Baseball Field Architecture

The architecture of a baseball field seems very simple, but certain details do make it tricky at times. In this piece I will address some common questions we get from architects. Frazier's Field Repair offers drawing reviews for $100 per field.

We start this review by checking all the dimensions on the field against the rule books for the particular type of field being built. This is very important. Different leagues of play have different field dimensions. For example High school softball places the pitching rubber 40 feet from the back of home plate, but college softball places the rubber at 43 feet. A basic summary of field dimensions can be found here. However if you're designing a field buying a copy of the rule book never hurts.

In the second phase of our review we look at the materials called out in the drawing. In particular we look at how the materials are called out in the drawing. Materials should be named clearly enough to get good materials, but they should not be so specific that it drives up the cost of the project. For example we've seen drawings that call for crushed limestone as a field topping. That would be fine in Iowa where crushed limestone is abundant, but here in Ohio we don't have much crushed limestone. It's more common to use brick dust, or a branded product like Game On in Ohio. Trucking crushed lime stone from Iowa would be very expensive, and no better than Game On or brick dust. Infield mix should be called out as a set of tolerances (x% clay, y% sand,

Finally we use our experience with new baseball fields to look at big picture of how the field is designed. Not seeing the site limits what we can discern, but we can help catch a number of mistakes before bidding starts, and we can offer suggestions on how the infield installation is done.

If you would like to submit a drawing to Frazier's Field Repair we prefer electronic copies in a DWF format be sent to (troy's e-mail). Drawings submitted after December 15th, and before March first will usually be completed within a week. Drawings submitted during our busy season will take longer.