Best Baseball Complex?

Haven't been to any except Diamond Nation but I would NOT make that one the best - not by a long shot. Reasons why:

• Very short time limited games so they can pack huge numbers of games into the schedule & make most money possible
• Entrance fee to watch your kid play so they can make as much profit as possible
• No coolers allowed in, so you have to buy their concessions and they can make as much profit possible
• Fields extremely close together so constant incoming foul balls to watch for
• They set it up so their house teams play the weakest teams in pool play and best teams play each other
• Not an easy area to get to, and games are often spread widely (early & late) across 2 or 3 days so they can get the most money from each weekend with a huge amount of teams.
• Temporary metal "fences" for the younger divisions because they play on divided 90' fields 
• Central/North Jersey traffic

In short, it's all about the money at DN.

2019&21 Dad posted:

Haven't been to any except Diamond Nation but I would NOT make that one the best - not by a long shot. Reasons why:

• Very short time limited games so they can pack huge numbers of games into the schedule & make most money possible
• Entrance fee to watch your kid play so they can make as much profit as possible
• No coolers allowed in, so you have to buy their concessions and they can make as much profit possible
• Fields extremely close together so constant incoming foul balls to watch for
• They set it up so their house teams play the weakest teams in pool play and best teams play each other
• Not an easy area to get to, and games are often spread widely (early & late) across 2 or 3 days so they can get the most money from each weekend with a huge amount of teams.
• Temporary metal "fences" for the younger divisions because they play on divided 90' fields 
• Central/North Jersey traffic

 

In short, it's all about the money at DN.

Same poor things can be stated about BBH plus you don't always play on site.

Haven't been to enough of them to know which one was "best".  Grand Park in Westfield, just outside of Indianapolis, was really nice, that is pretty much the only famous one we have been to so far.   I think to make Grand Park the "best" it'd need to have more batting cages and more shade for spectators.  One of my personal favorites is the Rock in Milwaukee.  Fun place

JetBlue and Roger Dean in Florida are pretty nice, camelback ranch in Arizona is good, and the first big complex I can think of has to be east Cobb.

2022NYC posted:

2019&21 Dad posted:

Haven't been to any except Diamond Nation but I would NOT make that one the best - not by a long shot. Reasons why:

• Very short time limited games so they can pack huge numbers of games into the schedule & make most money possible
• Entrance fee to watch your kid play so they can make as much profit as possible
• No coolers allowed in, so you have to buy their concessions and they can make as much profit possible
• Fields extremely close together so constant incoming foul balls to watch for
• They set it up so their house teams play the weakest teams in pool play and best teams play each other
• Not an easy area to get to, and games are often spread widely (early & late) across 2 or 3 days so they can get the most money from each weekend with a huge amount of teams.
• Temporary metal "fences" for the younger divisions because they play on divided 90' fields 
• Central/North Jersey traffic

 

In short, it's all about the money at DN.

Same poor things can be stated about BBH plus you don't always play on site.

Been to both BBH and DN.  All of these are true.  We've played off site at Diamond Nation as well.  The plus about off site is you don't have to pay to watch, although they seem to schedule it so that at least one game per day is at the facility so that you have to pay.  

Both are Stay to Play facilities, although prices we paid for hotel rooms were reasonable.

The fields  are kept up pretty well and so far officiating has been pretty good.  We played a game where the local team knew both umps.  The game was called very well, despite our fears.

We also played at New Era Cap Classic in both Pittsburg and Buffalo.  Won't do those again.  Umps were terrible, fields were so-so, all over the place, and some in pretty rough neighborhoods.

Have not been to any of those.

The USA Baseball Complex in Durham, NC was pretty darn nice, but not huge. Maybe only 4-5 fields but grass, as I recall, and just gorgeous.

Batty67 posted:

Have not been to any of those.

The USA Baseball Complex in Durham, NC was pretty darn nice, but not huge. Maybe only 4-5 fields but grass, as I recall, and just gorgeous.

 

 

Technically, the USA Baseball Complex is located in Cary, but yes, it is a very nice complex.  One of the best I've seen in person.   Very well cared for.   Son's D2 university team played several games there.  It was also the host for the CIAA Championship as well as the D2 CWS in 2015.

