The New Field

I watched a game from the stands of the new stadium Saturday night.  The JMU Dukes were playing the Delaware Blue Hens.    I was really there to size up the new Veteran's Memorial Park.  Something that might be a little unusual to the out of town folks is the name of the field.  The field is named, Eagle Field.  Eagle is not the JMU mascot, Eagle Field is named after Rodney Eagle, a JMU supporter and former mayor of the town of Harrisonburg. 

The fences are 330 to left, 400 to center and 330 to right.  The fence in left field is 8 feet tall.  There is a batter's eye in center field.  I remember when the structure for the batter's eye was being erected.  The structure was stout enough, I first, jokingly though, it was the support for a big screen.  The structure is covered with the screen material that you can barely see through.  From right center field to the right field foul pole the fence jumps to 16 feet tall.  The other thing that I tried to guess at was the distance between home plate and the back stop.  I am going to guess that it is about 50 feet.  Catchers are going to have some work to do.  At the old Veteran's Memorial Stadium, on a pass ball or a wild pitch, all the catcher had to do was to turn around and field the ball as it bounced off the concrete wall.  The backstop at the new park has padding on it and the ball doesn't bounce very far.  The light, while a little lower than they were at the old Veteran's Memorial Park, these light seem to light up the field very evenly.  The night was nice, a little cool, but a great night for a baseball game.The JMU Dukes won 12 to 4.