Little Leaguers Press For Parks Repairs

City Little Leaguers pitched, slid, struck out and hit homers at the Munson Street baseball fields on which generations of baby baseball players have practiced for nearly 70 years — while attentive parents and coaches fretted about how the skewed state of those playing grounds could stymie their kids’ games and self-esteem.

Leaders of the Walter Pop Smith Little League are now leading a charge to funnel city dollars into improving those fields as part of a broader call from community members to reinvest in the city’s parks and open spaces.

In particular, they’re hoping to start by fixing up a two-field baseball complex next to Hillhouse High School at Munson and Sherman Parkway. That’s where over 350 New Haven kids from Dixwell, Newhallville, the Hill and Westville play little league games through the spring, summer and fall. 

“It’s just crabgrass and dandelions,” Walter Pop Smith League President Wayne Morrison told the Independent during a Monday afternoon interview by the Munson Street field’s dugout. ​“They let the fields go fallow all winter and they don’t tend the grass. The pitching mound is crooked and doesn’t line up with the batter.”

Morrison joined Little League Board Treasurer Steve Itkin, former Board Member and long-time supporter Gary Tinney and concerned parent moonlighting as Democratic mayoral candidate Liam Brennan for a walk around the fields Monday to point out problems they say are long-overdue for repair. They did so in advance of games and practices scheduled to take place on scene virtually every night this week as the New Haven players prepare to compete against kids from other municipalities later on this season. 

First, that crew said, there’s an issue of maintenance. So far this season, the grass around the bleachers has grown as tall as some of the shins of family members and friends who gather to watch the games. The pavement leading to the fields has been uprooted by trees, leaving large cracks filled with weeds which can trip up kids running or riding their bikes around the park space.

Beyond mowing the grass or repaving those pathways, the group said they’ve also consulted contractors about what kind of work would be needed to bring the fields up to par with those of neighboring cities and towns. In order to even out the playing field, the group said a total overhaul is needed to level out the underlying ground and adjust the orientation of the fields’ bases. Plus, they said, the field on the corner of Munson should be flipped on its head entirely to avoid facing the street — and evade the potential batting of balls into oncoming cars.

A cement concession stand, out of which volunteers sell Georgia Hots, hamburgers and homemade chili every summer as the temperature surges, could use a makeover as well — or at least, the group of advocates suggested, a ventilation system. 

They described those as bare minimum upgrades. But, they argued, the city could also opt to go a few steps further and bring splash pads or a small skate park to the space.

“This is not just about baseball,” Morrison stated. ​“This is about the kids of New Haven.”

“It’s life relationships that we build here and life lessons we teach. We deserve better facilities… These fields have been grossly neglected by the city of New Haven and parents, citizens and taxpayers of the city of New Haven are fed up.”

Liam Brennan, one of the city’s so-far six mayoral candidates and a father of two kids who have played in the league, said that while door knocking for votes he’s heard that ​“everyone feels like their particular park is falling apart.”

He, along with the rest of the group gathered Monday, asserted that ​“over the past few years there’s been a disinvestment in our parks.” 

He pointed to a 2020 merger of the former Parks, Recreation and Trees Department with the Department of Public Works and the Youth Department as an example. Out of that shift came the Department of Parks and Public Works as well as the Department of Youth and Recreation. Read here about how some have criticized that move as taking away administrative attention from the city’s parks. Read in more detail here about how this year’s budget plans to rearrange personnel to care for the city’s parks.

Mayor: "What's Most Important Is That The Work Gets Done"

Mayor Justin Elicker, on the other hand, wrote the Independent via email that ​“during tough budget times in recent years, we’ve prioritized our parks and actually increased the number of full-time parks positions and our seasonal workforce budget as well to help maintain and beatify our parks and public spaces. On top of that, we’ve made significant new investments and improvements in our parks, leveraging $8.3 million in local and state American Rescue Plan funding, that have helped build or repair playgrounds, splashpads, ballfields, courts, trails, and other features and structures in parks across the city. We’re also renovating and reactivating formerly underutilized parks buildings with our new Youth and Community Centers that are coming online in Edgewood Park, East Rock Park, East Shore Park, Goffe Street Park, West River Memorial Park, and other locations. We also just secured another $12.1 million from the state to renovate and expand Long Wharf Park.”

