There’s nothing quite like getting out on a freshly mowed baseball field on a warm summer day to play nine with the neighborhood regulars until 7 or 8 in the evening, wrapping up just in time for dinner on the grill.
Unfortunately, it’s not summer anymore, and it might be a little harder to entice your friends to get out on a 40-degree field for about an hour after work before it gets dark.
Luckily, you can always head over to the Concord Sports Center on Whitney Road.
No, this isn’t Concord’s own version of the popular highlight show on ESPN. What it is is the capital city’s own indoor sports facility where you can do some training for any field sport – but mostly baseball, softball and soccer.
Things really start picking up at Concord Sports Center right around Nov. 1, said Bryan Caruso, the center’s general manager and the program director of the Concord Cannons, the center’s program that features travel teams for players in grade school through high school.
“Being able to throw and hit and do everything in the winter is important, especially for the guys that are serious about it,” Caruso said.
Sure, you could try going down to White Park to get your infield drills in during the late fall and into winter, but who wants to go stand around in the dark wearing three layers to protect from the cold? And if the ground is frozen, that just adds another unpleasant and unhelpful element to the whole thing. So why not just take it inside?
The complex features several batting cages with pitching mounds, a weight room and a long turf field that can be divided into two separate fields. There’s also a sweet arcade/game room for birthday parties and such. Oh, and there’s a roof, and lights, and heat. So that’s a big plus when it’s 20-something degrees and hailing out and dark by 4:30.
The space is available for groups/teams or individuals, though Caruso said it’s used mostly by teams and organizations who want to run full practices. It’s mostly baseball and softball teams that come in, but they have soccer teams in there pretty regularly, too – they’ve even hosted hurling.
Individuals can rent a batting cage for $20 per half hour or $35 for an hour, but make sure to bring someone to feed baseballs into the pitching machine – or pitch, if you want to work on live pitching and hitting.
“A lot of groups will come in and use the mound and they can throw live to hitters,” Caruso said. “It’s a way for high schools to be able to get some live pitching in before they can start playing games.”
There are five or six instructors who offer private lessons every day, Caruso said, including catcher Matt Tupman of Concord, who played 10 years in the Kansas City Royals organization, and pitcher Derrick Sylvester, a Southern New Hampshire University product who is currently in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization.
I also had a pretty nice career in baseball, playing on town league teams until the ripe old age of 18. I never let all that success go to my head, though, and I let Caruso give me a little lesson last week.
Let’s just say I was rusty.
I thought I could handle 75 mph pitches – after all, that’s what kids were throwing back in 2005 when I was playing all the time. I’m now at the stage of my career where 70 is my sweet spot.
On the field, I handled all but two grounders hit my way – this despite wearing jeans. Caruso was right – the ball plays much faster on turf than on grass.
Overall, I think I did pretty well, even though Caruso went easy on me.
If you’re on a team – or even if you’re just a guy like me trying to keep that high school dream alive – and want to get some work in, check out concordsportscenter.com, call 224-1655 or just head down to 2 Whitney Road.
And play ball.
