Thick Description: Cook Field

Large barren field vastly different from the surrounding campus crammed full with trees, old brick halls, busy streets and side walks. To the distant viewer or driver-by it may not appear to be very large but one who is well aquatinted with the long trip across it’s flat terrain and dry, prickly, water depraved grass, knows otherwise. Tired students traverse the long expanse of the field talking amongst friends, on cell phones or simply preoccupied with other thoughts as they make the long hot journey to or from their east quad dorms, classes and meal halls. In each corner sits weatherworn batting cages, held together by sturdy metal frames whose dark green paint chips away to reveal a shade of peach from yesteryear. A single section of bleachers sits directly behind, separated from the field by the wire mesh fencing of the dome like cages. At the focal point of each concave cage lies a lonely patch of  barren earth from which two lines of faded white spray paint extend forth, through the grass,  like giant arms connecting it to the other bases. Encircling the field and it’s cages lies a thin asphalt track, now grey from long summers of piercing sun rays, and joggers gym shoes beating down on it. The track is partially shaded by the big leaves and sprawling branches of strategically planted trees which create four invisible walls. Massive tin polls with large florescent football lights, sporadically placed between every couple trees, tower over the borders of the field. In the southwestern corner, beyond the the baseball cages and track, the old brick bell tower sits amongst young trees. From behind the barrier of trees on all surrounding sides, cars parked in line against cement barriers face the field, peering in at it’s simplicity.