I attended my first practice session on Tuesday September
22nd in the afternoon.
Drew Fann, the director of baseball operations at
Vanderbilt and who helped me to organize this trip, takes me around the facilities.
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| Hawkins Fiels - Home of the Vanderbilt Commodores |
As you can see on the pictures, it is gorgeous.
The football and baseball field are right by each other,
separated only by a walkway.
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| The mounds from the pitching lab |
Under the football stands, what they call the pitching
lab. An underground room 30 to 35 meters long and about 15 meters wide.
The lab has a clay double mound. There is also a bunch of
nets, and a couple of portable mounds.
It also features all small equipment and tools dedicated
to pitching.
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| Players' locker |
Drew takes me to the lockers. There are 3 lockers. The
biggest one is for the players. It features a little room with sofas, TV and
sound system. The coaches also have a small locker room at the same level. Then,
the third locker room is reserved for the pros, who are coming back to work out
in the offseason. Vanderbilt alumni are still very much part of the family.
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| The lounge room from the players' locker |
The problem is that the coaches' locker is now a bit
small and 2 staff members are using the pro locker. The second issue is that
the pro locker was probably perfect when Tim Corbin took the helm of the
program. Now, it's a bit different since this locker wouldn't hold the amount
of pro players who graduated in a single year.
But as each problem has its solution, there will be some
construction work done after the 2016 season.
Among other things, the pro locker will have the same
size as the players' locker.
On the first floor of this building are the baseball
offices, the classroom (a key part of the program) and, what I call the walls
of fame, that feature framed jerseys of the most notorious baseball alumni.
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| The classroom |
The offices and the classroom are looking over left
field.
Hawkins Field is all turf. All turf, yes. It includes the
batter's box and more unusual, the brand new turf mound (which proved to be a
game changer already during my stay).
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Vanderbilt alumni David Price framed jersey
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Left field is a bit shorter and features a big green
wall, a la Fenway Park.
Just outside the playing surface, on the first and 3rd
base sides of the field, are the bullpens. One double bullpen on each side, all
turf.
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Bullpen on 1st base side, with flat ground plates and home plates
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The stands and bleachers have a capacity of 3700 and
there is a press box behind home plate.
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