Eugene Park Tour - Bethel Community Park, Part Three

The Ball Fields

This little outdoor basketball court stands close to the children's playground. It's more for shooting hoops and games of HORSE than for tournaments. 

What you see behind this court, over that rise, are the gorgeous baseball fields. Bethel Community Park is west Eugene's primary outdoor athletic facility. Many school and adult teams use the fields. The Ted Norman complex holds three full baseball diamonds. 

Interestingly, there are no viewer stands in the facility (that I can see). Onlookers bring lawn chairs and pop-up tents and stake a claim on that rise behind the basketball hoops. Or they take their chairs to the perimeter fence and watch their young athletes' baseball games by looking through the fence. At least ... this is how there was spectator engagement during the pandemic.

As you can see, the fields are gorgeous. There's an electronic scoreboard. There's even an official-looking line of banners from team sponsors.

The other ballfield contains a full paved track for runners (and walkers like me). The track and the field are surrounded by fencing. Because this sits directly behind an elementary school, the track is open to the public before and after school during the school year. It's open during daylight hours during the summer and school vacations.

The ball field is fully lighted ... and boy are they bright! We have the "benefit" of that light every night that there's an official scheduled game.

The field is a high-quality Astroturf. It has lines painted for football and soccer. It gets a lot of use by sport leagues and school teams. On the weekends, I'll often see men in pick-up games. Folks come out to throw frisbees and fly kites, too. 

Sometimes after dark, we hear sounds of teens who have jumped the fence and are enjoying sport of a different kind!

Here's a panorama I stitched together from three photos that I took from my bedroom window.

Click for a larger image

Directly behind this track and ballfield, you can see the elementary school. I'm sure it looks familiar from the many sunset photos I've posted here on my blog.