Big Improvements Coming to Leary Field

With the city still locked in the dead of winter, it may be hard to imagine what Leary Field will be like when the Seacoast Mavericks play their first home game there on June 6.

But as February swiftly moves into March and the Boston Red Sox continue their spring training in Florida, Portsmouth area baseball fans are already thinking about baseball and their new team.

According to Mike Daboul, president of the Seacoast Mavericks, the team is ready to invest $34,000 into Leary Field to make several improvements that will benefit the Futures Collegiate Baseball League team as well as Babe Ruth and American Legion teams that call Leary Field home. The team announced in December it would play all of its home games in Portsmouth beginning with the 2013 season. The Mavericks also held its first annual baseball hot stove dinner in the city in January that featured Boston Red Sox catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Tampa Bay Rays' outfielder Sam Fuld.

In an e-mail, Daboul wrote the team will extending the existing dugouts and add new, hand made, wooden benches.

"We will re-do the bullpens and mounds on each side of the field," Daboul wrote. He also noted the team will install a new sound system that will be much more efficient than the system they used last year. 

"This will allow for the sound to remain mostly on the field as to not disturb the neighborhood," Daboul wrote.

He said the team will also purchase a new field tarp and add 21 picnic tables to create a family area along one of the sides of the field. The team doesn't have any plans to upgrade the grandstands and will use the existing concessions area.

For those who might want to serve as the Mavericks new team mascot, Daboul wrote that process will begin this spring. "We will be having mascot try outs in the spring.  Someone with a lot of positive energy, good with kids, and maybe some dancing skills can contact me any time," he said.

Rus Wilson, the Portsmouth Recreation Department's director, said the city is thrilled the Mavericks will make all of these improvements to Leary Field. He described the improvements as “all cosmetic things to spruce up the park a little bit.”

Wilson said Leary Field is already in pretty good shape and that the "scoreboard is fairly new." Wilson said the Mavericks' goal is to create a fun, family atmosphere where Portsmouth area residents can enjoy some good baseball.

"It will be great for everybody," Wilson said.