The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
House warming party
UConn’s Elliot Ballpark sparkles like few others
STORRS — Jim Penders can turn on the lights to Elliot Ballpark with his iPhone.
I laugh.
He laughs.
“Amazing, isn’t it?” the UConn baseball coach said earlier in the week. “If a recruit’s family is leaving the facility in the dark, I can flick them on as they go back to their car. Or if I’m not even here, I can flick the lights on for the guys to get extra work in at 10 o’clock if they want.”
We’re not in J.O. Christian Field anymore, Toto.
As Penders gave a tour of the new ballpark — home opener scheduled for March 23 against Central Connecticut — workers were lowering the scoreboard behind the rightcenter field fence.
“David (Benedict) thought it was too small,” Penders said. “They’re bringing in a bigger scoreboard.”
From the appropriate distance, the UConn athletic director certainly would appear to be correct. It also speaks to the nuance of baseball that everything needs to be done with particular care. Or somewhere along the line what may seem like a small mistake becomes a big one. Hartford built what may be the most beautiful minor league ballpark in America and topped it off with a press box where you can’t see a good chunk of the field. A linedrive double to left? Strictly a rumor.
So every detail amid the gorgeous new complex on what was once the dingy side of campus is examined and re-examined.
“This is beyond my wildest dreams,” said Penders, who played for the Huskies from 1991-94 and is
in his 18th season as head coach. “What we’ve been able to build is remarkable. So many people deserve credit.”
The park is named after former UConn player Doug Elliot and his family who gave the lead financial gift. Penders remembers meeting with Elliot in his boardroom when Elliot still worked at the Travelers in 2003. They laid out what they thought was needed.
“We were thinking a brick grandstand and some bathrooms for the public and that was about it,” Penders said. “We wound up getting what, by far, is the gem of the Northeast and one of the gems of college baseball. Not just the stadium itself, but what surrounds it.”
As Penders built a better and better program, producing George Springer, Nick Ahmed, Matt Barnes and several more pros, UConn’s baseball facilities became more of an embarrassment. Down the road, Division III Eastern Connecticut had a far nicer park. Not only had J.O. Christian outlived its usefulness, all the needs of the program were splattered around campus.
Enter the Rizza Performance Center. Former soccer player Tony Rizza donated $8 million to help make Joe Morrone Stadium and the facility that straddles the soccer and baseball parks a reality. Men’s and women’s soccer, women’s lacrosse, baseball and softball now use it.
“We’re so much more efficient,” Penders said. “Everything in one place.”
There is the trainer’s room, the weight room, rehabilitative pools, an alcove for visitors with interactive histories of each of the five teams. For baseball, there are five hitting/pitching tunnels, the clubhouse, a lounge and coaches’ area. There’s a PingPong table in the middle of the clubhouse and in a separate area, through his donation, the Nick Ahmed Pro Nook with photos of UConn’s major-leaguers, lists of the drafted and lockers where the pros can dress when they visit.
Upstairs is the soccer press box and the nerve center for the sights and sounds of the two stadiums. Penders’ office overlooks the field. There’s an area outside that, when COVID clears, will have picnic tables for athletes to socialize.
“We went from one of the worst facilities in college baseball to one of the best,” Penders said. “I pinch myself every day. It’s a new neighborhood.”
He walks toward the field. There are bathrooms in the dugouts and heated benches. The lights? The AstroTurf OPS? The Huskies no longer are captive to sunlight like at JOC. With the ability to plow the snow, the players can take grounders 365 days a year. No mud. Penders said the Huskies were able to have eight practices in the fall they couldn’t have had in the past.
“A ball will get to the wall that’s supposed to get to the wall,” Penders said. “This isn’t the old AstroTurf people think about. It acts just like grass, except a little bit when it’s frozen.”
Elliot, with capacity seating of a little more than 1,350, is awash in four colors. A striped green turf field with blue fence and a centerfield background with a giant Husky with piercing light blue eyes staring back. There are inserts for the brown turf to replace worn-out areas.
Detail? They leave the inserts exposed to the elements, so they’ll discolor at the same rate as the mound. There’s red brick. OK, a fifth color when you count the white lines.
“I’m really conservative when it comes to design,” Penders said. “Uniforms don’t change and everything. I wasn’t so sure about the striped green field. Dave Benedict said ‘I think you need some contrast to make it pop.’ I’m so glad he convinced me. It looks so cool.”
It’s 330 down the lines, 380 to left-center, 400 to center and 372 to right-center. Home runs are to be found down the lines, and in the fall and preseason the ball was getting out in right.
“Originally, the designers were like if we carve into the hill, it’ll cost a little more,” Penders said. “I told them, ‘I won’t be able to recruit any pitchers if it’s 390 to center.’ They made the adjustment.
“We felt like the wind at JOC blew mostly from the third-base dugout out to right in the spring. That’s left-center in this ballpark. So we made it a little bigger in that gap. It plays longest there; I think you’re going to see a lot of triples. We’re also kind of down in a hill, so we’re going to have to see.”
Everything is subject to inspection and detail. The foul poles were placed at the wrong angles. That’s being fixed. As aesthetically pleasing as the red brick is, Elliot, an outstanding catcher for UConn, voiced concern that the ball would bounce back directly on wild pitches/passed balls and stop any chance of runners scoring from third. The solution? A brick-looking pad that blends in.
There is only one noticeable problem with the sun, Penders said. On 5-4-3 double-play balls before dusk, there is a blind spot for the second baseman on throws from the third baseman. They may put up some kind of fabric to help.
After Barnes’ donation, UConn named the home bullpen in his honor. It has three mounds. The visiting bullpen has a turf mound and a dirt mound the Huskies can use before traveling to places with dirt fields.
The visiting pen is also in left field so opponents will have to call timeout during an inning for the reliever to run across the field. His number and name will be duly noted. The Huskies can sneak around the outside from the third-base dugout.
Also, there are more seats on the thirdbase line behind the home team for the fans than the visiting first-base side. Hey, any little advantage.
Yet in the end, it is Mother Nature that may end up being the star.
“I’ve been coming here my entire life and I didn’t know there was an entire hill tucked into that tree line,” Penders said, pointing across the outfield.
To host NCAA regional tournaments, there will be an area to put in more stands, yet it is the giant berm that surrounds the field that will allow thousands to sit in the sun. Blankets. Lawn chairs. Cornhole. Fire pits. Beer will be sold. The berm should be a hit.
“It’s going to be awesome,” Penders said. “And on days when no one is out there, the park won’t look empty. It’ll just be a natural berm. When the sun sets and the only thing illuminated are the trees in bloom, it’s unbelievably beautiful. It’s humbling.”
Penders said people have continually come up to him the past few years to tell him that this is long overdue and UConn baseball deserves this new ballpark.
“I have a hard time with that word ‘deserve,’ ” Penders said. “I’d rather, ‘You earned this.’ And with the first pitch here, with the first 3-2 count, we’ve got to continue to earn it day in and day out. We have to continue to recruit like we have the worst ballpark and not lose any hunger.”