Billy Grant Field getting new seats, press box

Published 3:24 am Tuesday, December 6, 2005

VALDOSTA — Baseball fans at Billy Grant Field will have a new place to watch baseball from next spring.

As one of the last parts of a decade-long upgrade at the North Campus field, Valdosta State will be installing 750 bench-back seats and a new press box at the old baseball field.

“This should make Billy Grant Field one of the most picturesque, one of the finest ballparks of its size in the country,” said athletic director Herb Reinhard.

The project is to go out for bid this week, with construction to probably start in August. Reinhard was awaiting the return of bids before assigning a cost to the project.

The seating will be patterned after the stands at the nearby Softball Complex, which was opened in 2000. That stadium has three sections of aluminum seating, with all 500 seats having bench backs.

“We wanted every seat to have a back rest to it, so our fans can sit down and lean back on the back rest,” said head baseball coach Tommy Thomas.

Upgrade work at the field began in the mid 1990s with a new scoreboard in left-center field and new lights. The fieldhouse and indoor practice area on the south side of the field followed.

Of course, this isn’t the most radical change in Billy Grant Field history. After the 1979 national championship season, the Blazers turned the playing field 180 degrees. Home plate used to be located at the northeast end of the property, with North Patterson Street a long home run beyond the right-field fence.

Valdosta State will allow the summer programs which use the field, including the Valdosta Red Sox semi-pro team and high school teams, to complete their seasons before beginning work.

Thomas said the Blazers’ Fall World Series, a best-of-nine series which is a major part of fall practice, may have to be altered because there will be no seating at the field.

The first home game is set for Feb. 5, 2005, vs. Edward Waters.

n Members of the Valdosta State University athletic department are in Point Clear, Ala., this week for the Gulf South Conference meetings.

The conference will present VSU the men’s all-sports trophy at tonight’s awards dinner.

The Blazers won the award this season for having a men’s sports program which included one conference title (tennis), seconds in football and baseball and a semifinal conference tournament finish in men’s basketball. Golf also finished fourth in conference tournament play.