State of the Quarry
Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2021 10:00 am
The Quarry ball field is owned by the Eureka Quarry. It was leased to Andy Suder (snack bar) back in the early 80’s. Andy maintained the lease and I sublet the ball field from Andy. What a lot of league members never knew was my hands were very much tied with what I could do with the ball field. Anything outside of regular season softball had to be approved by Andy. I won’t get into the particulars of the situation, but I think you get the idea. I wasn’t calling the ball field shots.
Andy’s lease with the Quarry, and in turn my lease, was always for 1 year and no more. This made any serious investment for me very risky. From a business standpoint, it makes no sense to invest a large sum of money into an entity you may lose in a period of time substantially shorter than the time it would take to recoup the investment. Andy retired and I now have full control over the Quarry. I managed to get a 3-year lease this year. We are good through the 2023 season at the very least.
As I mentioned in the most recent Year in Review Magazine this past January, new and improved LED ball field lighting is on the agenda. I would have liked to do it a lot sooner than now, but it took an incredible amount of research. I also had some personal issues I needed to tend to.
There is quite a bit to learn about ball field lighting and I am far from an expert. I did a lot of reading and talked with a lot of people. With help from wife Joanne, who is like a bulldog when it comes to ferreting out information, I became very well informed. It would be nice to have professionals come in and do it all, but the league can’t afford $40,000 or $50,000 and league members can’t afford higher league fees. I did pay for a professional photometric study to be done based on the number and height of the existing poles. I am now armed with the knowledge of how many fixtures should be mounted on each pole and the direction those fixtures should be aimed. With help from Craig Henderson, Tim O’Shea and Zach Martin we will get the job done for ½ that amount, maybe even less. The fixtures could arrive as early as the 1st week in October. We will need at least a full Saturday to take the old fixtures down and put the new fixtures up.
We currently have 39 1000W metal halide fixtures. The plan is to replace those fixtures with 26 500W LED fixtures. LED lighting is more powerful and distributes light more evenly without glare and they don’t take 15 minutes to come on. They come on instantly. There is also a plan to install 2 fixtures beyond the foul territory area on the 3B side and another on the parking lot side.
If you’ve ever played under the lights at the School Road ball field in Hatfield, you’ve appreciated how well lit that ball field is. Surface light is measured in footcandles. I purchased a light meter that measures footcandles and took readings of both Hatfield and the Quarry. The average footcandles on the Hatfield infield is roughly 20 with the outfield a little more than 10. Not bad.
Metal halide lights suffer light degradation after only a few years. The Quarry fixtures are 40 years old. I knew when I measured the Quarry lighting it would be abysmal. To the base paths, the average footcandles is around 10. Shortstop and 2B averaged less than 5. The entire outfield measured not more than 4. Once the new fixtures are in place, the charts below depict the projected footcandle amounts at various locations in the infield and outfield. The outfield will be 3 times as bright as it is now and the infield at least twice as bright.
Fixture Diagram
Infield Footcandles
Outfield Footcandles
As you can see, the lighting situation will be better than it has ever been. Even better than Hatfield.
As a side note, once the season is over in mid-November, I will have a crew out there shaving down the area where the infield meets the outfield. The plan is take the shaved dirt from the deep infield area and use that dirt to fill in the depressed area where the infield transitions to the outfield. Sod will be installed. The only obstacle to getting this job done will be Sean Nonemacher. Nonny insists he wants the lip to stay and he plans on laying his body on the ground so we can’t do the work. He says he uses that lip as a launching pad when diving for batted balls.
Andy’s lease with the Quarry, and in turn my lease, was always for 1 year and no more. This made any serious investment for me very risky. From a business standpoint, it makes no sense to invest a large sum of money into an entity you may lose in a period of time substantially shorter than the time it would take to recoup the investment. Andy retired and I now have full control over the Quarry. I managed to get a 3-year lease this year. We are good through the 2023 season at the very least.
As I mentioned in the most recent Year in Review Magazine this past January, new and improved LED ball field lighting is on the agenda. I would have liked to do it a lot sooner than now, but it took an incredible amount of research. I also had some personal issues I needed to tend to.
There is quite a bit to learn about ball field lighting and I am far from an expert. I did a lot of reading and talked with a lot of people. With help from wife Joanne, who is like a bulldog when it comes to ferreting out information, I became very well informed. It would be nice to have professionals come in and do it all, but the league can’t afford $40,000 or $50,000 and league members can’t afford higher league fees. I did pay for a professional photometric study to be done based on the number and height of the existing poles. I am now armed with the knowledge of how many fixtures should be mounted on each pole and the direction those fixtures should be aimed. With help from Craig Henderson, Tim O’Shea and Zach Martin we will get the job done for ½ that amount, maybe even less. The fixtures could arrive as early as the 1st week in October. We will need at least a full Saturday to take the old fixtures down and put the new fixtures up.
We currently have 39 1000W metal halide fixtures. The plan is to replace those fixtures with 26 500W LED fixtures. LED lighting is more powerful and distributes light more evenly without glare and they don’t take 15 minutes to come on. They come on instantly. There is also a plan to install 2 fixtures beyond the foul territory area on the 3B side and another on the parking lot side.
If you’ve ever played under the lights at the School Road ball field in Hatfield, you’ve appreciated how well lit that ball field is. Surface light is measured in footcandles. I purchased a light meter that measures footcandles and took readings of both Hatfield and the Quarry. The average footcandles on the Hatfield infield is roughly 20 with the outfield a little more than 10. Not bad.
Metal halide lights suffer light degradation after only a few years. The Quarry fixtures are 40 years old. I knew when I measured the Quarry lighting it would be abysmal. To the base paths, the average footcandles is around 10. Shortstop and 2B averaged less than 5. The entire outfield measured not more than 4. Once the new fixtures are in place, the charts below depict the projected footcandle amounts at various locations in the infield and outfield. The outfield will be 3 times as bright as it is now and the infield at least twice as bright.
Fixture Diagram
Infield Footcandles
Outfield Footcandles
As you can see, the lighting situation will be better than it has ever been. Even better than Hatfield.
As a side note, once the season is over in mid-November, I will have a crew out there shaving down the area where the infield meets the outfield. The plan is take the shaved dirt from the deep infield area and use that dirt to fill in the depressed area where the infield transitions to the outfield. Sod will be installed. The only obstacle to getting this job done will be Sean Nonemacher. Nonny insists he wants the lip to stay and he plans on laying his body on the ground so we can’t do the work. He says he uses that lip as a launching pad when diving for batted balls.