Flor's batting cage unexpected hitArea baseball fan allows kids to

use private facili

ty

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Remember the baseball movie titled "Field of Dreams" in which a farmer, while in his cornfield, hears a disembodied voice telling him "If you build it, he will come."

The farmer heeds the voice, plows under his cornfield and builds a regulation-size baseball field that, in the end, brings in large numbers of visitors from miles around.

Rural New Ulm also has what may be called its own "Field of Dreams." Instead of an outdoor, regulation baseball field, it is an indoor hitting facility built about 10 years ago by LeRoy Flor of rural New Ulm.

Flor originally built it because there was no place for his son Al and Al's friends to practice hitting.

While it started out small, the facility has exceeded Flor's expectations.

"I never knew that it would be used as much as it is," he said. "I could not even imagine that there would be as many kids out here as there are."

On an average week, Flor estimates that over 100 baseball players use the facility.

Beginning as a shed with that pitching machine, Flor has expanded and improved it to where he now has solo hitters, soft-toss machines, a drum feeder on the pitching machine and most recently, a newly-installed regulation pitching mound.

The facility also is insulated and heated and is in the process of being completely cemented.

Those improvements to the original shed cost Flor from between $20,000 to $30,000 of his own money.

"I have really never thought back about the money that I put into it," Flor said.

Flor does not charge players for using the facility. His love of baseball and of helping future and current baseball players from New Ulm improve are his reasons for doing it.

"A hitting facility is very important. Hitting is a lot of eye-hand coordination and seeing the ball," he said. "You need to do the things right fundamentally -- you can correct them in practice."

"To me, if the kids use it, it is worth the cost," he said. "We always have kids out here using it."

Flor's wife, Linda, at first thought her husband was crazy.

"She wanted to know what was going on," he said. "But now she is very supportive of it. She comes out and helps with the moving and cleaning. She is out there helping."

And people that use it tell Flor that it is one great place to use.

"They tell me that it is as nice a facility as they have been in," he said. "They can see good -- it is simple to work the machines and equipment. That is the biggest thing."

One player who used Flor's facility in the past is Jamie Hoffmann, who is now in spring training with the Los Angeles Dodgers' organization.

"He said that it is as nice a facility as he has used," Flor said. "Jamie used it almost every day this past winter."

There are problems associated with the building but Flor does not mind doing the things needed to keep it running smoothly.

"Stuff costs money to fix -- I had to get a motor for a wheel on a pitching machine," he said. "There are a lot of little things that need to be done to keep it clean and operating."

Numbers of players using it have grown to the point that he would like times reserved.

In the ten years that Flor has had the facility running, he said that he has never regretted putting it up.

"Al will be coming back soon to take some hitting practice in it again," he said. "And he cannot wait to hit in it again."

Ten years ago, Flor built that hitting facility to be used by his son and teammates.

Ten years later, those seven words from the movie "Field of Dreams" can still be heard at Flor's facility with only one word changed.

If you build it THEY will come.