Uvalde Hesperian

Practice Fields of Dreams: little league baseball practice field situation topic at City Council

Backstop located at a Uvalde CISD field near Camp Street and Studer Street.

Correction

It was recently learned by the Uvalde Hesperian that Adam Martinez spoke to the Uvalde City Council representing a select little league baseball league or team and was not speaking on behalf of Uvalde Little League Baseball.

A few days prior to last week’s City Council meeting, a concerned parent contacted the Uvalde Hesperian and issued the following statement:

“I am not sure how much you look into the numbers of how many are signed up for Little League Baseball. If we say 600 average 11 per team that is almost 55 teams.

I am not concerned about the money, I am more concerned that they board does not provide support to the parents and coaches that volunteer their time to help the kids. they main reason i write you is because as a parent I speak to some coaches and they are informing me that they have no place to practice. all the fields that are city own, like city parks are off limits. no one is allowed to practice on these fields even though our tax dollars pay for them.

I am not sure why our fields in Uvalde are any more sacred than any other fields in any other city. all other city allow people to use the city fields I challenge the LL board to help find practice locations for all 55 teams, as i look a the bigger picture this goes to show why we can’t seem to progress too far in baseball, the city itself lacks practice locations. there are the backstops on camp street, those are full of holes that raises the risk of kids hurting their ankle or worst. in a nutshell, can you find out who is it that does not allow tax payers to use the fields, is it the city of Uvalde, or is it the Little league board? this may not be something to interest your news, but when you think about the community give over 40k to a program and the program does not budge to give a practice location.”

Limited number of practice locations as as well as rocks and holes in existing fields may be limiting little league ability to practice for games

Adam Martinez presents requests to Uvalde City Council

 At the Tuesday, January 10th Uvalde City Council Meeting, Adam Martinez spoke to the Council about the current conditions of the limited number of practice locations for Uvalde Little League teams and their respective conditions for adequately preparing for regular games which are held at Kiwanis Fields located on Garner Field Road.  Currently Uvalde Little League Baseball teams have to find alternative locations to the Kiwanis Baseball Complex to practice. Teams have been using the Uvalde CISD owned fields with backstops located on Camp Street as well as DeLeon Park located on Silvestre Street as well as privately owned fields scattered around town, according to City of Uvalde Director of Planning Susan Anderson.

 At Tuesday’s Uvalde City Council meeting Adam Martinez presented  requests  concerning the sports complex: to consider allowing shared access to ball fields and to create a practice field in an unused area on the east side of the complex.

“The first request I have is building a practice field between the A&M Center and the Aviles Softball Field,” Martinez said. He explained to the Council that the area is currently unused and that old fencing could be recycled from the current Little League fields as the Houston Astros Foundation would be replacing the fencing soon.

“Some of the practice fields out there have just a backstop, no fencing. It’s a big difference when a kid can play and actually see a fence and hit a ball and actually rolls to the fence; it’s a different feeling,” Martinez said. He went on to say later in his presentation that the current fields being used for baseball practice have rocks and haven’t been improved.

“Also you can’t slide on those fields. The first time they (the players) are sliding is when they are playing a game,” he said.

Martinez’s second request was to allow public access to the batting cages nearest to the A&M Center. 

“If we have a practice field, we could also use the batting cages,” he said.

Still image from City of Uvalde Live Feed

Martinez also requested that the city approve the rental of the City’s baseball fields for Select Teams, softball tournaments and for men’s softball and tournaments.

In a final request he asked that a new practice field be dedicated to the lives that were lost (on May 24th), Xavier and Makenna, who played softball and baseball. ” I do want it dedicated to them,” he said.

After Martinez spoke, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin responded to Martinez requests:

“I would like a group set up, a meeting between your group, the Little League Board and these two councilmen,” McLaughlin said, referring to Councilmen Everardo “Lalo” Zamora and Chip King.

“We have to come up with a plan that works for everybody,” McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin stated the baseball fields belong to the Citizens of Uvalde and believes they should have access to them, but is concerned about the accountability in maintaining the fields and making sure the facilities aren’t damaged.

“We don’t have access to the schools. We see the school district has fenced off its properties,” McLaughlin said. He went on to say the City run little league basketball program cannot use the Uvalde CISD basketball courts due to changes in security and the city may have to look into building basketball courts as well.

 

 

 

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