Several Batavia High School (NY) softball players and their parents, which help from the Empire Justice Center in Rochester, have filed suit against their school district, claiming the softball field where the girl’s team plays is “substandard” when compared to Dwyer Stadium, the Minor League field where the boy’s baseball team plays its games.
More specifically, the suit claims that the facilities are unequal because the field where the girl’s team plays does not offer 2,200 covered grandstand seats, lighting for night games, an outfield fence, a ticket booth, an electronic scoreboard, covered dugouts, a press box, a concession stand, or bullpens.
Critics of the suit have pounced on the fact that the suit claims the facilities are unequal in terms of seating. But typically fewer than 200 people attend a high school baseball or softball game, making this argument irrelevant, they allege. Also noted was the fact that tickets aren’t sold at high school games and that concessions stands are never open during the games.
Another point of contention was the lack of lighting on the girl’s field. According to the suit, night games “have a big-league quality not associated with day games” which is now unavailable to the girl’s team due to the lack of lighting at its stadium. However, there are never night games played at Dwyer because lighting the field at night is too expensive.
Lastly, the complaint states that the “infield is covered with pebble-sized gravel mixed with some dirt, making it dangerous and painful for players to slide.”
In response, Ron Funke, a member of the Section V committee, athletic director and girl’s softball coach at Pembroke High School, told the media that the field where Batavia plays is the same quality for both girl’s and boy’s fields and uses a special infield mix commonly used everywhere.
Funke also went on to explain that he was somewhat baffled by the suit.
“I don’t know where else they’d play,” he said. “There isn’t anything for softball other than GCC and there isn’t another facility like Dwyer for the girls to play in, and GCC has their own games to play.”
In response to the other claims of inequality made in the suit, Section V officials explained that it was really a “mixed bag” as to what you were going to get with each field. Some have fences, some don’t. Some have dugouts and bullpens, and others don’t.
