delhi to teach kids baseball.

Previously, baseball enthusiasts only had the American Embassy to enjoy the sport. However, not everyone got access because of the high level of security protocols. With about 600 children in its program, Grand Slam Baseball gave an alternative. But something was still missing.

"When we spoke to Major League Baseball, they told us our kids are getting sufficient practice but they need many more games to take it to the next level," says Sahni.

That's when the idea of the 'Field of Dreams' came up. India's first regulation size baseball field.

The field, nestled in the farms in Pushpanjali near Delhi's IGI airport, was opened last week in the presence of around a dozen coaches from MLB. A two-week camp to train not just 100 kids but Indian coaches as well was held under the guidance of their American counterparts.

"The name of the stadium is borrowed from an American movie in which a man has a dream to open a baseball field in his backyard. He believed if you make it, they will come. That's what we believed too and MLB indeed came. We thought the time is right. The talent is available in India," Sahni adds.

Shane Halley, a former Colorado Rockies player and now Head Coach for MLB in China, is one of the many coaches who trained kids at the camp. He agrees that India's affinity to cricket makes Indian kids naturally better at baseball too.

"What we saw here are a lot of athletes. Cricket and Baseball are similar but also very different. But the hand-to-eye coordination of kids here is much better because of it than other countries."

In the age of glamorous sports leagues, Grand Slam Baseball wants a bottoms-up approach, than the other way round. They want to develop enough talent at the grass roots level first before starting a league.

The field, which has become self sustaining, will now hold practice for the kids under their program and will be leased for corporate events on weekends.

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BASEBALL TRAINING PROGRAM