The Carlos Beltrán Academy already has its ‘big league’ park at a cost of $2 million

Florida – With strong top-tier support from Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), including a $2,000,000 donation, the Carlos Beltrán Baseball Academy held this Wednesday the ribbon-cutting activity to inaugurate its modern baseball stadium for the enjoyment of its students.

Located at the back of the main building where the academy’s administrative offices and study rooms are located, the state-of-the-art gaming facility is the size of a Major League Baseball stadium, field-wise.

And apart from the large investment made by MLB and the players’ association, personnel headed by the inspector of the MLB stadiums, Murray Cook, was the one who carried out the work in just seven months, said the former MLB player the Mayores and founder of the school, Carlos Beltran.

“The person who did it is a person that MLB uses for when there are special events, like for example the series they did with the Yankees and the Red Sox in London. When they changed the ‘soccer’ park into a baseball park, it was Murray Cook, who is the person MLB uses to make adjustments to all Major League ballparks. That was one of the things that when we had the idea of ​​making the park (of the academy), I wanted that person to be sent to me, because he already has that formula made. They came here early, at 8:00 in the morning, and left at 6:00 in the afternoon,” Beltrán said about the work.

“The dimensions are 325 (feet) in the corners, 380 or 385 in the gaps, and 395 in the center field. It is a large park and I think that the positive of all this for young people is that everything is more accessible now in a matter of the fact that before we had to use the school buses to take them to certain parks in the community. Now we have our own ‘field’ and it gives us the flexibility to be more practical”.

It is certainly not just any park that a teenager would find when going to the backyard of his school. The design impresses both for its size and for its artificial grass design.

The ribbon-cutting activity was attended by, among others, Leonor Colón, senior director of the MLBPA’s International Players Operations division, as well as Tony Reagins, director of MLB Baseball Development, and Cook himself.

“We share Carlos’s enthusiasm in inaugurating this baseball field, and we support him in continuing to inspire the next generation of Puerto Rican baseball players,” Colón said. “Puerto Rico has a rich history of baseball talent, and we are proud to be able to play a role in ensuring that everyone who wants to play or learn our game has the opportunity to do so. We wish Carlos and all those who made today possible that they continue to reap successes”.

They hope to release it with a game on August 9

Edwin Maldonado, director of the CBA, told The new day that the 2022-2023 school year will begin on August 8, and that he is making arrangements because he hopes to officially inaugurate the park with a game against the Puerto Rico Baseball Academy in Gurabo the next day, Tuesday, August 9.

Beltrán, for his part, said that they hope to give the facility various uses apart from being the practice and teaching facility for the students of the academy.

“Right now we do want to do activities, hold events and take advantage of the fact that we have this facility, and one of the things that I have discussed with Edwin Maldonado is that for such important events I would love for us to be able to host these events, and at the end of the day to continue developing talent, doing clinics or doing tryouts for young people from Puerto Rico, who can come and do it hereBeltran added.

Both Maldonado and Beltrán and his wife Jessica addressed those present from the center of the diamond. Jessica, among other things, remembered when long before the academy was built, she made a trip to the island from San Francisco, where her husband was playing at the time, to talk with the person who was recommended to direct the play. That was the engineer Ángel Cabán, who was present this Wednesday at the stadium’s ribbon cutting.

Beltrán was emotional when he hugged Caban.

“My great inspiration, and I sell it today with passion, is Roberto Clemente. Roberto did what no one else did, that he donated out of love for the youth and the people. Carlos made what poor Roberto could not come true, so he left them the model of Roberto and Carlos, because there is no other better in Puerto Rico… to donate for the youth, for society. Carlos in that sense was a good disciple, and Jessica”, said Cabán.