Porcello helps open namesake field in NJ

With donations from Sox righty, former high school builds new complex

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/234515020/rick-porcello-opens-field-at-high-school/

Red Sox pitcher Rick Porcello and Commissioner of Baseball Rob Manfred talk about Seton Hall Prep dedicating its field to Porcello

• By Joe Trezza / MLB.com | June 5th, 2017 

WEST ORANGE, N.J. -- Rick Porcello blossomed from a can't-miss prospect into a Gatorade National Player of the Year into a first-round Draft pick in 2007 on a field known unofficially in North Jersey as Mini Fenway Park. Verducci Field, tucked between foliage and the science building at Seton Hall Preparatory School, sported a left-field fence nearly 33 feet high, but just 280 feet from home plate. The Red Sox's future American League Cy Young Award winner battled that monster long before the green one in Boston.

So, in comparison, Seton Hall Prep's new state-of-the-art baseball facility, dedicated and renamed Porcello Field during a ceremony Monday, could be considered spacious. It is 315 feet down the line and 385 to center, and it has unforgiving gaps. On Monday, there was a Major Leaguer giving a speech on the warning track. As far as high school fields go, the new complex, located just northwest of Prep's campus, is as good as it gets. And it's certainly a pitcher's park -- "a little cozy," joked Porcello.

"This is the only way I know how to give back," Porcello told a crowd gathered at the field, which officially opened last year. "I think about how fortunate I've been to be a part of the Seton Hall Prep family."

Much of that extended family was in attendance Monday to see the school officially dedicate the field to its namesake. Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred joined a dais of school officials, community leaders, alumni, family and fans that gathered to welcome Porcello back to his alma mater.

"One thing that is often overlooked is how generous and community-minded our players really are," Manfred said. "This project is a great example of that."

READ MORE