$2.9 Million Repairs To Astoria's Whitey Ford Field Break Ground

ASTORIA, QUEENS — The city broke ground Wednesday on long-awaited repairs to Whitey Ford Field, a baseball field on Hallets Point that neighbors said had been in disrepair for decades.

The $2.9 million project will include a brand-new natural turf ballfield, new dugouts, a reconstructed entrance for visitors on Second Street, as well as new fitness equipment, picnic tables, drinking fountains and seating areas, according to the Parks Department.

Repairs to the field were first announced in 2017, hailed by neighbors who said it had been "in huge disrepair for 30 years or more."

After entering its design phase in September 2017, it took more than three years before the city finally broke ground Wednesday, in a ceremony that included Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, Councilmember Costa Constantinides and others.

The field is named after Whitey Ford, the Hall-of-Fame Yankees pitcher and Astoria native who died in October at the age of 91.

"Today’s groundbreaking on the reconstruction of Whitey Ford Field will pave the way for a first-class facility where Astoria’s ballplayers of today can work on making their own dreams come true," Richards said in a statement.

The lot was known as Astoria Athletic Field since its inception in 1943, before being renamed for Ford in 2000.