Herts Baseball Club has published details of the club’s Spring Training dates. Both adult and youth league players will be reporting for the first session of Spring Training on Saturday, 25 January.
In the first few weeks, preparations will take place indoors at JFK Catholic School. Herts will then invade the Northwick Park baseball centre where the focus will be mainly on hitting, but other aspects of the game will be covered too. During these early weeks, all Herts players who register for the season will go through a photo session to prepare their profile photos which will be used for club, league and promotional purposes.
On 16 and 23 of February the teams will be going back in time to experience the playing surface which MLB players played on at the Astrodome, the home of the Houston Astros between 1965 and 1999. The venue was nicknamed “The Eighth Wonder of the World” as it was the world’s first domed sports stadium and the artificial grass surface became known as Astroturf. Many other MLB, NFL and Premier League (football) clubs followed in the footsteps of the Houston Astros and played on artificial grass. Herts players will play on the same first-generation artificial grass. It does not mean that it is 50 years old. In fact it is brand new, installed just a few weeks ago at Whitefield School.
The Herts teams will return to Grovehill Ballpark for the first time in 2014 in the first weekend of March where training will continue until the pre-season games in the Herts Spring League and then on 6, 12 and 13 April it will be Opening Day in the respective BBF leagues.
HOW TO REGISTER FOR THE 2014 HERTS BASEBALL SEASON
Herts Baseball Club has commenced the 2014 member registration process. For those who already have a Herts Club House account they will be prompted to register when they log on next time (click here to go to the Herts Online Club House and log on with your existing username and password). Those who are new to Herts and do not have an online account will be able to register as 2014 members by completing this form.