Bronx Community Board 7 (CB7) Parks’ committee ushered in their first post-summer hiatus meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 8, with a vote approving the proposed renovations and upgrades to Bedford Park’s Frisch Field.

The $5 million project, designed by the City’s Parks’ department, will include the addition of a tee-ball diamond, an enclosed bullpen, an adult exercise station, new water stations with bottle fillers, benches, storage units, as well as upgrades to the field’s existing Little League diamond and the adjacent dugouts.

However, the bulk of the funds will be spent underground, on timely repairs in the wake of Hurricane Ida, to sinkholes to address drainage and irrigation issues that have made portions of the field’s two acres vulnerable to flooding.

Located on Mosholu Parkway and Webster Avenue, Frisch Field’s drainage issues were brought to the forefront back in 2018 when then-District 11 Council Member Andrew Cohen approached the City’s Parks’ department with a $5 million plan to revamp the field.

As previously reported by Norwood News, before Cohen’s initiative, the field, designated as a city landmark, sat underutilized and poorly maintained for decades, leaving the surrounding community frustrated.

“Whenever it rains, the bridge going over Mosholu… it’s got one drain and it comes right down into Frisch Field,” said Doug Condit, a community member during the Sept. 8 meeting. “An hour after it stops raining, you’ve got three feet of water inside the field. You can’t use it at all. It’s too wet.”

The field was first opened to the public in 1935 and was called Mosholu Baseball Field. However, in 1948, the name changed to Frisch Field in honor of Norwood native and baseball Hall of Famer, Frankie Frisch, also known as the “Fordham Flash.”

At the height of his career, fans wanted to call Frisch the ‘Norwood Flash’ but the moniker didn’t have the same ring to it. After graduating from Fordham University, Frisch went on to play baseball for the New York Giants and later the St. Louis Cardinals, before retiring.

Paul Rube is the project’s landscape architect at the City’s Parks’ department. Given the field’s historical ties to baseball, Rube said the proposed renovations are meant to enhance the baseball value of the field and stay true to its traditional usage.

The addition of the tee-ball diamond was central to that thinking, as was the adult fitness equipment, which will include parallel bars, chin-up bars, and plyometric boxes, also called jump boxes. As a result, once the project is completed, Frisch Field will be strictly designated for baseball, tee-ball, and Little League games. Additional sports will not be permitted.

However, given the field will be open to the public, it’s a mandate that Barbara Stronczer, chair of CB7’s Parks’ committee, doubts the City will be able to enforce.

“I live right near the field, and I notice that every Sunday, all summer long, a soccer league uses the outfield from Webster Avenue back to the tracks of the Metro North,” Stronczer said at the Sept. 8 meeting. “Different teams come in, and they play from eight in the morning until about four in the afternoon. How are you going to prevent this in the future?”

Norwood News reached out to the City Parks’ department for details on how the rule would be enforced and received the following response from Park’s press officer, Dan Kastanis.

“The field portion of the park will be designated for baseball play only, and enforced by Parks’ staff through education,” Kastanis wrote, adding that Parks’ officials are still deciding whether the field will, finally, remain open for general public use or just for permit holders.

He continued, “Responsive to community feedback, in addition to the field renovation, we have updated the design for the project to include brand new adult fitness equipment and a new tee-ball area, which will be open to the public during regular park hours.”

Residents had been asked in recent months, following a previous Parks’ presentation, to provide input into the City’s draft plans for the field. Kastanis added that the baseball designation was necessary to preserve the field terrain. Pick-up soccer games and other activities, he said, could cause damage and create hazardous holes in the outfield and in the clay infield.

Still, Stronczer’s observation brought into question a larger issue that the committee only briefly discussed at the September meeting. Although baseball packed Frisch Field’s bleachers with enthusiastic fans in the 1930s, some residents like community member, Daisy Perry, wonder if baseball is what the Bedford Park community still wants in their backyard, 86 years later. “This is my neighborhood,” said Perry. “Baseball, that’s not something that I do.”

Ultimately, the committee did vote in favor to approve the renovations and upgrade design for Frisch Field by a three-vote majority. Two committee members were absent. The motion will move to a final vote scheduled to take place at CB7’s general board meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 28, at 6:30 p.m.

According to Tara Valenta, deputy director of Landscape Architecture for Bronx Capital Projects, the field’s renovation, including design finalization, obtaining the necessary approvals, and construction work will take two years to complete. Work is scheduled to begin in fall 2022 and the field will open to the public sometime in fall 2023.

The next Parks, Recreation & Cultural Affairs Committee meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 13, at 6:30 p.m.

*Síle Moloney contributed to this story.