You might drive by 175th St or “sophomore street” and see a team in red and white on the Shorewood baseball field at around 3 p.m. and wonder where the blue, green, and white is? Right after school, all of Shorewood’s baseball and softball teams drive down to Meridian Park as fast as they can, while the King’s baseball team heads up to Shorewood for their practice.
This all started in October of 2011, when the new Shorewood High School started to be built. A part of that process included taking out the baseball fields that were in place at the time and building on the grounds. The result was that Shorewood would not have a home field for a few years while the school was being built. So in August of 2011, the Meridian Park playfields were also constructed, including two new ballfields and a soccer field that served as the school’s playground. This project would also provide the new baseball fields for Shorewood’s baseball team.
On Tuesday, March 13, 2012, at 4 p.m the ribbon ceremony took place unveiling the new home for Shorewood baseball. This was a state-of-the-art facility, with synthetic turf (which wasn’t too common in 2012), covered batting cages in left field and bullpens down each foul line. Meridian Park also had lights which allowed games and practices to start and end later. A really big upside of this is that the school, Shorewood, actually makes money off of Kings using our field, because they are a private school and not in the Shoreline School District. Meridian Park also serves as Shoreline community college’s home field.
A downside of the team playing at Meridian Park is getting out of the school parking lot and getting to the field on time. Players have to change, some grab their bags from their house and get out of the lot all before 3 p.m., sharp. Coach Tonkin cuts no slack when it comes to being late and he feels no remorse when making players run “Big M’s” for being late. Joey Facilla says “The parking situation at Shorewood is not good to say the least, and that combined with practicing down the road is not a good mix. Having to be at the field at 3 while having to change in the locker room and get out of the lot is a struggle,” he added, “The parking situation at Meridian Park isn’t much better because of parents picking their kids up in the same lot that we park in.” A Big M is simply just that, it starts at 3rd base, you work your way to second base but not before touching the foul pole in left field and do it all over again on the right side of the field.
The softball team also practices and plays at Meridian park. The teams share the batting cages and often play pranks on each other throughout the season. Overall the team loves playing at Meridian Park, there is a great atmosphere, beautiful royal blue netting around the fence, a really big scoreboard, and spacious dugouts on both ends of the field. A big priority of the team is keeping the facility clean. The team holds a field clean-up every year the Saturday before the season starts and maintains a pristine mound that was constructed by the Seattle Mariners grounds crew in 2012.
A core memory of the coach’s was in 2014 when Shorewood hosted the regional games at Meridian Park. “There were 2 outs we were down to our final strike, our number eight hitters bangs a double off the wall. The nine hole comes up, gets into an 0-2 count again and hits another double off the left field wall. We ended up winning that game and it sent us to state as the seven seed and that year we made it all the way to the state championship.”
