1-3-10

New Baseball/Softball Complex Coming to Walpole

“This is for the kids of Walpole”

By Chuck Bingaman, Correspondent

      A new baseball/softball complex incorporating the existing American Legion Field off Upper Walpole Road and adding two new diamonds, run by the newly established Walpole Youth Baseball Foundation, will be built in 2010 and ready for play in spring, 2011.  

 The Foundation will be operated by trustees Frank Brown, Jim Neal, Pat Crotty, and Dale Hubbard, all long-time players, coaches and organizers of youth sports in the area.  The land was purchased from Hubbard Farms, the plan recently received Walpole Planning Board approval, and two lots were merged into one for the development.  In addition to the new facilities, the Foundation will also provide maintenance funds for the complex and even future college scholarships for area youth."

            “This is for the kids of Walpole,” Hubbard said Monday, “We hope that the new fields will encourage new interest in baseball among area youth. We will welcome all kinds of teams and leagues to use it including Little League, Babe Ruth League, Senior Babe Ruth League, Walpole Girls softball and even school teams.  We want to get as many boys and girls as we can into the game.”

            Building on a tradition of good baseball and softball facilities in Walpole, Hubbard noted that the motivation to create the new complex came from the likely future loss to commercial development of the current diamond south of North Meadow Plaza between Rt. 12 and Upper Walpole Road and from the desire of Hubbard Farms to sell the land where the current Legion Field sits.

            A standing Hubbard Farms building on the 24.69 acre site on the east side of Upper Valley Road will be demolished in February.  When weather permits in the spring, work will begin to build the new complex. 

Two new Little League sized fields will be added, and all three diamonds will see lights go up to permit evening play.  Hubbard said that trees and shrubbery will be planted along Upper Walpole Road and that a central refreshment and restroom building will be built in the center of the complex to serve all three diamonds.  In addition, dugouts for the existing field will be enlarged and bullpen areas outside the current fence will be installed for safety.  One of the new fields will have a grass diamond for Little League and one will have a dirt infield for softball.  Each field will have an announcer’s booth and seating behind a screen protecting spectators.  A batting cage area may also be constructed.

            “We want it to be as nice and as inviting as possible,” Hubbard added.  “And we want it to be a place where we can host tournaments with all three fields in frequent use.”

            In addition to the new and upgraded ball diamonds, the Foundation will build a paved parking area off Upper Walpole Road and even a special handicapped parking area will added closer to the Legion Field.  To ease exiting from the main lot onto Upper Walpole Road, Hubbard Farms offered to grant a right of way out of the parking lot through its driveway to the north of the new parking lot.

            Hubbard said that he and partners Neal, Brown and Crotty expect to do much of the physical maintenance of the fields themselves.

            The Walpole Youth Baseball foundation is a newly chartered New Hampshire not-for-profit, Sec. 501(C)(3) corporation that welcomes additional contributions.

                                                --30--