Pacific Northwest Baseball/Facilities

Tacoma I am not so sure about. Olympia is a place where many people that work in Tacoma or Fort Lewis decide to live in the Olympia/Yelm area. Housing is cheaper and the commute on I-5 isn't too bad. I know there isn't much in the Puyallup area where a lot of people move. Downtown Tacoma is pretty pricey for decent housing, especially compared to Oklahoma.

Baseball is pretty big in Oly/Yelm or in the Thurston county area in general. There are three indoor facilities in the Olympia area, although none are what would call large. Oly had two small indoor cages at a place called 'Courts and Cages which has two hitting stalls and I think Sports Unlimited in Lacey has cages but I am not sure about renting of the facility.

Yelm WA has a fairly large sized cage with a couple of pitching machines and four stalls for hitting.

I know KNM sports does some lessons in Yelm as does Budd Bay Courts and Cages and Sports Unlimited. All three places are within a 25-30 minute drive of downtown Olympia.

As far as baseball. Pony and Babe Ruth are pretty big in the area. It is hard to say which is bigger, both are pretty good sized. I am not so sure in Tacoma but I know we play a few teams from the area so there is baseball up there too. The facilities in the Olympia/Yelm area aren't too bad. The city of Lacey built a beautiful new facility called the Regional Athletic Center, across the street from it is SkyHawks Park, plus there are about a half a dozen multi-field places where kids can play. SkyHawks holds USSSA tourneys all the time as well as Pony baseball and Cal Ripken games.

Baseball goes on in the Olympia/Lacey/Yelm area from March to the end of October so it isn't too bad. It gets a little wet sometimes but it isn't bad. In addition a lot of the select teams practice year round at the cages. My son practices year round at the Yelm cages as part of his team.

If you have any questions about the Lacey/Olympia area let me know. I commute to Fort Lewis daily and it isn't bad.

Hum I saw the regional park being built in stages and I have to say that under the surface it has to be the most advance drainage system (it has to be with all the rain) in the country. Georgous facility.

As for housing ha... Sorry but compared to Oklahoma you can get a mansion for the housing prices in that area. Example is a 4 bedroom 2 1/2 bath 2024 sf house with a yard the size of my garage,( most subdivisions have small community parks ) 2 car gar, wood siding for 245,000 and homes can go over 275k easy. And that was a short sale. Sold two years earlier for 317k One neighborhood had a mobile home on a fifth of an acre in the middle of it in Lacey listed for 189,900
Similiar homes in OKC, Bethany or Edmond are in the 170-210k price range with decent yards. Oh dont forget to add 15k for central air conditioner. Not that it is needed very often but they are hard to come by. Property taxes are high and does not include garbage PU. Gas prices are for the most part 30-40 cents a gallon more expensive than here in TN, and OK is about the same as here.
Schools seem to be very good. Scenery is beautiful. Summers dont get to hot except last year did. Mild but extended winters. Traffic going north to post in the morning and visa versa is aggressive and can back up for long stretches.

Sorry dont know much about the baseball up there but quite a few fields that always seem to be in use.

Puyallup is a mecca for baseball training and an easy commute to Tacoma. There are many strong 14U teams in the region.

Here's a link to a local baseball forum where you can ask all the questions you want. It has a "Forums" section too.

http://tacomabaseball.com/

Wklink mentioned Sports Unlimited and I can recommend them for hitting and fielding but as of now, they don't do much in the way of pitching. I've heard that Yelm has some batting cages and a good pitching instructor but I've never been there.g

Baseball is alive and well in the PNW

BK if you do come to the Tacoma area you should look into the the NW Timberjacks. They use the Competive Edge facility in Puyallup. They are run by Mike Brooks, who is the lead instructor at the Edge. They have s few good pitching instructors also. Here is a link to their web site. NW Timberjacks

Around here most of the good 14U teams play in the Sandy Koufax league.

Seattle Select, Seattle Stars, RIPS Brewers to name a few. they all play in the Sandy Koufax League. You can look at their web sites and it will direct you to the league and you can learn a little about their programs and likely see the 13u record for last year. Once to the Koufax league site you can get the names of 30 or 40 other programs.

I have a facility owned by the North Seattle Baseball Association. They have competitive select teams. We have cage time and semi-private training available and will have a motion capture lab built within a few months!

For more information, see my website below.