The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Classic Park lights replaced again
Brighter look for night games
When next the lights are replaced, the project will use LED bulbs that are far more energy efficient than metal halide bulbs.
Lake County Captains players and fans will experience night games this season in a new light.
On March 12, under brilliantly sunny skies, Musco Lighting technicians Mike Allison and Brad Grzesiek began work on replacing all of the 128 metal halide bulbs in the eight light standards towering over the ballpark at the corner of Route 91 and Vine Street in Eastlake.
Classic Park is home to the Captains, a full-season Single-A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians.
This is the second time the 1500 megahertz bulbs have been replaced since the ballpark opened in April 2003. Captains general manager Neil Stein said the project should be finished by March 15.
The Captains are scheduled to play the 2019 season and home opener on April 4 against the Great Lakes (Mich.) Loons. First pitch is 6:30 p.m.
The City of Eastlake, the ballpark’s owner and the Captains’ landlord, is paying $25,000 for the “relamping.”
Allison and Grzesiek, residents of Iowa and Indiana, respectively, are
full-time employees of Musco Lighting, an Iowa company that has installed and services lighting systems for hundreds of outdoor and indoor sports venues.
The company did the original installation at Classic Park.
Grzesiek said he remembered coming to
Classic Park “five or six years ago” for the previous re-lamping..
With an assist from a boom crane operator for ALL Erection Crane Rental of Cleveland, Allison and Grzesiek were lifted to the tops of a light standard along the south perimeter of the ballpark.
Grzesiek said the light towers at Classic Park range in height from 125 feet to 135 feet.
This will be in all likelihood the final re-lamping
of Classic Park with metal halide bulbs, according to Stein.
When next the lights are replaced, the project will use LED bulbs that are far more energy efficient than metal halide bulbs.
To do the project this time with LED bulbs would have raised the cost tenfold, at minimum, Stein added. He expects the price of LED bulbs to bemuch lower in the future.