LED baseball field lighting: costs, financing and design considerations

Among the many things baseball purists lament about the modern game is the standardization of baseball diamond dimensions. The distance between the pitcher’s mound and home plate, the height of the mound and the distance between the bases – 60′ for little league, 90′ for high school and above – have always been fixed. But part of the charm of the sport and the challenge of being a batter or outfielder is the amount of leeway diamond designers had when laying out the outfield fence. Few outfields – even in the major leagues – would be a perfectly smooth, geometrical curve. There’d be sharp turns, discontinuities and multiple corners. A flyball that would be a home run in right field would be an easy out if it with the same power and angle to left field. Hitters preferred some ballparks, outfielders preferred others.

Baseball diamond designers still have some flexibility, if they choose to use it. For example,  for colleges and any level of pro play, the distance from home plate to each foul pole needs to be at least 325 feet, and the longest point to centerfield – in line with home plate and second base – has to be at least 400 feet. From there, feel free to be creative – and don’t forget fence height!

Baseball diamonds that only need four light poles place two on either side of home plate, and one just outside of and slightly behind the foul poles. As the diamond expands at the high school, college and minor league levels, those latter two poles are brought towards home plate and are just past the plane of first base and third base. Then, two additional poles are placed behind right-center field and left-center field. 

For diamonds that need maximal lighting due to their size and competitive requirements, two more lights are added in the outfield, just inside the foul poles. That brings the total to four light poles around the perimeter of the outfield, and four staking out the infield.

These arrangements ensure uniform lighting plus player-friendly sightlines. When the batter has his eyes locked on the pitcher’s delivery, the outfield lights are far enough away and high enough that he won’t be looking into a face-full of light. And the infield lights are outside of his field of view, behind him and to the sides. Similarly, the lights closest to the outfielders are behind them. When they look up into the night sky for a pop fly, they won’t have the lamps or hazy glare interfering with their ability to spot the ball.

The size of the diamond affects the height of the light poles as well as their number. Little League and rec diamonds will have 40-50′ poles, while professional ballparks will need 100-180′ poles. At the higher levels of play, the players’ sightlines (how high the batters will hit the ball affects where the fielders will be looking), the size of seating area and the amount of illumination required by the league and broadcasters all go into determining how tall the poles should be.

The number of light poles around a baseball diamond comes down to the size of the field and the amount of light needed for games at that level. A Little League diamond has less space and lower lighting demands, so four light poles are sufficient. High schools, colleges and the lower rungs of the minor leagues can make do with six poles; while the big leagues and their farm teams need eight or more.

Nearly all baseball diamonds being built or renovated today are installing LED lights instead of conventional halide lamps. This is one part of the game where even traditionalists acknowledge the advantages of new technology!

It’s not just baseball: all sports venues are turning to LED lights. But baseball, in particular, needs to insist on the best quality light. No other sport has a ball so small coming at people so fast from so close a distance – and with minimal protective gear. Glare, haze or uneven luminance levels can make a huge difference in quality of play and player safety when the ball is moving nearly 100 mph and the player is trying to see the spin and arc of the ball for a split second decision from 60 feet away.

Because the light that LED lamps emit does not scatter, lighting designers can guarantee uniform lighting across the playing surface in a way they never could with halide lamps. 

LED lights can also provide the appropriate “warmth” of light. Light warmth refers to the light that would be given off by a “black box” heated to various temperatures. If the “black box” is at 2500 Kelvin, it glows orange. At 4000 K, it glows yellow. As you keep raising the temperature of the black box, it starts emitting darker and darker shades of blue. If you’ve ever used a natural gas stove with the flickering blue flame, you’ve seen this sort of thing in action.

Light warmth, then, has nothing to do with how warm the lighting fixtures get while they are on. In fact, it’s actually a bit backwards: the “warmer” the light, the lower the temperature it corresponds to. 

Oranges and yellows in the 2000K – 3000K range are very warm, and are best for outdoor usage. They give the most naturalistic and easy-on-the-eyes feel. That makes them ideal for viewers at home and in the stadium. By being closer to natural light, they come across much better on video than colder lights. 

Colder lights, on the other hand, are stark and white, sometimes with that blue tinge. These are the kind of lights you’ll probably come across at doctor’s offices or “cubicle farm” offices. Not a very warm and inviting environment, unlike a sports venue!

The beam angle and projection angle of a lighting fixture ensure that as much light as possible goes where you want it: onto the field, uniformly.

If these factors are not set appropriately, some of the light will be wasted. Some will go into the stands, some will go into the sky and some will go in areas that are already well-lit, making one patch of the field too bright and another too dark. 

These angles also affect the sightlines of the players. If the angle is suboptimal, players may have to look straight into a light during the course of play – something we want to avoid and can avoid through proper design and installation.