Watch above: Vandals target Cairns Field in Saskatoon. As Joel Senick reports, the damage and degree of vandalism is uncommon but will have an impact on young athletes and local organizations.
SASKATOON – Batting cages at Saskatoon’s Cairns Field are almost completely unusable, after being allegedly set on fire in an act of vandalism earlier this month. Adam McKee, who oversees the stadium’s maintenance, says he came to work one morning in early May to find the batting cages’ nets charred, with bottles of gasoline lying around the area.
“It appears somebody had jumped the fence again and doused it with gasoline and lit it on fire,” said McKee.
“Never have we had something worth this much be destroyed for no reason.”
Batting cages allow baseball players to practice batting without the inconvenience of retrieving baseballs from a field, cutting down on practice time, according to McKee. He says the equipment was less than a year old and could cost up to $20,000 to replace.
“It’s not something that we have a ton of extra money laying around to just go on a whim and replace something like this, this was a huge investment,” said McKee, who plays baseball as well.
“This came from a lot of people’s hard work to get this.”
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Vandalism of this nature is unusual for sports fields in Saskatoon, according to the city’s police service.
“That was a little out of the ordinary … it’s not something we usually see,” said Staff Sgt. Matthew Ward, who is in charge of the services north-west division.
Most of the vandalism in open-air facilities across Saskatoon is low level crime, like spray painting, according to Ward; however he added that facilities should take extra measures to deter criminals.
READ MORE: University increasing security after weekend vandalism
Similar measures are in place at the University of Saskatchewan’s Griffiths Stadium, according to its facilities manager.
“We actually do have a couple of cameras, there is one in the stadium here,” said Roger Moskaluke, who looks after the facility for the university’s college of kinesiology.
“We have lots of photo cell lights, so this place has some lighting in it.”
Moskaluke said that vandalism is not an issue at the stadium currently. He said he believes the amount of activity it hosts helps deter people from damaging any property.
“We got 15 straight days of track meets here in the month of May and after that at 4:30 we’ve got other renters and up until almost 10 o’clock at night most nights this place is busy,” he said.
The damage to the batting cages at Cairns Field occurred days before McKee and his maintenance staff became a regular presence at the park for the season. He says the lost equipment is crucial to the development of young baseball players in the city.
“Having this here is huge for the kids,” said McKee.
Because the cages were not insured, money to replace them will either come from next year’s team and player fees or a private sponsor.
“I don’t know if that money’s out there for us again,” said McKee
“It would be nice if it showed up, but I don’t know if it’s going to.”
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