After finishing college in 1994, an internship at the YMCA, and a brief introduction into working life in Boston, I decided to take a giant career detour and move to Virginia Beach. It wasn’t an overly popular move in my family circle then, but I wanted to experience living outside of New England, if only for a few years. I moved down to Virginia with a friend from Springfield College and we found jobs and settled into the VA Beach world rather quickly. At one of my first jobs, a telemarketing firm, I met a VA Beach dude who played in an amateur baseball league. He invited me to attend a game, to try out, I did so, then played in that league for the next three seasons. If memory serves me correctly, it was called the Hampton Roads National Adult Baseball Association, but my memory is a little foggy from nearly 25 years of life, family, a few adult beverages, moving back to RI, job changes, life changes, etc. For this blog, let’s focus on baseball.
So playing competitive baseball in Norfolk, Hampton Roads circa 1996 was amazing. I was sort of bummed out about my collegiate experience or lack thereof. Too many injuries, too many setbacks, too many players way, way better than me to play consistently for Springfield College. I honestly looked at this men’s league as a sort of do over for my lack of college ball time. And the league was peppered with incredible talent from Virginia area schools as well as Navy serviceman who played baseball competitively in college and in high school. The league was very competitive, we had scouts at the games, we had former MILB players in the league. On my team alone, we had a shortstop get signed to a free agent contract, we had an outfielder who played for the Pawtucket Red Sox (more on him later), and I struck out a guy who played for the AAA Royals. Very cool experience.
I was recently in Virginia Beach on vacation and wanted to check out a collegiate wood bat league game. The Tidewater Summer League, on their website, had games scheduled at Norfolk’s Lakewood Park so I decided to head over and check out a game. When I arrived at the field, I suddenly realized that I had played there some 27 years ago. The field looked damp from the recent rains and there was no game nor game planning in sight. So, I took the time to walk the field, take photos, take a trip out to the bullpen, take a trip out to the mound, and literally take a trip down baseball memory lane. I walked slowly and looked around and around and around. I took a zillion photos and here are a few choice ones.
Eerily, Lakewood Park looks about the same as it did 27 years ago. Walking up to the backstop, I got the baseball chills that remind me of how much I love this game.
I found a baseball in the visitors dugout and walked out to the mound. I was 24 years old when I first pitched in Hampton Roads. At 24, I was still thinking “if I can just impress this scout, maybe I’ll get signed.”
I remember playing a majority of our games at this park. We played around Hampton Roads at other fields but Lakewood stands out the most in my memory bank.
I mentioned the PawSox player earlier. His bat speed was so freaking lightning fast, he could barely hit the ball fair. He would hit these towering shots into this tree (in the photo above) on the fly, and we would just stare in amazement in the dugout. No one, I mean no one in the league could throw it by him. They got him out by changing speeds, dirt balls, knuckleballs – but never fastballs. His bat speed would break the exit velocity radars of today!!!
I’m not a structural archivist but these bleachers and that press box look to be original from when I played back in the late 1990s. Of course I sat down and had a moment.
The perimeter of the baseball field still had these massive trees, some of the branches overhung over the fences. Ground rules from 1996 are a little fuzzy, wondering if a home run hitting the branches was a homer or ground rule double?
I took a walk around the field, into the bullpen areas on each side, around the dugouts, three times I walked around. I was looking for signs and putting together memories and just in awe that the baseball field was still here and overall in pretty good shape. I took this video from left field:
I have an email into Baseball757 for more information, potentially, on the league I played in. According to a Google search, Baseball757 took over the league organization I played in. Nothing confirmed yet but once I found out more information, I will post it.
Wow, what a find. I am so psyched to have taken the drive over to Lakewood Park to walk around and relive an incredible chapter in my baseball life. This Hampton Roads Men’s Baseball League was competitive, the talent was ridiculous, it was just a perfect landing spot for me after a very disappointing collegiate baseball career (or lack thereof). I loved my time there and my 3 seasons still seem like just yesterday despite the nearly 30 year gap in time. I hope the Baseball757 group gets back to me with some information.
The Baseball Storyteller 
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