A Field of Dreams

FOR YEARS THE BASEBALL team has had to deal with what head coach Bob Whalen calls "certain climate challenges" to its spring season. Snow and mud on the grass field force the team indoors for practices, and early season games have to be cancelled or moved to other locations. In 2007 only three of 12 games could be played as scheduled on Red Rolfe Field.

Renovations slated to begin this summer promise both the team and fans a much-improved Hanover baseball season. The bulk of the $5 million project is the replacement of the natural grass field with a synthetic surface, which will allow for snow removal and better drainage.

"The primary objective of the improvements is to make our team more competitive," says Whalen. "It will be more productive for us to know we can get out there to practice and play earlier in the spring and later in the fall."

Add to the renovated field new dugouts, bullpens, hitting cages, fencing, scoreboard and improved fan seating, and you have a "first-rate facility that makes a statement to alumni and recruits that you are pursuing excellence in everything that you do," Whalen says.

Baseball now joins the football, lacrosse and field hockey teams in playing on synthetic surfaces. "The field crew has done an absolutely terrific job," says Whalen, "but the care and maintenance of the baseball field takes more time than any other sport. Our players have had to put in a tremendous amount of work just to get on the field to practice everyday," he says, noting the time the team spends raking, rolling and rototilling the field. "Now they can just show up and play."