Irrigation work on Calgary ball diamonds leaves little league players with nowhere to play

EDITOR'S NOTE:Calgary Parks tells CBC News it was able to delay some infrastructure improvements and has offered alternate diamonds to the Bow Ridge Little League this year. No leagues or games will be cancelled due to infrastructure improvements.

A Calgary little league says around 120 kids don't have a place to play baseball this springbecause the city is planning irrigation work at two diamonds.

The Bow Ridge Little League received permit renewals for ball diamonds in mid-February.

"With no notice at all we received our permits and discovered that two of our parks that handle our larger kids, our older-age kids were taken away from us," said league vice-presidentDavid Smith.

According to Smith, the diamonds one in Silver Springs and the other in St. Andrews Heights are the only ones they use that are big enough to handle 13-to 18-year-olds.

"We'll literally have to tell these guys sorry, we can't field a team this year," he said.

The season runs for two months, from the last week of April to the last week of June. The league would like the city topostpone the work until later this summer.

"Our registration's closed, we've taken people's money, we've promised them something to play," Smithsaid.

Possible postponement?

There's a chance the diamond in Silver Springs will end up being available.

"We do have an opportunity and we are working with the contractor to try and modify the schedule," said Michelle Wong with Calgary Parks.

But St. Andrews Heights isn't an option.

"Work had already started, and so there's nothing we can do to either delay or postpone it," she said.

Once the irrigation work is done, the diamonds will be unavailable for two years so the new grass has a chance to mature.

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