Ivy Baseball Facilities

There are certainly some better than others.  It somewhat depends on your priorities.  You could rank purely on the facility itself and leave it at that, or you could factor in other things like is it on or off campus, turf or grass (depending on your preference), or general climate of the location.  Also, access to indoor winter facilities. For example, Dartmouth and Cornell are both excellent turf facilities on campus.  They are also probably the two coldest and snowiest (I'm purely guessing based on how north they are).  Penn's field is not nearly as nice, but it is the "Miami of the Ivies" - meaning most southern.  Better climate earlier and likely throughout spring than most.  Penn, and others, have an indoor bubble for the winter and the field is on the edge of campus.  Columbia is off campus if that matters to you.  It's a good question, but a little more complicated than it might seem, or at least I'm attempting to make it more complicated.

I haven't kept up with any new buildings for a few years, but here goes:

 

Dartmouth: shared indoor building for winter, artificial turf field on campus for games. 

Yale: shared facilities for winter, if a kid wants to do long toss, take a snow shovel; grass former MILB field off campus

Columbia: off campus athletic center (looks great but I don't know what portion the baseball team has), off campus turf field (really cool field with some stellar city backgrounds)

Brown: don't know where they work out, on campus grass field which slopes away from the batter

Penn: don't know where they work out, on campus grass field (fringe of the campus) with some really weird outfield distances

Princeton: on campus dedicated subterranean practice area (under the athletic center) with a full infield and about half an outfield (ceiling about 40 feet high), grass on campus field 

Harvard: shared work out area, grass and coldest field this side of Arctic (wind right off the river)

Cornell: don't know where they work out, turf field on campus.

 

in general, I thought most Ivy programs had better facilities then most Patriot league teams.

 

But it doesn't matter how good the winter facilities are, it's almost painful (and sometimes comical) to watch the teams for the first month of the season - there is no substitute for outside practices. The first time S's team was outside for a season was to play LSU, South Carolina, and Maryland (though it was snowing for that series) - in other words, the first time the outfielders got to shag a ball was during the fielding practice which preceded each game.  

I have been told:

 

In terms of the infield surface, the artificial turf fields rank at the top of course. And at the bottom...a surprise to me when I heard it...Yale.

I've been to all the fields multiple times but I've only seen the indoor facilities (from the inside) on a few of them.  So, keep that in mind.  I put a high rating for on-campus fields and facilities.  So, with that in mind here is my list:

 

1) Cornell - I'm very partial, but the field is great with the engineering school & Bill Nye clock backdrop in CF. Fans & students get rowdy in the parking deck with adult beverages.  Parking deck can also provide shelter against the cold, wind, and rain for spectators. Great view at the top of the parking deck.  A long drive depending where you are coming from.   On campus field in a great location.

 

2) Princeton - love the old time baseball field/backstop and hedges in the outfield.  The dinner club hecklers can make it very entertaining.  On campus field in a great location.

 

3) Dartmouth - very nice facility, a long, long drive.  If your lucky enough you'll see the plowed snow banks in April outside the fence.  ;-).  On campus field.

 

4) Brown  - I love the whole athletic complex, and the grass field is really nice. It is a simple little stadium but for some reason it appeals to me.  On campus field.

 

5) Columbia - A unique off campus field where the visitors dugout is underneath the football field.  Great seating arrangement.  Parking can be tight.  A very strange outfield configuration.  Off campus.

 

6) Yale - I love the stadium, seating and history.  Terrible location next to a cemetary and the field could use some fixing.  Off campus.

 

7) Penn - If you can find the field, give yourself a gold star.  I like the the seating and the stadium but the field dimensions are odd.  Highway, and train tracks in CF and the nearby water treatment plant make it a one of a kind experience on a windy day.  Off campus.

 

8) Harvard - Sorry, I just didn't like it all.  Off campus.

 

Great memories at all these places.

Hmmm. It WAS SEVERAL years ago (1948) when Babe Ruth told George H.W. Bush that Yale Field was the "finest playing surface he has ever seen"

 

 

 

 

Cornell has an awesome field.  I can not compare it to other Ivy's, but it more than holds it's own against the other northern Div 1 school fields where we've attended games.  You can see the corner of the parking facility in the upper left of the picture, the garage runs along the third base side - great views of the field.

How are we defining off campus?  I'm not sure I would consider Penn or Harvard off campus.  Never been to Yale but I understand Columbia is some distance away. I would think if it is generally contiguous and players don't require a shuttle of some sort then it is on.  Probably splitting hairs but if it's a quick walk from the dorm then I don't think that's a big deal. JMO.

Thanks for posting these rankings!  Fun to read!

I wouldn't consider Harvard's field off campus, It's just not within Harvard Yard. But a lot of the campus isn't. There are houses (dorms) and other facilities all around it. On their website they refer to the field as one of the finest in the northeast. When my son saw he field his comment was, "You have to be kidding! This isn't as nice as our high school field." 

 

I agree with it being a cold place to play or watch a game. It's a wide open area where the winds whips off the Charles River.

Just saw Columbia's facilities back in June. Robertson Field is located OFF CAMPUS at farthest northern point of Manhattan at the Baker Athletic Complex.

The new Campbell sports building is nice. A modern structure that serves coaches and players for all of Columbia's 31 D-1 Sports. Coaches offices, lecture type large conference rooms and a Gym.

THE GOOD: The field has artificial turf. Bullpens and cages behind LF outfield fence. Electronic scoreboard ( Small ) stadium style spectator seating behind home plate and 1B line. As was mentioned earlier, it's an odd shape/ structure adjacent to the Columbia football field. Overall the field was better than what I expected.Coach Boretti runs a terrific program and seems to get the most out of what he has to work with.

THE BAD: A good 25-30 min train ride from campus. I knew that before I visited with my son but the reality was that when you factor in waiting on the subway platform for the "1" train and walking from the 215th st station to the field it felt like an hour. The Athletic Dept does provide vans that transport the students continually throughout the day. But still when you factor in waiting for the next van and traffic....it ain't great. Seems like a player would lose an hour and a half a day commuting! Maybe not a big deal for some guys but the way my son looked at it, that was 7-10 hours a week. And Columbia is not easy academically.Time management for a student athlete at an Ivy seems critical.But they have a full roster of players that do that year in and year out and compete at a high level in their league.

Also, didn't like that there is no baseball locker room or clubhouse. Players share lockers w/football.

 

I know the area around Penn very well, if you are off campus there won't be any doubt in your mind about when it happens! the area around the ball field is a whole lot better then the west side for sure but you will know! A good friend of mines son just started his freshman year at Drexel, if you don't look and see which flags are flying on the light posts it is easy to not be sure which campus you are on...he gets about 15 alerts a day from the school via text about breakins and random crimes in the neighborhood. LOL it is a better area then Temple so they do have that going for them.

15 alerts a day??   I know you're kidding but others may not.  Its a city/urban environment and there is no doubt there is an element of crime like any other.   If Drexel is putting out 15 alerts a day then they aren't applying any judgment at all.

re Columbia:

 

The baseball field (and football, soccer, field hockey and softball fields) and the new Campbell field-house are 100 blocks north of the campus. There are multiple regularly scheduled buses available to athletes throughout the day. On average it's an approximately 20 minute ride each way. The players deal with it and it quickly becomes part of the routine. When they're not catching an extra 40 winks, the players are bonding. It doesn't seem to be a detriment to recruiting (evidence: three Ivy League Championships in the last three years). In the grand scheme of things, the extra four or so hours of back-and-forth travel per off-season week is not that big of a deal.