Getting familiar
- Updated: March 10, 2016
Oxford baseball team practices on the Choccolocco Park signature field for the first time; plays two there Friday
Oxford’s earliest arriving players make their way into Choccolocco Park for their first practice on the signature baseball field.
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
OXFORD – Austin Bolander purposely stayed away during the construction of Choccolocco Park because he wanted the full effect when he stepped on its signature baseball field for the first time.
That day came Thursday afternoon and the Oxford shortstop could honestly say afterward the feeling was better than he ever could have anticipated.
The Yellow Jackets went through a two-hour dress rehearsal for Friday’s soft opening of the city’s newest sports attraction. In what will be their home opener 12 games into the season, the Jackets will play two games on what coach Wes Brooks called “the best high school field in the state bar none … that’s turned out to be bigger and better than I thought it ever could be.”
The Jackets (8-3) will play Central of Clay County at 5:30 p.m. and Brooks immediately following. Jacob Sears will draw the start in the opener, while Trey Hopper will start the nightcap.
“I don’t think it’s really sunk in that we’re going to get to play our home games here; that’s unbelievable,” Brooks said. “We don’t deserve it – I pinch myself every night thinking why – and to be able to play on it on a daily basis makes you proud to be from Oxford and me so proud to be able to be the baseball coach at Oxford.”
The Oxford softball team had a run-through on its signature field the night before and was scheduled to play the first game in the complex Thursday, but its game with Hueytown was postponed due to a scheduling conflict on the visitors’ end.
The baseball players started arriving at their new home around 3 p.m. and the early arrivals were met with strains of ballpark staples “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” and the Mexican Hat Dance as the stadium public address system was getting its own shakedown.
The detail-oriented Jackets practiced everything the way it would be on game day – from batting practice in the turtle and infield-outfield drills to lining up for the national anthem and unrolling the brand-new 165×165 infield tarp.
Center fielder Chance Adams called the facility “the most amazing thing I’ve been blessed to have” and reported all his teammates were just “astonished” at what they saw upon arriving.
“It’s awesome,” Bolander said. “When you go out there it makes you want to play the game even more. There’s nothing like getting on a field that’s so nice.
“I never came out when they were building it. I wanted the surprise, that first ‘ah’ of seeing it when you first get there. … We all walked in and our jaws dropped. We just looked out amazed by it.”
The Yellow Jackets have eight dates in the stadium this season and it might take all of them before they truly settle into their new digs. For one, the new park is deeper and more symmetrical than their on-campus home, Bud McCarty Field.
The new park is 325 down both lines, 375 in the alleys and 390 to dead center. At The Bud it’s 300 in right, 307 in left, 345 in right-center, 365 in left-center and 385 straight away.
“I noticed balls in right field I definitely have more ground to cover,” Adams said, “but I don’t think it’s going to change too much. Me and Brody (Syer), the right fielder, we’re both pretty quick, so I think we’ll still be able to get to most balls. But it changes a little bit.”
Charlie Maniscalco, the current Sacred Heart principal who coached Oxford baseball for six seasons and is credited by Brooks for laying the foundation for making the sport important at the school, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch.
During the course of Thursday’s practice, the players, understanding the historical significance of Friday night’s games, joked of all the ‘firsts’ that were and will be taking place in the stadium. Things like the first to put on their cleats in the dugout or the first to swing in the batting cage.
Adams wouldn’t mind being the first to throw out a runner at the plate or the first to make a diving catch in the outfield, but he’d be just as pleased to be called upon for the first sacrifice to move a runner along. As the Jackets’ leadoff man, Bolander has the chance to produce the stadium’s first hit if Sears holds the Volunteers in the first.
“Everyone’s always ‘the first,’” Bolander said, “but we’ll be the first team to win on it, hopefully.”
Oxford baseball coach Wes Brooks has a little fun with his players before sending them into infield/outfield drills for the first time at Choccolocco Park.
County baseball tournament MVP Andy Hammond holds on to his end as the Yellow Jackets learn to roll out the new tarp for the signature baseball field at Choccolocco Park.
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