Oakland Park Baseball

Guys, I stoped by Arnerich field on the way home today. It's a really nice field, and wasn't being used when I got there at 3:40. There were some guys there who said they had just finished a game, and confimred that it is a very in-demand venue, and we would be very unlikely to find it free unless we turned up after around 3:30 to 4 on a Sunday. I think every bunch that uses it probably gets a permit - Alamedans are in general a pretty law-abiding, by-the-book bunch.
There are other suitable parks in Alameda, I can call the parks department and try to find out who has reservations on a Sunday, and how we would get one, should we need to. Answer the poll so we can see who is willing to come out here to play.
I think we're going to have start paying the money so we can reserve somewhere, it is too frustrating to have to move around. It's not going to be very much, and I don't think we have much choice in the short term.

I'm gonna vote against Alameda. Oakland is much eaiser to get to from most of the Bay Area. If we're gonna pay to play, there's no reason we couldn't do Oakland.

Then again, if we have some good car-pooling, this isn't an issue. Still have we can find a field with about 280-300-280 porportions, that would be awsome.

I checked out Upper Washington Park in Alamada when I left Poplar and it was clear. I tried calling Scott a few time but no answer. As it turned out I ended up playing with a bunch of guys I've played with before here and got to play till 6:30 it got too dark to see the ball, so we had to quit). At least I got my fix in today.

As for reserving fields in Alameda, as convenient as it is for me (I live a block away), I wouldnt recommend it. Check out the ARPD website. The requirements are:
1. $35/hr, must be paid up front in person
2. You cannot take the field before or after the reservation time.
3. THe ARPD assigns an employee to be on-hand to monitor / supervise. (this doesnt applie to certian leagues and church groups)

There are only 2 parks (soon to be 3) in Alameda suitable to hardball. Thas Upper Washington and one of the diamonds at Kruise.

For the last year-and-a-half I've been the organizer a pickup softball group (similar to this group) that plays every Saturday, and will start playing on Sundays again in a couple of months. I've got a pretty good handle on the parks here in town, and I can tell you its a real hit and miss thing as far as getting a field on a reguilar basis. I've found over time that I need to have a game plan in advance. Here its relative easy because there are just a few parks in a short distance.

Scott doesn't have that luxury since there are alot of parks over a large area. Maybe the solution is to assign is for some of the regular players to scout out alternatives ahead of time, and if we get booted, assign a bunch guys to split up check out the many parks and report back to Scott. He could coordinate it. Once a park is found thats free, we could notify each other by a pre-arranged phone tree. Just a thoght...

I still vote to secure our own field legitimately. (See my more detailed post in the "More fields needed" thread.)