Did Sarasota County Strike Out on Ripken Youth Baseball?

The Cal Ripken youth baseball academy looks like it will be developed, just as Baltimore Orioles officials indicated to Sarasota County officials.

Only it may not be in Sarasota County, according to media reports.

A feasibility study for a complex in Port Charlotte has surfaced, according to ABC's mysuncoast.com.

"Cal was not committed," Commissioner Joe Barbetta said in the mysuncoast.com report.

The Port Charlotte Sun is touting the potential development of the youth academy baseball complex, predicting that Port Charlotte will become a baseball tournament destination.

According to the Herald article, Ripken Design has completed a feasibility study that calls for a complex with "baseball and softball fields for kids up to age 14, replete with dugouts, backstops, fences and synthetic turf."

The news likely caught the Sarasota County Commission by surprise. Sarasota County commissioners considered the academy a selling point when they agreed to spend more than $30 million on new facilities, with the Baltimore Orioles pledging to hold spring training in the county in 2010.

The county website boasts that Twin Lakes Park will be developed for the Cal Ripken Youth Baseball Academy. Its development was touted as the county and Orioles struck a deal in 2009.

With the latest news surfacing about the Port Charlotte study, the Orioles have been quick to say they still plan to build a youth academy, regardless of whether Ripken's name is on the facility.