One of Philly’s most historic baseball fields is in disarray. Neighborhood activists are asking for help.

Before practice, Josh Throckmorton and his baseball team have to clean up dog waste, broken glass, and scattered trash that often accumulate on the field at Brewerytown’s Athletic Recreation Center.

“I bought my little push mower, we bought rakes from Goodwill, and they rake the field together,” said Throckmorton, a volunteer baseball coach at Give and Go Athletics, a youth sports nonprofit headquartered nearby.

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Conditions like the ones readily found at the center are not uncommon among fields in North Philadelphia, posing a challenge to the youth baseball programs that frequent the facilities. Throckmorton believes more can be done.

“We as a city need better coordination and support around creating physically safe spaces that are well maintained, that are respected by members of the community, [and] that are developed in a way that is going to allow for some longevity,” Throckmorton said.

Field maintenance is a big problem at the rec center and one that the city’s parks and recreation department is aware of.

“Baseball fields are incredibly expensive to maintain — it takes a lot of work,” said Mike Barsotti, the department’s head of youth sports. He noted that it becomes even more difficult with more than 300 fields in the city under its jurisdiction.

“I don’t think just because you put down a beautiful baseball stadium right in the middle of North Philadelphia that you’ll have thousands of North Philadelphia kids just rolling out ready to play,” he said. “Like, when you’re talking about getting 8-year-olds interested in playing baseball, they just need a patch of dirt.”

Give and Go operates several baseball, basketball, and recess programs in the Brewerytown and Fairmount neighborhoods. The nonprofit “envisions a world where youth are empowered through education, athletics, arts, and mentoring,” according to its mission statement.

“I love baseball,” said Caleb Jones, one of the organization’s cofounders and a Brewerytown native. “If we’re having two baseball games and two different teams, we’ve got about 40 kids playing baseball. It’s just the draw for the whole neighborhood to come out to be a part of it.”

One of the most pressing issues for nonprofits like Give and Go is space.

“In Brewerytown we don’t have much green space … so I think the Athletic Rec sort of becomes a de facto for so many activities,” Throckmorton said.

In addition to Give and Go, the outdoor space at Brewerytown’s Athletic Recreation Center is also used for adult soccer leagues and local high school sports practices and is a common spot to see people walking their dogs or hosting outdoor parties. Throckmorton said this creates a strain on the fields themselves and makes it increasingly difficult to use them at all, with the dirt and grass exposed to more use and not enough maintenance.

“For example, if a dog digs a hole in the infield, and it’s left there, like, that creates a physical problem for the kids that then use it,” he said.

Barsotti agreed that managing field usage is difficult, but he said that it is also a common problem elsewhere.

“One thing no city does well, as I’ve talked to a lot of parks and recs, is coordinating with permit holders across sites and dealing with the general public usage,” he said. “It’s every parks and rec department’s biggest headache.”

Baltimore County recently took steps to combat this problem, introducing an overhaul of its facilities registration system.

The Athletic Recreation Center sits on the historic site of the Jefferson Street Grounds, home of the Philadelphia Athletics at various points from 1871 to 1990, according to the Society for American Baseball Research. It was the site of the first recorded integrated baseball game and the first National League game.

The recreation center also sits within a police district where there have been more than 1,700 shootings since 2015, with nearly 200 of them involving children, according to police data.

Jones and Andre Wright, another Give and Go cofounder, estimated that more than a dozen children who were part of the organization have been victims of gun violence in the 15 years of the program’s existence. It’s something that they feel on a personal level.

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“I fed every one of them. I sat there with them. I know them,” Jones said. “Every time I see one of these shootings, I’m like, I hope it’s not one of my kids.”

Despite the violence, Jones said a lot of the children are doing tremendously well. Aaron Kemp, a sophomore and member of the baseball team at Vaux Big Picture High School, played with Give and Go for nearly two years before joining his high school team. He has since come back to work with the nonprofit as an assistant for younger children, one of more than 300 who have done so since the program’s inception, Jones said.

“I’m really happy that they actually showed me how to play baseball,” Kemp said. “And it wasn’t only about baseball, they were showing me life skills and everything … like responsibility, having more ownership, taking accountability.”

Research from the Aspen Institute in Washington and Project Play has shown that children and adolescents benefit from regular exercise and participation in sports. A 2023 report from Pierce County, Wash., found that children who are physically active report higher rates of happiness and motivation and lower levels of anxiety and depression than inactive youngsters.

Give and Go’s leaders pointed to Kemp and others like him as proof of the program’s impact, but they believe they need more resources to be able to thrive, with field maintenance and equity a priority.

“Something that we’ve experienced the last couple years is [the lack of] equity, having our fields look like some of the other fields that we go play on,” Wright said.

Throckmorton mentioned some noticeable differences in field quality, like better-maintained infields, repaired fences, and locked gates. He also noted how many of these nicer fields feel exclusive.

“I feel like that’s how fields are across this city,” he said “Like the nice ones are either behind a wall, behind a locked gate, or they’re behind some imaginary barrier that was a red line,” he said.

According to the Parks and Recreation Department, the number of fields and the work required forces it to prioritize certain fields for maintenance based on usage.

“Say 500 kids are using a field, or Mount Airy Baseball, they’re going to have like 1,200 kids this year across a bunch of fields. That’s a good example of, ‘OK, that’s a priority,’” Barsotti said.

Throckmorton believes there are ways that local organizations, including the Phillies, can help to improve this system. He cited his previous work with the Seattle Mariners, where they worked to improve infrastructure around Seattle’s fields and green spaces. Last summer, MLB and the Mariners contributed $2 million as part of an initiative to renovate a field complex, provide grants to local youth teams, and bolster a league and academic mentorship program for middle-school students in the city.

The project was a part of MLB’s All-Star Legacy Initiative, a yearly partnership with MLB and each year’s All-Star Game host to give back to the community through charitable work. The Phillies will host the All-Star Game in 2026.

Jon Joaquin, the Phillies’ director of youth baseball and softball development programs, noted the current challenges in the city but also said that work by the organization and MLB is being done.

“The Phillies Nike RBI program supports over 6,000 kids in the Philadelphia area, providing over 30 locations with equipment and other resources to operate their teams and leagues,” Joaquin said via a statement provided by the Phillies. “We understand one challenge many programs face is the lack of playable fields in the community. Over the years, we have worked with Philadelphia Parks and Recreation to address some of these needs. Additionally, the Phillies and MLB continue to find opportunities to provide city programs with field maintenance resources.”

Parks and Rec spokesperson Andrew Alter said that the financial support the Phillies could provide is not enough.

“I think partnering with a sports team would be good for a capital improvement, like building a new field,” he said. “But that’s not really the biggest issue. There [are] 300-plus baseball diamonds across the city. It’s more of making sure that those fields are used and used well and loved by the community.”

Barsotti said that community building is what’s most important in growing youth baseball in the city.

“If you create great community hubs that lead to quality programs, good things are going to happen,” he said. “The hope then is that you show something and it’s like, ‘Oh, this is worth investing in, let’s give those people a great field.’”

Give and Go’s leaders continue to see the benefits of their programs playing out in front of them at the Athletic Recreation Center, regardless of the circumstances.

“The best part about coaching here for me, is after practice when the kids just want to stay,” said Throckmorton, “And just keep playing.”

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