Stadium From Scratch Ready For Fort Bragg Game

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FORT BRAGG, N.C.—Days before it gets its closeup, the temporary ballpark that will house the first regular season, major league game ever played on a military installation has taken shape nicely.

It sprouted up in the middle of Fort Bragg, home of the 82nd Airborne Division, not much more than a half-mile from the main runway at Pope Army Air Field. In fact, the park is located on land that used to be the Willow Lakes golf course, which was closed after Pope was shut down by the Air Force as a separate base and was absorbed into the U.S. Army.

“This was just all overgrown with weeds,” said Murray Cook, official field consultant for Major League Baseball who is in charge of making the field playable for big leaguers. “But I’d say it looks pretty good now.”

BA visited the park Monday, six days out from the game between the Miami Marlins and Atlanta Braves, and saw the park wasn’t quite complete at that time, but all that was missing were a few finishing touches. The stand for the video board was there, but the board had yet to be installed. The right-field foul pole had been installed eight inches too far to the left and was being measured to be fixed.

And one of the ideas from the central MLB office in New York, headed by senior vice president of standards and on-field operations Joe Garagiola Jr., who helped come up with the idea for the event, was still being installed. The idea was to have temporary grassy berms behind the outfield fence in left- and right-center field, but the earth that was to be moved into those spots wasn’t installed properly. Instead, Cook and the event operators, BaAM Productions, came up with temporary berms, which essentially were flat platforms covered in artificial turf, the kind you’d find on a miniature golf course.

Which is appropriate in a way, as nearby Fayetteville, N.C., is the original home of Putt-Putt Golf.

In all, Fort Bragg Stadium, as its now called, has come together because of the hard work that people such as Cook and his team of groundskeepers including right-hand man Chad Olsen, as well as event operators from BaAM Productions, led by president Annemarie Roe, as well as the ballpark designed by Populous. They built a ballpark that will house soldiers and U.S. Defense Department personnel only, with special consideration and American Disabilities Act-compliant seating up front for disabled veterans.

The project was only announced in March, as it took months for the U.S. Army to work through its process and be able to accept the gift from Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association. The gift: the money to build the 12,500-seat temporary stadium and a Sunday night showcase game on the schedule on ESPN. The park includes a fully-functioning press box, complete with a Porta Potty right between the TV booth and radio booths.

“Nobody’s too good for Porta Potties,” Cook said with a laugh. “We’ll have a trailer with running water for showers for the players afterward, but the rest of us will make due.”

Taking care of the field was fairly routine for Cook and his crew, as once the site was graded and leveled, they rolled out fresh Bermuda turf that was ready to play on almost from the time it was put down. There’s more than a field that needs to be ready, though. The Army and BaAM has taken care of the rest, from hitting tunnels and temporary locker rooms for players to air-conditioned hospitality tents for dignitaries, from five-star generals to commissioner Rob Manfred, to nearly a dozen trailers housing operations staff.

“The best part has been the players’ reaction so far,” Cook said. “Players on both teams want to stay overnight; they want to get here early. They sound excited to be a part of it before it even happens. They get it.”

The weekend schedule includes a Play Ball event Saturday at 9 a.m. at Pope Field for 250 military youth. Sunday’s schedule includes a visit to the Fisher House at Womack Army Medical Center by commissioner Manfred, Hall of Famer Joe Torre (now MLB’s chief baseball officer), and MLBPA executive director Tony Clark. Fisher House provides housing for families who have loved ones hospitalized at Womack.

Following the game, the ballpark will be converted to a multi-purpose recreational facility for those who serve at Fort Bragg, a gift courtesy of the Major League Clubs and Players.