PHOTOS: Dean Street Playground, a Winter Hot Spot

No matter that it was mid-30s and cloudy: On Sunday afternoon, Prospect Height's Dean Street Playground was hopping.

"It's very nice, even in winter, even when it's so cold," said Omri Barak, an Israeli neuroscience post-doc at Columbia University, who comes to the playground with his children, Yiftach, 5, and Naama, 2, several times a week.

On the recently renovated soccer fields, a bunch of guys from across brownstone Brooklyn who call themselves "The Corinthians," were playing a friendly game.

The group used to play on fields near Brooklyn Height's Cadman Plaza, but those fields got too crowded, so they moved south.

John Rousay, the team's 49-year-old treasurer who lives in Park Slope and works in sales and marketing, said they also play at a field on Fourth Avenue and Third Street, but that the Astroturf there is laid right on top of concrete and the lack of padding has caused several players to be injured.

"This (astroturf) is not bad," Rousay said. "It's actually quite plush."

Rousay, who speaks with a Scottish lilt, was asked if most of the group was from Scotland.

No, he said, and started rattling off nationalities: Lebanon, Algeria, Canada, France England -- "We're sort of the United Nations of Sunday morning football," he said.

On the sidelines, 2-year-old Max Miles Takeuchi, kicked around his own ball, as his father, Paul Takeuchi, a writer and photographer, stood by.

He said he appreciated that the playground was there, but wished there was a higher fence between the soccer field, which doubles as a baseball diamond, and the playground. He said stray baseballs come from the field all the time in the summer.

"I've never heard of anyone getting hurt, but it's scary," he said.

Across the 1.3 acre lot, Doug Derryberry pushed his 2-year-old daughter Jane on the swings.

Derryberry, a muscian who takes care of his two children most mornings, come to the playground "at least 3 to 4 days a week."

It's a pretty good playground, he said, but noted that in the winter the Underhill Playground is better because it has less shade. Underhill also has bathrooms, something that he hopes will soon come to Dean Street.

Nearby, Luke Joseph, 32, was relaxing with a cup of coffee and a cigarette.

Joseph, who lives on St. Marks Place between Fifth and Sixth avenues, comes to the park, often with his wife and son, nearly every day in the summer.

"This is a great place," he said. "Everyone shares the field. It's really a community place."

And, he added, "It's close to home and the people here are pretty decent. Even the neighborhood thugs, they're mannered."