A Diamond in the Front Yard

But within months, the tractor shed had somehow transformed into a $100,000 winter baseball training facility with a bathroom, shower, kitchen and office. Two batting cages were installed with 90-mph pitching machines. An area to the side served as a mini-infield for the boys to run drills.

Joe's teams started frequenting Scardina's house almost year-round -- for practice during spring, for amateur league games in summer and fall, for baseball camps and workouts in winter.

"It became something really special," Michelle Scardina said. "We got to meet other families and watched their boys grow up. We had sleepovers and pool parties and traveled together to games."

And all the while, Jim Scardina kept working on the field, installing underground irrigation, cutting corners around the bases to give it a distinctive look.

"It's like with my son, Joe, and his baseball. You keep going. It's never perfect, so you keep going," Scardina said.

Although he hadn't played baseball as a boy, he felt he understood his son's love for the sport. Scardina also had latched on to something early and pursued it through life. Only for him, it had been plumbing.

His grandfather had started the plumbing business from scratch. As a kid, Scardina would follow him around, carrying his tools for him. By age 12, Scardina was working for his grandfather, and by high school, he was spending his days on work study at the business.

For years, they worked together. Neither his father nor his uncles went into plumbing, so when his grandfather's health began to fail, Scardina inherited the company at age 24 and built it into a highly successful business.

The story about his grandfather is the closest Scardina comes to explaining why he really built the sprawling field. It has to do with family, pursuing passions, building something you can give to the next generation.

These days, the only time the Scardinas use the field is during summer, when Joe comes home from Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia, where he will be a junior this year. All summer long, he plays on an amateur league team, the Maryland Mets, with his former high school buddies.

Scardina and his son sometimes talk about what to do with the field once Joe finishes college. Although Joe still dreams of the minor leagues, he's realistic, pursuing a degree in business management.

They have talked about the possibility of Joe starting a business by using the field and winter workout shed to run junior baseball camps. It would be a way for his son to stay involved in baseball and for Scardina to pass on the field he has worked on for more than decade.

Amid the discussions, Scardina admits, a few new big ideas for the field have popped up. Installing lights, disguised as palm trees, so they can play into the night. Expanding the field just a few more feet to make it a full-fledged major-league-size field.

"I haven't mentioned it to my wife, but I've looked into all of it, believe me," Scardina said. "As long as Joe wants to keep playing baseball, I'll be out there working on the field."