Myrtle Beach baseball complex sprucing up

The Ripken Experience-Myrtle Beach is getting another off-season facelift.

The complex, which hosts youth and teen baseball teams from across the country for tournaments, is overhauling its Griffith Field to improve drainage and spruce up the 90-foot baseball diamond, where all the opening ceremonies for tournaments take place.

The $1 million upgrade includes new drainage and new turf. The field didn’t drain as well as it should after rain, with teams often having to wait an hour before the field would be ready for play, general manager Bobby Holland said, adding that other fields could drain in 15 minutes.

“That’s our showcase field,” he said. “Cosmetically it needed a facelift.”

The complex off Mr. Joe White Avenue in Myrtle Beach also is moving its office to make room for the store, photo shop and food court to expand.

The upgrades come a year after the complex spent $1 million adding an eighth field, Ebbets Field, so more teams could play in the 10-week summer tournaments series. This year, about 980 teams played at the complex, coming from 31 states, according to Ripken officials.

“We are trying to keep up with the growth of the business,” Holland said.

On Wednesday, heavy equipment pushed dirt around Griffith Field, which wasn’t recognizable as a field. Work started last week and should be ready in time for the college and high school spring training camps that start at the complex in mid-February, Holland said.

Ripken Design, a Baltimore-based company that specializes in design of baseball and multi-sport complexes, and FIELDS, a sports turf company, are overseeing the project.

All the fields at the complex are patterned after historic parks; Griffith Field was designed after the former Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C., which opened in 1911 and was the home of the Washington Senators. The stadium closed in 1961 and was demolished four years later. Since The Ripken Experience opened in June 2006, more than 2,500 games have been played on Griffith Field, Holland said.

The Ripken Experience, a partnership between Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. and Burroughs & Chapin Co. Inc., hosts baseball tournaments, spring training and women’s fast-pitch softball. Teams from across the country and overseas come to compete in the tournaments and learn lessons of the game infused into the program by the Hall of Famer.

B&C said it is pleased with the complex’s success.

“As with any successful venture, reinvestment must occur, and we are certainly pleased to see this investment in our community,” B&C spokeswoman Lei Gainer said.