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Former Baltimore Oriole and Baseball Hall Of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. held a press conference at the Bragg Hill Family Life Center in Fredericksburg in September. View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

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Ripken's complex going to the city

Ripken foundation says Fredericksburg makes most sense for fields

BY EMILY BATTLE

Date published: 1/30/2008

BY EMILY BATTLE

A youth baseball complex bearing one of the biggest names in baseball will be built on city-owned land behind Fredericksburg's Bragg Hill neighborhood.

The Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation has chosen a 48-acre site on the Rappahannock River in Fredericksburg as the location for the complex, which is part of a bigger program that seeks to improve the lives of at-risk youth.

The foundation also looked at sites in New Post in Spotsylvania County and near Drew Middle School in Stafford County.

Ripken Foundation Deputy Executive Director Chuck Brady said the decision was based on where the foundation could serve the most children with the biggest needs.

"We wanted to be able to make the biggest impact on kids," Brady said.

In the Fredericksburg schools, 46 percent of students were eligible for free and reduced lunch in the 2006-07 school year. That compares to 16 percent of Stafford students and 21 percent of Spotsylvania students, according to the state Department of Education.

Additionally, the city's poverty rate was estimated in 2005 at 17 percent, compared to 4.6 percent in Stafford and 5.5 percent in Spotsylvania, according to 2005 figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Brady said he expects the primary users of the complex to be kids within a 2- to 3-mile radius, which would include some areas of the counties whose populations also have great needs.

He said the foundation sees the facility as a place where the organizations it partners with can get outside and teach the lessons of Ripken's character-development programs.

While it could become a venue for baseball tournaments, he doesn't see that as its main purpose.

"We see it being used by kids that have traditionally not had access to many ballfields," he said.

Local philanthropist Doris Buffett, who announced last fall that she would give the effort $1 million if it could raise $1 million on its own, applauded the decision to locate the fields in Fredericksburg.

"You've got to have it located where kids can get to it," Buffett said. "I'm delighted. I hope Fredericksburg gets behind it."

Brady estimates the complex could cost around $2 million, although design work has not yet begun.

SIZE: 48 acres LOCATION:On the Rappahannock River, behind the Bragg Hill community Why the city owns it: Fredericksburg bought this property from the Silver Cos. in 2003 for $2.5 million. It used the land to store silt removed by the Army Corps of Engineers from the Rappahannock River after the removal of the Embrey Dam. What about traffic? It's not a huge issue for the Ripken Foundation, which envisions the primary market for the field as kids who live within a close radius--many of whom may come in on school or community buses--not masses of baseball league parents and players coming in for tournaments. As plans to widen Fall Hill Avenue move slowly along, Ripken's Chuck Brady said, "While it will be great when they widen it, I'm not sure it will make a huge impact on us." What's next? Foundation officials will conduct a fundraising feasibility study in February. By that time, they should also have some information on what the complex could look like. They'll launch a fundraising campaign in the coming months, and hope to have all pledges and donations by the end of this year.

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Date published: 1/30/2008

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