“As for the structure of city departments,” Elicker continued, ​“I think what’s most important is that the work gets done and we’re committed to doing that in the very best way we can with the resources with have — and we’re thankful for the partnership and assistance of our parks associations and volunteers that give of themselves and their time to help keep our parks great places for residents to use and enjoy.”

Regarding the Munson Street baseball fields, he said, ​“Our parks staff prep the Munson Street fields for the little league games on a daily basis and will also be installing new bat racks and cubby shelves for helmets in the coming weeks. Also, City staff have met with Walter ​“Pop” Smith Little League to discuss field improvements, and staff are meeting internally as to what additional improvements will be made and will be engaging again soon with the little league soon to discuss other potential improvements to the fields.

“More broadly, investing in children, youth, and family programming has been a priority for the City and Board of Alders – whether that’s sports programs or other extra-curricular enrichment programs. We believe our children and youth deserve every opportunity to thrive, and that happens both in and outside the classroom. We just finished improvements to Bowen Field right nearby – redoing the fields and repairing the irrigation system and fences and we will be working on the dugouts there soon too. Work is also underway to significantly renovate the Wilbur Cross High School Athletic Complex as well.”

Morrison, meanwhile, argued that the Munson Street fields are in need of special attention not just to better substandard conditions or to honor the volunteer labor that keeps the league itself running, but because of what he called evident disparity between New Haven’s fields and those in other cities and towns around Connecticut.

“It’s hurtful because our kids also travel. They go to other fields and they say, ​‘Why do ours look the way they do?’” Morrison said.

“When the kids go to other facilities their eyes light up,” Morrison continued. ​“And when kids come here their shoulders drop.”

“This is a community institution and it’s going down fast. Right now, this facility makes none of us feel good,” he said, recalling awkward moments spent wondering how to respond to kids curious as to why their fields are in such disarray compared to others.

Batter's Up!

Later Monday night, that worry was on Morrison’s mind as well as parents’ when four teams of Little Leaguers convened to play ball on Munson. For now, New Haven teams are playing against other New Haven Teams — but as the summer progresses, they’ll start competing with additional teams from around the state and potentially the country.

Bryan McLean, a former New Haven Little Leaguer who’s now a proud dad of a Walter Pop Smith pitcher, echoed Morrison’s sentiment in between cries of support for his kid (“Yeah, baby!” he shouted whenever his son, Avery, successfully struck out an opposing kid at bat.) 

McLean remembered when the city first invested in stadium lighting for the fields when he was a kid, which allowed his team to practice until late at night, improving their odds of competing with other towns and cities down the line.

“It was always a pride thing,” McLean said, recalling how good it felt to walk away part of a winning team after staying up late putting in practice. Decades later, Little League still brings up questions of pride for McLean, now that he’s observed years of what he called chronic underinvestment in the fields and a growing disparity between the grounds his kids play on versus where other children get to practice. 

“They need to fix the fences, the scoreboard,” he enumerated. ​“If you go to North Haven the score board’s bigger and brighter. Then you go to Orange or Woodbridge or Cheshire and they’re all greener and beautiful.”

On Munson Street, he said, ​“balls jump up all the time and hit the kids in the face.” While seemingly all players were spared such field-inflicted injuries Monday night, he said it’s possible that the conditions could deter more kids from playing the sport or feeling motivated to better their baseball skills — as well as from reaping the benefits of joining the league.

Unlike when he was young, McLean said Avery’s generation ​“has video games and texting. After the pandemic, they don’t know how to talk to each other anymore. The League is assimilating them back into communicating with other people.”

As the sun set Monday night, the competing New Haven teams shook hands and set off for home. The audience of adults who had shown up for those kids would have to wait another day to see whether their pleas would prompt the city to show up as well. 

Amid the clash of wins and losses, Morrison offered an optimistic interpretation of the situation: ​“The good news is that if the kids can catch ground balls here, they can get ​‘em anywhere.”