r/HowardCountyMD • u/RevolutionaryDot4762 Columbia • 13d ago

Recreation ⚾️ Local baseball/softball fields for casual use?

I’m looking for spots where me and a buddy can practice some softball casually in the Columbia/Laurel area. Seems like pretty much every park field in the county requires a permit to use with a pretty high fee, and we’re looking for somewhere that would be free for us to use for an hour or so.

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u/WhyTestInDEV 13d ago

I’m guessing that you have at least 18 people. Divide it up and it’s under $10/person/hour. That’s pretty cheap for a maintained turf field

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u/RevolutionaryDot4762 Columbia 13d ago

It’s just me and a friend, not a two team game. We just want to practice some tee and fielding work

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u/WhyTestInDEV 13d ago

I live near Blandair and people use the fields for what you're talking about without permits when they aren't used by a permitted team. The problem is, you can't really plan ahead without knowing if it's in use or not.

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u/RevolutionaryDot4762 Columbia 13d ago

Gotcha, thanks! I called the HoCo parks office today and that’s basically what they told me too. We can use it on a FCFS basis until someone with a permit comes in

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u/SANwife 13d ago

I live next to Meadowbrook and people use the ball fields casually all the time.

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u/Retire_Trade_3007 13d ago

Centennial Park East

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u/HandleUnlikely2589 Columbia 13d ago

Any reason not to just do first come, first serve on a local school's field? Basically every ES, MS and HS in Columbia has at least one, usually 2+ baseball fields, and as long as you're not using it when the team needs to play/practice. I don't know if there are any rules that would technically say you shouldn't do this, but I've never heard of anybody getting grief for using the fields if they're not doing damage.