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Doug in Kentucky is
working with his city to put in a baseball field fence screen, also known
as batter's eye screen, on the outfield fence of his little league field.
Doug:
Our city is going to install a batter's eye windscreen on the little league
outfield fence. I need to submit specs for wind allowance and sizing. Any
suggestions would be helpful! Thanks.
Jim:
The biggest concern with baseball fence screens is the impact
wind will have on the fence posts.
Most
outfield fences with a windscreen have posts that are thicker and cemented
deeper and have diagonal cross bars in the back to reinforce them.
See picture above and below.
Cross bars re-inforce
a fence with a windscreen
The baseball field fence wind screen should be what is called 80 percent
or less. 100 percent means it is solid screen that lets no wind through.
A big gust of wind would bend the fence posts like wind hitting a sail.
80 percent lets some wind through.
80 percent
windscreen up close
There are several ways to ancor the windscreen to the existing chain link
fencing. To keep wind from ripping the screen from the chain link
fence you need to use fasteners every few feet. See below for an
example.
Note the metal
clip holding the bottom of the screen to the fence.
And just to round out the information about baseball field fence screens,
here are a couple examples of portable fencing. This is definitely
not the same as a windcreen or batter's eye screen.
Portable fencing
for a little league field.
Up close you can see that it is not the same as a windscreen.
It doesn't block wind. It's a visual as a fence.
I wish you the best with your baseball fence screen. You can search
the internet for examples and suppliers by searching for 'baseball fence
screen.'
While
you're at it, you might want to check out your warning track too.
Along
with the baseball fence screen, a warning track is a great addition for
your players.
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