By Michael Letendre

WATERFORD — I’m not trying to beat a dead horse here in TBE, but I’ve been on the hunt to see how many cities and towns have better baseball and softball field facilities than our Bristol public schools do.

Since this has become a hot ticket item in town, it appears like the fields and facilities at both Bristol Central and Bristol Eastern are missing several key ingredients.

You know the missing items: completed fences, permanent fences, dugouts, turf playing field, etc.

And this past week, the Bristol Senior American Legion Baseball team ventured to Waterford for postseason play — not once but twice. 

The showdowns took place from the baseball field at Waterford High School.

And what did the baseball field look like?

The facility was completely fenced in, had dugouts and wasn’t in bad shape for mid-July.

Obviously, someone took care of the field as well when it’s not in use.

It was another very good baseball facility but that was just the undercard.

In the main event of the day, I found this gem.

Once again, another town not called Bristol has an all-turf softball field with all the trimmings for its student-athletes.

And you know those amenities I’m talking about: A permanent fence, covered dugouts, lights, and a small press box.

By the time our city finally starts to move on a project like one, we’re going to be a minority in Connecticut without an all-weather softball facility.

Forget about all the tomfoolery of not being able to construct a softball field in Bristol like the one pictured.

Please, how much longer do we have to wait in the Mum City before we start to “catch up” to other cities and towns around us?

This project is long overdue for the city of Bristol and our athletes deserve our very best with an all-weather facility that both public schools could make use of and enjoy.

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