Road to Port St. Lucie

Local high school baseball teams will have to learn a new route, if they hope to make it to the state baseball finals, as the FHSAA announced today the finals were moving from Sarasota to Port St Lucie for the 2009 and 2010 seasons.    

Tradition Field in Port St. Lucie will be the site of the 2009 and 2010 FHSAA Baseball Finals state championship tournament, the Florida High School Athletic Association announced today.

The Treasure Coast Sports Commission, the New York Mets, St. Lucie County and the St. Lucie County School District jointly submitted the winning proposal.  Centennial High School in Port St. Lucie will serve as the host school for the event.

Proposals also were received from Bradenton, Kissimmee, Port Charlotte and Sarasota, the baseball finals’ current home.  The 2008 baseball finals will be the last played in Sarasota under the current agreement.

“We are excited to bring the FHSAA Baseball Finals to Port St. Lucie,” said FHSAA Executive Director John A. Stewart.  “Tradition Field is a first-class facility, the New York Mets are a first-class organization, and the Treasure Coast Sports Commission, St. Lucie County and St. Lucie County Public Schools are first-class hosts.  We know that the student-athletes and coaches who reach the FHSAA Baseball Finals will be treated to a championship experience they will never forget.”

Originally built in the mid-80s as Thomas J. White Stadium, Tradition Field is the spring training home of the New York Mets and the summer home of the Florida State League St. Lucie Mets.  With seven baseball fields on site, including the main playing field at the 8,000-seat complex, Tradition Field underwent more than $12 million worth of capital improvements in 2003 and 2004, including new seating areas, wider concourses and additional concession stands.

The 2009 FHSAA Baseball Finals will mark the first time the event has been staged on the east coast since it was consolidated at a central site in 1988.  Previous sites include Baseball City north of Haines City from 1988 through 1992, Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota from 1993 through 1996 and again from 2005 through the present, and Legends Field in Tampa from 1997 through 2004.

"We are looking forward to hosting the FHSAA Baseball Finals here in St. Lucie County,” said Joe De Ross, president of the Treasure Coast Sports Commission. “Bringing the baseball finals here was a combined effort of St. Lucie County, St. Lucie County School District, the N.Y. Mets and the Treasure Coast Sports Commission. Having spent many days enjoying games with my boys at the stadium, I can attest the
teams that earn a trip here are in for quite a treat.”

The FHSAA Baseball Finals is the final event of the state’s high school baseball season.  A total of 24 teams out of more than 560 participating teams – four in each of six school classifications based on student population – qualify for the tournament by advancing as champion or runner-up from their respective districts and winning their respective regional championships.