Field of Dreams - May 2011

By: Jennifer Rook

    Members of the Vernal Youth baseball board joke around about hearing ghostly whispers much like Kevin Costner's character hears in the movie, "Field of Dreams", and even though it's an overused cliché, in the case of the new, state of the art Vernal youth baseball complex, it's perfectly fitting; "If you build it they will come". In the case of Vernal, Utah, if you build a beautiful 2.1 million dollar baseball complex they WILL come. They will come from other parts of Utah, California, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii and even Guam. If you build it they will come.

    The Vernal Youth Baseball organization has been asked to host the 14u South Pacific Regional tournament later in August and will host 14u aged teams from all over the Western United States as well as Hawaii and Guam. Utah Babe Ruth Youth Baseball League District Commissioner, Kam Pope, says a major reason they were asked to host the tournament is because of the new complex. "We did such a great job with the state all-star tournament we put on last year for the 12u league and our facility was so nice they just called and asked if we'd do it."

Vernal will host three teams from Utah and three teams from California, as well as a team from Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii and even a team from Guam. Since Vernal is hosting the tournament, the 14u All-Star team will have an automatic entry so they will be one of the three Utah teams competing. Babe Ruth All-Star tournaments are progressive and start out with a district tournament where the top one or two teams move on to the state level. The top teams from the state level then progress to the regional tournament and one team from each region will then progress to the World Series. The regional tournament in Vernal is set to take place in August.

    Vernal City Recreation District Executive Director, Robin O'Driscoll, says being asked to host the Babe Ruth Regional tournament is a huge honor and a great chance to showcase Vernal's awesome facility. "We held the State 12u All-Star tournament last year and we got nothing but compliments from everybody who came out. They said it was just a really nice facility and they also loved the Rec Center. They were surprised at how much there was to do in this area."

    Vernal Mayor Gary Showalter says the new ball park is a source of great pride in Vernal. "It's a beautiful facility." Showalter explains. It's one of the better facilities in the state. It's very well organized and laid out. A lot of thought and planning went into the design and construction of the complex and the results are just amazing."

The newly remodeled baseball complex has four fields used by many different age groups that all fan out from a center point where the concession stand, bathrooms and scorekeepers booth are all housed in one building. There are state of the art scoreboards on each field run from the scorekeeper's box located in the top of the building and fans can cheer their team on from roomy bleachers and deep, concrete steps beside each field. Fledgling trees line the areas in between the fields and will not only add beauty, but will provide much needed shade in just a few years. The public address system is also located in the scorekeeper's booth and is put to good use when announcing team line-ups before each game. "We put a lot of money back into our park." says Dave Olsen League President. "It's kind of our baby and we want to make it even better so we choose to put the money back into it. We've been able to provide backstop protectors, scoreboards, the PA system, and this year we're buying two, super nice batting cages for everybody to use."

The boys and girls who use the complex are extremely proud of it as well and just as it always has been, the Vernal ball park has become a favorite hang-out for baseball players of all ages. The ball park is buzzing with activity and plenty of people each night. "The boys are proud of the park." explains Olsen. "They love it. They love to be able to play here and they love hanging out even when they're not playing."

Teams who travel to Vernal will more than likely find the same pleasing atmosphere. Those who traveled to Vernal last year to compete were pleasantly surprised and enjoyed their stay very much. "We sent out packets of information on things to do and we included local coupons to places such as the waterslide, the rec center and local restaurants so the teams would have plenty to do when they weren't playing. " says Pope. Showalter says he heard many compliments as well. "Other teams from last year, Beaver, Richfield were all really impressed with the facilities and liked the area." reports Showalter.

Both Vernal City and Uintah County were able to pitch in to help put on a stellar tournament. Tournament directors hosted a family BBQ on the opening night of the tournament followed by a fun, team skills competition. Pope says this tournament will be similar. "We were able to offer the BBQ free for the All-Stars in the tournament. We want to do that again this year and we'll have more skills competitions and activities going on all the time plus a lot of good baseball. We've got a great group of people who are organizing this thing and as they've shown in the past, they are all very efficient so it should be a fantastic event." Mayor Showalter says Vernal City will once again help out and says he'll probably be on hand to take in a few games himself. "We are more than proud to be able to host such an event and from a City perspective we will work with the board to see what we can do to help them again this year."

    For more information on this tournament and Vernal baseball, log on to http://vernalyouthbaseball.org . Anybody who would like to volunteer to help during the tournament or donate money is welcome to call Kam Pope or Dave Olsen.