By Khalida Sarwari
It’s possible Abel Rodrigues heard the same words 40 years ago that fueled Ray Kinsella to continue walking through a cornfield one fateful night before building a baseball diamond.
Abel saw a need for a field in Saratoga and built it at Congress Springs Park. The players came, then the leagues and the spectators, and over time it came to be Saratoga’s very own “field of dreams” for generations of ball players.
Brian Rodrigues was among the first group of players that used the field, an advantage to being the son of the man who spearheaded the campaign to get the field built. Though he’s now a resident of Woodside, Brian played on Saratoga Little League teams in the early 1970s and later at Saratoga High School.
He remembers it took his father three years to get the field built. A construction salesman, Abel also coached baseball in Saratoga, where he’d lived with his wife, Sandy, since 1960. Seeing that the standard Little League allowed only boys under the age of 13 to play, he and a group of other fathers came together and started a Senior League, allowing kids to continue playing baseball in an organized league past the age of 12.
The problem was they needed a place to play. They played at Saratoga High for some time, but when conflicts arose, they realized they needed a field of their own, Brian said.
His sights set on a patch of orchard at Congress Springs Park, Abel sprang into action, applying for permits and spending his own time and money to get a field constructed there. The process involved cutting down trees, drafting plans and obtaining equipment, but finally on May 15, 1976, the field was officially opened and has remained open since. The area has been expanded into a bigger complex with additional baseball diamonds and soccer fields.
Today, there’s a bronze plaque on the backstop wall close to the parking lot that’s dedicated to Abel. Inspired by a Saratoga News article from May 1976 about Abel’s efforts to build the field, Brian took up the cause of getting a plaque placed there in honor of his father, who died in 2010. Similar to Abel’s quest, it took Brian about three years to get the field named after his father. The plaque was mounted in late 2014.
“It was something that meant a lot to me,” he said. “I was really glad to do it for my dad. I just think he was the one who had the idea, and while a lot of people did help, it was his idea and he was the one who spearheaded it and got the permits and got the approval and donated his time. Had he not built it, I don’t think there would be any fields there now.”
Added Brian, “He did a lot of things without any recognition. I just thought it would be nice to acknowledge it.”
Following in his father’s footsteps, Brian was involved with the Menlo-Atherton Little League’s efforts to renovate its field a few years ago. And baseball isn’t the only realm where he trailed his father. In 1990, he took over his father’s construction company that he started in 1975, R & W Concrete Contractors.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Abel J. Rodrigues Field, Brian said he might take his mother up to the field or play ball with some of his friends.
