Dartmouth baseball association calling on HRM to make sport more accessible

CITYnews halifax / By Blake Priddle

A shortage in baseball infrastructure and fields being repurposed in the Halifax Regional Municipality has forced the Dartmouth District Minor Baseball Association to turn away some players.

Baseball has been growing in popularity among Nova Scotia youth ever since the Toronto Blue Jays had their run at the World Series last year, but baseball infrastructure in the province isn’t meeting the demand.

“With the success of the Blue Jays last year, we have got a bunch of 5, 6, 7, 8-year-olds that are inspired to be the next Ernie Clement,” association president Jeff Van Mulligan told Nova Scotia Today. “We don’t want to lose them by not being able to get them onto a field.”

Van Mulligan says some fields in Dartmouth are aging and need to be redesigned, adding that there are 66 fields in Dartmouth and surrounding areas, but seven don’t get used because they’re in poor condition.

“Working with the HRM a little bit, they told us a lot of the open spaces are zoned for residential development or zoned for commercial development and there’s not a lot left zone for recreational” says Van Mulligan. “We need the HRM to revisit some of their zonings in areas, especially out towards Burnside area where there is a huge commercial area where there’s enough space for a multi-field complex.”

Van Mulligan says a lot of Nova Scotia children that want to play baseball are told they can’t play due to the limited baseball fields available, and he hopes that a solution to the infrastructure shortage can be developed.

He insists baseball infrastructure is often less expensive than other sports infrastructure and Van Mulligan hopes the baseball association and city council can find a solution to the issue.