South End: Beautiful Baseball, Patchy Fields

BOSTON, U.S. -- Diverse, fun and exciting, the South End is a very interesting area of the city of Boston. It is home to some of the most historic buildings and is a beautiful neighborhood stretching from West Dedham Street on the east side to Hammond Street on the west side. But the South End lacks something that one would think is essential for this neighborhood in particular: proper baseball fields.

The South End is home to the largest, most diverse and most competitive baseball program in the Boston Metro Area. The South End Baseball (S.E.B.) youth program serves youth not only in the South End but also all over Roxbury, Dorchester and Jamaica Plain. Kids come from all over to play in this unique league. S.E.B. prides itself in preparing kids for high sSchool and a path of education, along with baseball.

While the competition and experience of the league are at the elite level, the fields are neither well-kept nor very worthy of play. From Jim Rice Field in the Lenox/Mandela section of South End to Carters Park on Columbus Avenue, the fields lack maintenance and care due to insufficient funding. At Rice, the drainage system is defective, making the field inaccessible for days after it rains.

At Carters, the dirt has never been renewed and is so hard that the young players get bruised from sliding into bases. Dariel Diaz of the South End Diamondbacks told me, “I have a permanent scar on my left thigh from sliding into second base at Carters too many times.” More than looking ugly, the fields pose a safety issue.

While Michael Kudisch and the rest of the South End Baseball commissioners are working on fixing these issues, the fields were not ready for the 2011 season that began in May. The many graduates of the league have been disappointed. They had hoped that one day the fields would be better for future generations. Coach and graduate Jose Ruiz of Jamaica Plain (J.P.) voiced his concerns: “The city seems to be more concerned about funding fields in other areas of the city, when the reality is that there are more kids, more competition, and better baseball in South End Baseball”.

Many youth come to the South End from J.P. or Dorchester, where the fields may be better but the competition is not. Ruiz points out that kids will always come to play in this exceptional league, no matter what the condition of the fields.

Now, as Paul Rinculus, longtime volunteer for S.E.B. points out, almost 100 per cent of the funding for the league comes from sources other than the city of Boston. Funding is raised at various annual fundraisers hosted by Rinculus and the founder of the league, Owen Carlson. Rinculus has been active in efforts connected with the league for the past 15 years and has acquired donations from people such as Jonathan Papelbon of the Boston Red Sox. But individual donors can only do so much. Uniforms, equipment, and umpires are what this money pays for, not the fields.

The maintenance of the fields is taken care of by Kudisch. The city does not fund the renovation of the fields, but the maintenance neither. With the league growing each year, Carlson and the commissioners are desperately trying to get support from the city.

Baseball is the pulse of this  neighborhood. Hopefully, in the next couple of years, the fields of the South End will correspond with the residents' love for this sport.