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.
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.
