CORRECTION APPENDED

By N. Clark Judd

Play ball!

After years of back-and-forth over funding, the Bronx Borough President’s Office, City Councilman Oliver Koppell and the city Department of Parks and Recreation have reached an agreement that will lead to much-needed improvements at the Sid Augarten baseball field on Mosholu Avenue.

With Borough President Adolfo Carrión Jr. setting the table with $900,000 and Mr. Koppell batting clean-up by matching Mr. Carrión’s contribution, the city has agreed to renovate the cratered, weed-infested home of the North Riverdale Baseball League, according to a statement released by Mr. Carrión’s office last week.

The total of $1.8 million, including commitments for fiscal year 2010, comes after Bronx Parks Commissioner Hector Aponte told the elected officials last year that their initial pledge of $1.1 million would not be enough to knock divots, puddles and drainage problems out of the park.

“Hopefully, for the 2010 season we will have a safe, beautiful new ball field for the almost 500 children who play at Sid Field each week,” NRBL President Tom Ward said in a statement released through the borough president’s office.

The city Parks Department will make temporary modifications to the field so that it will be ready for this year’s baseball season by April 12, according to the statement.

The project will begin with action to correct the field’s drainage problems. A second phase will rebuild the ball field, provide new benches, and reconstruct the fencing, backstops, bleachers and drinking fountains.

Work won’t interrupt the baseball season, according to the statement.

“The field is in terrible shape and this would make a big change for hundreds of kids and families that use it every year,” said Tony Cassino, chairman of Community Board 8. He credited Mr. Koppell and Mr. Carrión for coming up with a plan to restore the field.

“This will give them a premiere field to play on,” he said of the project.

Last year, Mr. Aponte told The Press that Sid Field’s topography at the bottom of a hill contributed to its drainage problems. Reconfiguring the field within its site wouldn’t work either, he said at the time. Though Mr. Aponte promised temporary improvements, including scraping the field and leveling it off with clay, he said the only way to really fix the field was to fork over about $2 million.

Mr. Carrión has committed $550,000 from the 2009 fiscal year and $350,000 from the following year, according to his office’s statement. Mr. Koppell matched those funds.

CORRECTION:

This story misstated the name of North Riverdale Baseball League’s president. He is John Ward, not Tom Ward.