Fast pitch players are complaining about the condition of the ball diamonds at Brennan Park after municipal staff undertook major repairs just before this weekend's Loggers Sports Fast Pitch Tournament.
Park staff just completed repairs to the ballparks' outfields - which included aerating all the grass - leaving the field in a state of disrepair according to some ballplayers.
"It's a sandpit out there," said Diggers back catcher Shaun Hicks. "I think every team that has been out there so far has had nothing but complaints.
"We're heading into our biggest tournament and teams are coming from all over the place and they're going to have to look at that mess. We usually have the best looking fields in the Lower Mainland, and then they go and do this. They should have waited until after this weekend."
The fields were closed for two weeks as district staff aerated the outfield and laid down seed and a sand foundation on the grass, said Janet Gugins, supervisor of recreation services.
"This was a huge, scheduled project," said Gugins. "This was the first time in 10 years we've done major repairs to the field. This type of work has to be done at the driest time of the year so that's why we scheduled it for July."
However, the weather did not remain dry during the shutdown, and the project, which dumped 700 tonnes of sand onto the fields, took longer than expected.
"The issue that we had was that those heavy rains hit just when we put the sand on the field and staff was working on it. That did delay the process and the grass got a bit yellow," said Gugins.
"Probably the worst looking field is the men's fast pitch."
Hicks is concerned about how the conditions will affect players during this weekend's tournament.
"We have two of the best pitchers in the world coming to this," said Hicks. "And you have a field with lots of ruts that's giving bad bounces."
Tournament organizer Dan Stuart is less worried about how the fields will impact the players, although he does agree that the district should have waited until after the season was over to begin the project.
"District staff came up to us, and they said they should have waited. They apologized to us," said Stuart. "They realized they screwed up.
"But we take care of the infields, this just effects the outfield, so I don't think it'll effect play too much. It's a little inconvenient; we just have this weekend and then the league playoffs the weekend after.
"But it'll look great next year."
