Officials with at least seven Major League Baseball spring training facilities in Florida were cleaning up and assessing damages last week after Hurricane Frances swept through their ballparks.
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| Frances’ winds caused seven of Roger Dean Stadium’s eight light towers to crash. |
Tradition Field in St. Lucie will have to rebuild the three indoor suites and two outdoor party terraces that were part of a $10 million renovation completed for the 2004 season, said Paul Taglieri, director of Florida operations for the New York Mets.
There was extensive damage elsewhere at the facility, he said. St. Lucie County officials estimated $4 million in damage to the complex.
The 100-plus mph winds caused seven of the eight light towers at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter to come crashing down, said Matt McKenna, marketing manager for the facility. The Jupiter Hammerheads and Palm Beach Cardinals are the two Florida State League teams that share the facility in the summer months. The St. Louis Cardinals and Florida Marlins are Roger Dean’s MLB tenants during spring training.
One tower hit the pressbox and another fell on the Cardinals’ clubhouse roof. There was water damage in several areas and the outfield grass may need to be replanted after oil seeping from the broken light fixtures soaked into the ground, McKenna said.
“We all witnessed it in person because we were using the Marlins’ clubhouse as a shelter,” he said.
HOK Sport principal David Bower inspected the damage and said the eighth tower had structural cracks and would also be replaced. The new light towers cost $800,000 each and can withstand winds of 140 mph, as required by updated state and local engineering codes. The previous structures were built to withstand 90 mph gusts. The ballpark building itself passed the test with the exception of one broken window, he said.
The immediate forecast for doing repairs at the Florida ballparks was not encouraging; another storm, Hurricane Ivan, was moving toward the state last week.
At Holman Stadium in Vero Beach, spring home of the Los Angeles Dodgers, one light tower fell and the scoreboard was knocked over, and backstop screens and foul poles at six practice fields at Dodgertown were damaged, said Trevor Gooby, general manager of the Vero Beach Dodgers.
Most notably, the hurricane destroyed two of the four signature oak trees that provide shade for fans at Holman Stadium. “They were at least as old as the stadium, and it’s 54 years old,” Gooby said.
The Florida State League canceled the last four games of the regular season, wiping out Miguel Cabrera Bobblehead Night (Sept. 4) in Jupiter, which was to honor current Marlin and ex-Hammerhead. Insurance Damage Repair sponsored the promotion and specializes in weather-related coverage, McKenna said.
