CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — If it weren't for the dugouts, backstops, and scoreboards, you wouldn't think the baseball and softball fields at the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Coastal Bend were anything more than grassland.
Soon, they'll look a lot more like their big league brothers and sisters, and the organization's leaders say the kids in their program are excited.
“They hope that one day our fields look like the ones that they see on TV," Boys and Girls Clubs of the Coastal Bend Board President Joe Guzman said.
The very organization the kids watch on TV, Major League Baseball, is teaming up with Scotts Lawn Care to give away four, $200,000 grants for improvements to baseball and softball fields.
Out of hundreds of applicants across the country, the local Boys and Girls Clubs are getting one of those grants.
“It means a great deal to our organization," Boys and Girls Clubs of the Coastal Bend C.E.O. Kim Barrientos said.
She says refurbished fields will allow more kids the opportunity to learn baseball and softball, because the club can offer it to them at little or no cost.
“We look forward to them becoming regulation-style fields, so we can launch our own baseball and softball programs for the youth that we serve,” Barrientos said.
While the refurbished fields will be an improvement, they won't quite reach MLB standards, but that's not a concern for the club.
"They won’t be the same, but they’ll be a lot better than what they are right now,” Guzman said.
One avid softball player and Boys and Girls Club of the Coastal Bend participant can't wait to play ball.
“I think it will be better for kids who don’t get to do sports that much," 13-year-old Jayda, who's last name was not revealed, said. "They can play here, and have fun."
