By: Danny Hanley

Hannibal Courier-Post

While most Prospect League baseball fans in Hannibal are trying to come up with creative names for the local team, Andy Dorian, director of the Hannibal Parks and Recreation Department, is focused on getting Clemens Field ready for use by the team next summer.

“When you’ve got an 80-plus-year-old facility there’s a lot here and there that needs to be done,” he said. “We’ve started on some odds and ends already down there.”

The late-September announcement that Hannibal will again feature a Prospect League team is not putting pressure on the parks department to tackle planned Clemens Field work sooner than later, according to Dorian.

“We had planned to do some stuff in October anyway,” he said. “Obviously we have to fill in some low spots on the turf and do more turf work. We’re working with Roland (Outdoor) on that and the [Hannibal team].

“There’s been some issues with the decking around the facility that we’ll be doing some work on. There’s some odds and ends like gates being broken. We’re working on the possibility of doing two new bullpens and hitting tunnels, one for the visitors and one for the home team. Those are all that we have planned for this fall.”

Not on the city’s to-do list will be removal of all references to the team’s former moniker.

“It (cost) would be on them,” said Dorian, referring to the Rick DeStefane-owned franchise. “Anything for marketing, things like that, that (expense) is on them.”

As for care of the field over the winter ahead, Dorian doesn’t foresee any big changes being needed based on what he has been told by team and league officials.

“Matt (Stembridge, general manager) and his dad have been really great to work with. It’s nice to have some other voices in there to help us with the field,” he said. “Dennis (Bastien), the (league) commissioner, is a field expert. It’s been good to talk to him and pick his brain about some of the ideas. I think we have a pretty good (field care) plan.”

TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE, CLICK HERE TO VIEW ON HANNIBAL.NET