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Build Your Own Baseball Field
To build our own baseball field like the one shown at
the bottom of this page, this is what I did:
-
Removed brush and mowed the lawn down in a bigger
area to accommodate longer hits by my Little League age kids. I used
a machete and riding lawnmower but in retrospect I wish I had rented
a brushing mower.
-
Hung up 10 foot & 7 ft wide sports netting
(available at
this sports net link at ebay) in areas that I did not wish to
mow down. I placed some old snow fence I had in the far back.
In a city lot, one could place netting closer in if space was
limited. Also, for more limited space, use a T-ball in place of a
hard ball - it will not travel as far when hit but provide much the
same practice.
-
Used our shed for a backstop however the back of a
garage would work well too. Also set up a pitch back net for times
when a catcher was not used.
-
I covered obstacles (like the well pump covered by a
bucket in several photos shown below), to avoid injury.
-
I mowed behind the shed (our backstop) to make it
easier to find fouls hit behind.
Notes About Our Back Yard Baseball Field
The only measurement that should be exact is the Little League 46
foot distance from plate to pitchers mound. Otherwise, a batter will
not learn correct timing. All other base placement is arbitrary but
try to match the Little League distances if you have the room.
The kids play off the net if balls bounce off the nets. Also, you
can make rules for balls that go over the net or somehow get lost.
If balls are pitched to a catcher, a mask and protective gear are a
must! Also, to reduce risk of injury, a softer T-ball works well. For
small numbers of kids, a pitch back net may be used instead of a
catcher (see the game First Base).
So far our kids have only used the pitch back net and the pitcher
covers home if needed.
How much it would cost to build a baseball field like this?
The netting I got cost around $180 on ebay. The snow fence was
around $20 when I originally bought it. The posts were made of
diseased & dieing small trees from our 35 acres. If you had the extra
space (old farmer's field), you would not need the netting but it is
still nice for smaller numbers of kids. Add in a "bit" of my
labor. Mind you this is not a full size field but it does offer
much the same infield fielding practice as a regular little league
field.
CLICK ON EACH IMAGE FOR A LARGER
VIEW
Here's the new field with an extra row of snow fence at the back.
Also, the fence has been moved back behind the tree. All set for the
older kids! |
