Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Ripken Experience to Add New Field

MYRTLE BEACH – Extra Bases LLC, a joint venture between Ripken Baseball and Burroughs & Chapin, today announced plans to construct an additional 90-foot baseball diamond during the 2010 season at The Ripken Experience.

The field will be named Forbes Field after the historic former home of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Chris Flannery, President of Ripken Baseball, Inc. said, “When we constructed The Ripken Experience we did it with the idea of continued growth.

Adding an additional 90-foot diamond allows us to host more young ballplayers and continue to enhance our programming.”

Forbes Field will be the complex’s third 90-foot diamond that is used for groups from 13 year old and up.

The two other 90-foot diamonds, Griffith Field and the Polo Grounds, have hosted over 2,000 games during their 5-year history.

The Ripken Experience operates youth baseball tournaments along with specialty programming.

The complex celebrated its 5,000th game during the 2009 season and was recognized by the Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce for its impact on sports tourism in Myrtle Beach.

“Today is a very proud day for Ripken Baseball and our partners at Burroughs & Chapin”, commented Ripken Experience General Manger Bobby Holland. “For years we have been turning away between 50 – 150 teams a year in our older age group programming due to space limitations at our complex. The addition of Forbes Field is going to afford more teams, players and families the opportunity to play at our complex and visit Myrtle Beach; it’s a win in every scenario.”

Construction of Forbes Field will begin this summer and the project will take approximately 2 months to complete.

The playing surface will be composed of a new synthetic surface known as Astroturf GameDay Grass 3D. The 40-year old company has over 160,000,000 square feet of turf in use worldwide.

Currently such professional and collegiate facilities using the material include the Toronto Blue Jays, Buffalo Bills and Old Dominion University to name a few.

Information Found at scnow.com

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