{"id":158772,"date":"2026-04-06T19:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T19:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/158772\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T19:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T19:48:09","slug":"local-ballfields-to-receive-significant-upgrades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/158772\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Ballfields to Receive Significant Upgrades"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pnc<\/a><\/p>\n

PHOTO BY DAVE DICELLO<\/p>\n

Some local neighborhood ballfields across the city will soon be getting a facelift.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As part of its long-running Fields for Kids program, Pirates Charities announced last week that it will be partnering with the Pennsylvania Laborers\u2019 District Council to upgrade fields across Pittsburgh as well as to fund the purchase of the same professional maintenance laser-grading equipment used at PNC Park. The Laborers will be investing in new, high-quality scoreboards for games at the fields, according to a press release.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor nearly two decades, the Pirates Charities Fields for Kids program has been an important part of what we do. It reflects something we believe deeply: every child deserves a safe, reliable place to play and be part of a team,\u201d Pirates Chairman Bob Nutting says in a statement. \u201cThis effort allows us to build on that longstanding commitment and expand the impact of the program across more city fields.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twenty local fields will be receiving updates to the elements that most directly affect how fields are used every day, including improvements to playing surfaces, drainage, equipment and durability.\u00a0<\/p>\n

City officials told Pittsburgh Magazine they have not yet finalized a list of fields that will receive the upgrades, but that the work will be done over the course of this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mayor Corey O\u2019Connor emphasizes the urgency of improving neighborhood assets and the importance of creating spaces that support everyday quality of life across Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

\u201cYouth sports provide young people with a safe opportunity to have fun, develop skills, and be part of a team,\u201d O\u2019Connor says in a statement. \u201cWe want Pittsburgh to be every family\u2019s first choice and having high quality recreation spaces is a critical part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The initiative is a result of direct conversations between Nutting and O\u2019Connor and is a continuation of the strong partnership between the team and the city it calls home, officials say.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt its core, this effort is not about making fields look professional. It is about making them work for athletes, for families, and for the shared city,\u201d reads a press release<\/a> published on the city\u2019s website. \u201cWhen neighborhood fields are well cared for and ready to use, they become places people rely on: spaces where families choose to spend time, where athletes build confidence, and where neighborhoods come together.\u201d\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOTO BY DAVE DICELLO Some local neighborhood ballfields across the city will soon be getting a facelift.\u00a0 As…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4662,22138,70729,73,75,74,26622],"class_list":{"0":"post-158772","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-bob-nutting","10":"tag-pirates-charities","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","13":"tag-pittsburgh-news","14":"tag-pnc-park"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}