When hurricanes Helene and Milton pounded Florida last fall, the damage left behind was extensive.
In Manatee County, where the Pirates’ spring home in Bradenton is located, damage estimates are still in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Staff at Pirate City have been elbow-deep in repair work since those hurricanes hit. All four fields have massive batter’s eyes that came down with the storms. A lot of outfield fencing went with it.
PHOTOS: Hurricane Milton damages LECOM Park, Pirates’ spring training facility
The team Vice President of Operations in Florida tells Channel 11′s Shelby Cassesse that crews were working against the clock to make sure everything was ready for spring training.
“Our contractors did a fantastic job working through the weekends and into the evening until the sun went down to get all these repairs completed for us,” Jeff Podobnik said.
Looking at the facility now, you’d never know that just a few months ago the place was in no shape for baseball. Podobnik is not only overseeing the repairs, he experienced the storms firsthand — hunkering down at home in the eye of two hurricanes.
“When the backside of that storm came over us, 140 mile-an-hour winds. It was a little scary,” he said. “When we walked out to field three and we saw that solid concrete batter’s eye laying in the middle of the field and then the dome fence that was right here between field three and four demolished, I was in disbelief. It was really eye-opening to see the type of damage we had.”
Podobnik says with the amount of damage the facility sustained, and the wait for supplies to repair it, everything came down to the wire.
“Field two was the batter’s eye to get up right before spring training. So it was crunch time. It was a little nerve-wracking,” he said.
But, like every other February, the Pirates returned to their spring home. The dedication of those behind the scenes was embedded in this year’s camp.
“I feel really good about where we are today for the start of full-squad camp. And as a fan, you probably wouldn’t have noticed that we had this much damage.”
The lasting impacts of the hurricanes are still clear around the Pirates’ facility. People and businesses in the surrounding areas are still trying to get back on their feet.
Major League Baseball did donate $1 million to the Red Cross for recovery efforts and continues to encourage fans to do the same online.
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