I haven't been to many complexes around the country. I did once think a book listing the best Little League fields around Iowa, rated by bathrooms and concession stands, could be a best seller. It would be followed, of course, by a sequel on the best high school facilities around the state, judged on the same criteria.

When I played, the "best" park was the one with the short left field fence.

However, my choice is the Cooperstown Doubleday Field. We played our Goodwill Series twice at Doubleday Field.

The Japan TV filmed the historic games to 40 million. The classic game in 2006 was Tanaka vs Matt Harvey.

Bob

<goodwillseries24@gmail.com>

Consultant posted:

When I played, the "best" park was the one with the short left field fence.

However, my choice is the Cooperstown Doubleday Field. We played our Goodwill Series twice at Doubleday Field.

The Japan TV filmed the historic games to 40 million. The classic game in 2006 was Tanaka vs Matt Harvey.

Bob

<goodwillseries24@gmail.com>

Bob you are spot on!! Old School doesn't get any better then Doubleday field!! To play there and realize the game started here, with pics of teams playing on same grounds from the turn of the century on the walls and old grand stand...it is truly a shrine to the game.

it should be a bucket list must visit for any baseball fan.

2019&21 Dad posted:

Haven't been to any except Diamond Nation but I would NOT make that one the best - not by a long shot. Reasons why:

• Very short time limited games so they can pack huge numbers of games into the schedule & make most money possible
• Entrance fee to watch your kid play so they can make as much profit as possible
• No coolers allowed in, so you have to buy their concessions and they can make as much profit possible
• Fields extremely close together so constant incoming foul balls to watch for
• They set it up so their house teams play the weakest teams in pool play and best teams play each other
• Not an easy area to get to, and games are often spread widely (early & late) across 2 or 3 days so they can get the most money from each weekend with a huge amount of teams.
• Temporary metal "fences" for the younger divisions because they play on divided 90' fields 
• Central/North Jersey traffic

 

In short, it's all about the money at DN.

So maybe I am a bit of a softie for Diamond Nation but....we spent 5 to 7 weekends / mid weeks every season there for the last 6 years, I love the place.

Yes the Diamond Jacks Supers get a walk through pool play most of the time, not always but plenty of times. Yes the field are a little close but they have netting for the fans...yes they charge a gate fee but they have invested a shit pile of money in the location.

No it is not hard to get to, it is actually easy to get to which is why it is loaded every event at every age group months in advance, the completion with a few exceptions is very good, if you want to play good baseball in the Mid-Atlantic / NE at age 13 and higher this is your place, you want hard to get to? reference Baseball Heaven.

They use temp fences for the girls, they don't run young kids on the big fields. Ripken is still the king for 12 and down.

They bring in teams from Florida to Maine and also from the mid-west, they bring schools like no other events in the area. For the big tournys it is not uncommon to have 100 plus colleges on the sign in list...

Our experience with Diamond Nation was awesome.  The Super 17! Yes you could say it's about the money because they packed the place, but that was in front of 115 college coaches and 20 pro scouts. It was all about exposure and it was worth the money to have a few of the coaches talk to my oldest.  It's all perspective.

Grand Park is phenomenal.  Plenty of parking and it's easy to get to though the area is growing rapidly, I expect traffic will get worse.  It's a fairly new facility, so no trees for shade between games, but the fields are great....and the North Side of Indy offers a ton of hotel/food options.  We watched a game at Doubleday...it was very cool, would have loved to have somehow gotten a game there.   Son is a big fan of LakePoint.  His college has played their spring trip there the last two springs....though he would prefer if they had an ocean and a beach closeby

A new park in Sandusky, OH is supposed to be very nice....and in the middle of one of the biggest tourist areas in the Midwest.  Haven't been by it...but hearing it's pretty great.

https://sportsforceparkssandusky.com/

Son played at New England Baseball Complex, Diamond Nation, Baseball Heaven and Lake Point. Lake Point obviously the best, NBC a small version of it and the others are nice traditional parks.Cooperstown of course was a treat at 12 ,but fields are not crowd friendly