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March 15, 2011 / Brooklyn news / Greenpoint / Meadows of Shame

Pain in the grass! McCarren not ready for baseball, kickball

By Aaron Short
The Brooklyn Paper
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The Brooklyn Paper / Julie Rosenberg
Just try to imagine a summer without Brooklyn Kickball. It's a nightmare, right?

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A botched reseeding of McCarren Park’s fields could move two Williamsburg baseball teams off their home fields — and shorten the Brooklyn Kickball League’s season in half — The Brooklyn Paper has learned.

The Parks Department is poised to shut down Gilroy Field off Bedford Avenue this month to plant new grass seedlings, a source confirmed, because seeds planted in November failed to germinate.

Packer Summer Day Camp

The field has been off-limits for much of the winter, but the grass has not grown, forcing Parks officials to ramp up their efforts.

Calls to the agency were not returned by our evergreen deadline.

If the likely reseeding is undertaken, the Automotive HS football team and the Van Arsdale HS baseball team would be forced to compete on an alternate field in Brooklyn or Queens.

More important, the shortage of grass could also postpone the Brooklyn Kickball League’s season until July — two months after the traditional Opening Day.

Park users have complained about the field’s lack of coverage for much of the decade, and kickball players have endured its muddy, dusty outfield for six seasons.

League Commissioner Kevin Dailey has started a petition drive calling the closure “unnecessary” and “inappropriate” in the spring and summer months.

“Instead of starting over with seeding, we want to take next few months and plan a good future for seeding in 2012, starting with proper field drainage,” said Dailey.

©2011 Community Newspaper Group

←Awesome: Beirut to headline Northside Festival!
→After shaming, Time Warner does the right thing by minority kids

Reader Feedback

Joey from Clinton Hills says:
Hipster backlash has begun.
March 15, 2011, 11:22 am
Frank from Furter says:
artificial grass is better...needs less maintenance and less pollutants...
March 15, 2011, 12:07 pm
Goyo from Los Sures says:
Are you guys serious? The Parks Dept. has been ——ting on Williamsburg for years and now that the hipsters kickball league is experiencing a hiccup you report this trash. How about writing when the little league program in Williamsburg is not issued permits and hundreds of neighborhood minority children don't get to play ball all summer!
March 15, 2011, 1:13 pm
Joe from G'point says:
Goyo has a point. Hipsters are so damn annoying. All they do is drive up the rent and they act like they own the neighborhood with their man-bag. They are utterly annoying.
March 15, 2011, 2:17 pm
MikeMack from Williamsburgh says:
Don't forget that they are playing the most retarded sport ever created. It is up there with Curling...maybe worst!

If it was up to these hipsters they would try and make it an Olympic event too.
March 15, 2011, 2:20 pm
MikeMack from Williamsburgh says:
The only good thing about the Hipsters are their HOT girls!!! Lets beat them up and steal their women!
March 15, 2011, 2:21 pm
leslie from greenpoint says:
How does one reseed in November?
March 15, 2011, 3:22 pm
Tina from Greenpoint says:
Really, the most important issue here is that the recreational kickball season might be shortened? Dear God what shall people do? How dare the public parks department attempt to take care of a public park. Cry me a river.
March 15, 2011, 3:29 pm
Willie from Burg says:
Let these MORONS play on the asphalt fields!
March 16, 2011, 10:35 am
Jenny from greenpoint says:
Not sure why this has to turn into hipster bashing. This is about OSA & the parks departments failure to do it's job in a timely manner. McCarren is in a terrible state. If it rains, the whole thing gets flooded in parts!! Hello??? How much could is possibly cost to fix that? How much did they make with the shows & where does that $ go if not directly to fix that park? Where are the results?
March 18, 2011, 10:25 am
Nick from Bushwick says:
Actually, Jenny, what it says is that they DID try and it didn't take - probably because the jackasses tried to seed in the middle of winter, and even if it had taken the random frosts experienced since then would have killed it all anyway.

As for the kickball season being shortened, who cares? As others have pointed out it's just a bunch of hipsters being effected, and the park was not and has never been designed specifically for the use of white, midwest trust fund kids who think that living in Williamsburg means they're a part of the Brooklyn community.
March 18, 2011, 6:33 pm
Joe Z. from Greenpoint says:
Nick, you neglected to mention that Aaron Short, like most of the other "reporters" are completely clueless about the historical background and geographical boundaries of the neighborhoods They cover.

McCarren Park, prior to 1909, was called GREENPOINT Park; and, it's located in GREENPOINT. Not Williamsburg. Not Bushwick. GREENPOINT. It was never located in Williamsburg. Ask anyone who is a lifelong resident and they'll tell you that the border between Greenpoint and Williamsburg is Metropolitan Avenue, not what some realtor says.
March 20, 2011, 11:12 pm

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