Tebbetts field, parking lot see changes

A stormwater project in need of a staging area has met up with an underutilized city park, and the result is an eyesore that points to a bigger picture — a possible debate about maintaining a baseball field.

Last week city park amenities were overshadowed by a parking lot filled with stormwater pipes, piles of dirt, gravel, concrete forms and miscellaneous debris at Flotilla Drive and 62nd Street.

The stormwater project that began in mid-August should be completed in mid-February, according to Joe Duennes, Holmes Beach public works superintendent. It is expected to bring relief to flood-prone areas along Holmes Boulevard between 61st and 63rd streets.

Duennes said construction materials can be placed at the parking lot without destroying vegetation and that the shell-based parking lot is “re-buildable.”

He added, “Meanwhile it is an eyesore for the community.”

The project is expected to expand the area’s capacity to better handle stormwater so it drains into the canals in Seaside Gardens, said Bob Shaffer, city inspector. We’re three-quarters through it,” he added.

A 2004 tax assessment based on the imperviousness of affected properties has funded the project, Duennes added.

Adjacent to the parking lot, the baseball field was once used by seasons of Junior League baseball teams operating under the Anna Maria Island Community Center.

Arts and crafts groups regularly use the open field adjacent to the lot. The 24th annual Anna Maria Island Art League’s Winterfest fine arts and craft festival is Dec. 10-11, and Colin Bissett, AMIAL events director, said the past festivals have drawn more than 10,000 attendees.

Holmes Beach Police Department Lt. Dale Stephenson said festivalgoers are expected to use parking on the side streets and at the library, and officers are assigned to direct traffic in the Flotilla Drive area.

“This is the biggest one of these events that we have,” said Stephenson, who has seen other festivals through traffic and parking issues when the parking lot was used for dredge materials. He encouraged people to take the trolley.

Greg Ross, chair of the Anna Maria Island Community Center board of directors, said the only center use of the Holmes Beach field and adjacent parking has been for soccer.

Scott Dell, assistant executive director of the center reported a large group of adults play soccer three times a week on the field. Both Dell and Ross said area streets provide sufficient parking for the soccer use.

The center has not used the Holmes Beach fields for an organized sport or program since a flag football league played there four or five years ago, Ross added.

Baseball use of the fields and parking lot stopped two or three years ago, according to Dell. “Baseball’s popularity is decreasing, it’s a national trend,” he said.

While at one time “well over 200” participated in Island baseball programs, Dell said, the center “has not been able to field a team” suitable to use the field.

“It’s more used by people running their dogs,” Ross said of Birdie Tebbetts Field, noting that lack of lights also make the field difficult for baseball use. Duennes and Shaffer also noted the lack of organized baseball use, and the new dog park use.

“It’s sad now,” Gary Blunden, said Holmes Beach public works foreman. “It looks like we’re taking care of the parks for the dogs and we’re not. It costs money to maintain, there’s no question about it.”

Troy Shonk, athletic director for the center, said it does not sponsor off-site activities in Holmes Beach due to costs. “As our programs become bigger,” he said “it would be something they would be discussing.”

Dell said he believes there is demand for a co-ed softball program, and may suggest Tebbetts Field be modified for softball. Softball fields are constructed with a 60-foot baseline, while Tebbetts Field has 90-foot baselines.

Ross said the center had attempted to organize a softball league in the past but it didn’t work out because of an insurance problem.

Birdie Tebbetts Field – the past

Birdie Tebbetts Field is the only Holmes Beach-maintained baseball field. It was dedicated in March 2001 to honor George Robert “Birdie” Tebbetts, a long-time Island resident who died in 1999. Tebbetts was known as a defensive-minded catcher for the Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians between the late 1930s and the early 1950s, and as the best catcher in the American League in the 1940s, according to Wikipedia. The talented catcher went on to manage the Cincinnati Reds, Atlanta Braves and Indians in the 1950s and 1960s.

In his 60s, Tebbetts settled on Anna Maria Island and helped the Anna Maria Island Little League, according to “Birdie Tebbetts” by Tom Simon, for the Baseball Biography Project, the American Society of Baseball Research.

In the 1997, Tebbetts earned a World Series ring from the Florida Marlins as a founding member of the team’s executive scouts.

In the Aug. 4, 2005, edition of The Islander, Kevin Cassidy reported that the city hired a public works employee to maintain the field that had been improved with new sod, an irrigation system and clay on the infield.

According to Gary Blunden, Holmes Beach public works foreman, the city now has two employees whose “primary concern” is to take care of the soccer and baseball fields, maintaining the Bermuda grass, applying pesticides, herbicides and fertilizing.