'Abandoned and unplayable': Softball players upset over uneven fields in Milton
MILTON - The 8-and-9-year-old girls on the Orioles softball team in Milton love everything about practice, but they noticed something earlier this season.
"It's not fair to us because the boys get that field and the girls get this really bad field," one softball player said.
Indeed, the nearby field, usually reserved for boys, but sometimes played by others is in beautiful shape. Freshly cut grass, manicured infield, and permanent bases.
But the girls practice field, just a stone's throw away, is a bumpy, weed-infested mess where coach Sean Collins, the father of three girls, thinks it's too risky to even hit grounders to his team.
"When the girls start asking questions about why the boys' baseball field is in such good condition, and their field is essentially abandoned and unplayable, I don't have a really good answer for them," Collins said.
Milton pays for a permit to use the fields adjacent to Houghton's Pond, but it's actually state land belonging to the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) which is solely responsible for maintaining it.
"I understand that you can't repair grass overnight, but they can at least put the infield dirt in," Collins said.
A pile of dirt in the parking lot may have been intended for the softball field, with the season already two-thirds over.
Parent Kelly Hudak admits she initially accepted the apparent inequity, until her two girls and their coach questioned it.
"It was really eye opening," Hudak said. "Hearing people speak up about it is refreshing, but it's frustrating that we have to be doing this again."
Evidence she says that even though the U.S. Women's National Soccer team just won paychecks equal to their male counterparts, the bias favoring boys' sports is still deeply embedded.
"Yeah like there is no reason boys are better than girls," another young softball player said.
After learning he's not allowed to work on the field himself, and neither is the city of Milton, Collins says he began a dialogue with DCR a few weeks ago, but there's been no visible action.
On Tuesday, WBZ-TV reached out to DCR for an explanation on the apparent disparity in field upkeep.
A DCR spokesperson said the disparity between the two fields has nothing to do with gender and everything to do with finding the resources to care for the nearly 80 heavily used fields in its care.
The state says it's fixing fields on a rotating basis to keep some playable while others aren't. They're pledging to hire contractors to help maintain the fields by the fall.
