By Rob Rains
JUPITER, Fla. – Gary Kendall, the manager of the Palm Beach Cardinals, has had a first-hand view this summer of the construction work which is underway at the Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium complex.
He has figured out a way to measure the progress.
“I’m starting to see more brick,” Kendall said. “It will be good when the brick towers over the dirt mounds.”
That still is not the case at the moment, with huge mounds of dirt surrounding the outside walls of the Cardinals facility. The old batting cages have been torn down to make way for the expansion of the building that houses the team’s locker rooms, training room, weight room and offices.
The area outside the entrance to the Cardinals’ major-league locker room also is surrounded by mounds of dirt.
Construction has begun on the new batting cages, which are being built between the player’s parking lot and field 1.
Inside the stadium, the most noticeable change is that the metal bleachers down the left field line have been removed to make room for a new party zone area. That construction has yet to begin.
“It’s challenging,” Kendall said of having to work around all of the construction. “The internet is out right now, so we are all using our hot spots. We’re just rolling with it. We have to spend a lot of time on the back fields when we would like to be in the stadium a little more.
“It’s the minor leagues. You just make adjustments.”
The Complex League team, which plays on the back fields, will complete its season later this month while the Palm Beach club, which shares the main stadium with the Marlins affiliate, will complete its season in early September.
That will allow for more construction work to take place over the fall months in hopes of having as much of the work completed as possible before spring training begins next February.
“It’s all fenced up so it’s really hard to get a feeling of what is going to be where,” Kendall said. “But I know I’m really looking forward to how it’s all going to shake out.
“We just came from Lakeland and they did a renovation of old Tiger Town and the new facilities are state of the art. I know the players are very interested in the project.”
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