A Diamond in the Front Yard

All that knowledge is even more surprising given the fact that until his son started playing baseball, Scardina knew little about the sport.

He had done some water skiing growing up in Glen Burnie, and he played youth football but never baseball. So when Joe started to play at age 7, Scardina drove him to games and hung around his coaches. At home, he would work with Joe on his throw and his swing.

Pretty soon, though, he ran out of things to teach him, so he began managing his son's teams, handling the equipment and logistics. The most frustrating part of the job was finding a field to play on. The county fields were often crowded, and a few days of rain could wreak havoc on the summer season.

It was around this time that Scardina's father-in-law gave the family 10 acres in Millersville to build a home. Before construction even began on the house, Scardina's wife, Michelle, noticed some strange work being done on a large, flat section of land.

"I said, 'Uh, Jim, what's going on out there?' That's how I found out," she laughed. "I didn't like it. I was against it, but that's kind of how Jim is. He has these big ideas."

Said Joe: "I didn't think too much of it when I was real young. It was like, 'Yeah, there's a baseball field at our house.' But after a while, you realize this is what every kid wants. It's pretty cool."

It was a simple dirt field at first, something for Little League practice, Scardina told his wife and son. But already he was planning the next step.

He studied the best stadiums in the country. He watched major league games to pick up maintenance tips. Finally, when he felt ready, he called in the experts for advice.

Through contacts at the local batting cages, he reached Paul Zwaska, then head groundskeeper at Camden Yards in Baltimore. He persuaded Zwaska to come down and take a look.

"We walked the property and measured it out," Zwaska said. "Then he started talking about adding turf and irrigation, and I kept thinking, 'Is this guy really going to do this?' "

But it didn't stop with grass on the outfield. Scardina started working on accessories: A bathroom so players wouldn't have to hike all the way to the house. Bleachers and a concession stand for the kids.

Then one day, Michelle Scardina noticed a big shed being erected beside the house. At the time, they were using a tractor to mow the grass on their 10-acre lot. "A storage shed for the tractor, that's how he explained it," she said.