Sports park opens Saturday
Gilroy – The first baseball soaring through the air over Gilroy’s new sports park will not come rocketing off the bat of a Little League ballplayer, but from the sky, carried down to the field by a skydiver for the ceremonial first pitch.
After nearly two decades of planning, city officials are not holding back during opening celebrations Saturday for the first phase of a 79-acre sports park, located off Monterey Road in South Gilroy.
“Whatever it takes to bring the community there,” Mayor Al Pinheiro said of the unusual delivery of the first ball. “This is a big deal. It’s an opportunity for the citizens to have another place for recreation. With ball fields and soccer fields, there are never enough, and this took almost 20 years.”
The former swath of farmland has been transformed into 270,000 square feet of lush grass and deep red clay, the same soil found in the home of the San Francisco Giants. Batting cages, a pitcher’s bullpen and a concession stand are located at the north side of the park, while two playgrounds with picnic tables line the eastern side. Backstops, scoreboards and sky-high stadium lights complete the professional look of all three ball fields. And baseball players aren’t the only ones the city considered in its design: Outfield fences can be removed to make way for a soccer field.
City workers spent the last few days on finishing touches to the park, such as installing field markers in the shape of pillars capped with giant baseballs.
The first pitch will be thrown by Gilroy resident Frank LaCorte, a former hurler for the Houston Astros and one of the visionaries who helped create the park. Following the ceremony, La Corte will pitch on one of the three new fields at the park to Chris Gimenez, a Gilroy native who plays for the Cleveland Indians’ minor league team.
Little leaguers will field batting practice and play demonstration games on the other two fields, while youths involved in the local soccer league will play on the fourth field.
“I have a 7-year-old and a 13-year old, and they just think this is awesome,” said Christine Drysdale, president of Gilroy Little League. “They’re excited because they’re going to have the grass infield, the nice signs in the infield … We’re excited – it’s way overdue and our town is so large and we don’t have enough youth sports facilities as it is.”
The fields could not have come sooner for Drysdale, who said the little league’s 70 teams and 800 players struggle to split time on other fields scattered across the city. Little League officials plan to spend $50,000 to $80,000 on bleachers for the fields already constructed, and they hope that the addition of new fields in future phases of the park will allow the site to serve as the league’s primary home.
The first phase of the $10.7-million project began in March 2005. Work crews spent the first 18 months laying electrical lines, sewers and water mains that will one day service all 80 acres of the park.
The facility will eventually spread west into bell pepper fields bordering Uvas Creek. The next phases will include as many as eight softball fields and possibly a BMX dirt bike facility, as well as tie-ins with the city’s trail and bike system. The current phase will connect the Uvas Creek levee trail to the northwest corner of the park, and plans call for the extension of that trail south from the sports complex to Gavilan College.
The remainder of the sports park project, estimated to cost more than $23 million for all phases, will take place over a number of years as funds become available.
The concept for a youth sports complex emerged in the late ’80s. Residents such as LaCorte and Dennis Castro Sr. originally envisioned a field in the eastern part of the city near Gilroy Foods, but the idea never took flight because of safety concerns about children crossing the highway overpass. In 1997, the city purchased the current site of the sports with the promise of collaborating with La Corte, Castro and others pushing for a permanent home for youth ballplayers. The master plan for the site was completed six years ago.
“It’s really nice to be able to take a vision and work all the way through the process,” City Administrator Jay Baksa said. “This is a reward for those who kept the faith.”
The day’s events start at 8:30am at the sports park with a family bike ride up the Uvas Creek levee to Bonfante Gardens, with families expected to return to the park by 10:30am. The ribbon cutting ceremony takes place at about 11am, followed by the sports demonstrations.
The park is located across from the Hilton Garden Inn at 5925 Monterey Frontage Road.
