SYLMAR : College Team Gets Home Field at Last

The wandering days of Mission College’s Free Spirit baseball team are over.

Once forced to hold home games as far away as Eagle Rock, the Free Spirits will now roam no farther to play ball than next door at a new home field in Sylmar’s El Cariso Park.

Players helped dedicate the field Tuesday with a game against the Chaffey Community College Panthers.

“We hope everybody comes out to support us now that we have our field,” said Marlon McKinney, sporting the team’s brown and orange colors on his white uniform.

Since 1977, the baseball team has traveled to community college and high school campuses from East Los Angeles to Van Nuys to practice and play home games. Carlotta Tronto, the college’s former athletic director, began work in 1988 to get the team its own field.

Last year, the college hammered out a deal with the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation to upgrade an existing baseball field at El Cariso Park for the team, said Tronto, now college dean of academic affairs.

The college paid to install new lights, fencing, bleachers and dugouts. The county parks department agreed to control public access by requiring proof of insurance.

The team originally scheduled the field’s dedication for the season opening in February, but the first home game was rained out. The 22 players decided to hold off until Tuesday to coincide with the college’s 18th birthday celebration.

“The vagabond team has now come home to stay,” college President Jack Fujimoto said shortly before slicing a baseball-themed birthday cake.

The field became the latest facility for the college, which moved to its 22-acre campus in 1991 after operating out of storefronts and auditoriums.