April 26, 1987|By Jay Clarke, Knight-Ridder Newspapers.
HAINES CITY, FLA. — Florida`s newest theme park marries two of America`s classic recreations. Boardwalk and Baseball, which opened earlier this month on the former Circus World site 10 miles west of Walt Disney World, combines the lure of amusement park thrills with the country`s favorite sport.
Roller coasters, midway games, bumper cars and a real wooden boardwalk more than a mile long give the park a flavor of the Coney Island or Atlantic City of yesteryear. Batting and pitching cages, a theater and museum, real baseball games and the coming of professional baseball to the park next year impart a festive ``take me out to the ballgame`` feeling, Cracker Jack and all.
For variety, add an outdoor Wild West musical complete with horses, gunfights and pretty saloon dancers, a giant-screen movie and a dance hall with live and deejay music.
The result is a park that offers a distinct alternative in attraction-sated central Florida.
The biggest difference, of course, is the addition of baseball to what is basically an amusement park.
The idea came from William Jovanovich, chairman of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich), which owns B&B.; He envisioned baseball as compatible with his idea of a classic American amusement park. In a state long associated with the sport through spring training and several top-class college teams, B&B; hopes to offer a year-round focus for the game.
The park has two baseball diamonds, with four more being constructed. One has a 2,000-seat grandstand, and work will begin next month to install a 6,500-seat permanent stadium at the other field.
This is where the Kansas City Royals will hold spring training starting next year. It will also be home base in 1988 for the Royals` Florida farm club, recently purchased by Harcourt Brace and presently based in Ft. Myers.
Meanwhile, Harcourt Brace has hired players to make up two ``house``
teams, which play games on weekends until summer, when they will go daily. Some college games are being played here as well, and B&B; hopes to have many more staged here next year, perhaps in tournaments.
But live games aren`t the only attractions with a baseball theme. B&B; has a branch--the only one--of the Cooperstown National Baseball Hall of Fame. About 140 items are on view, including Babe Ruth`s locker, uniform, bat and spikes.
Already a hit with young and old is the Bull Pen, an area with several pitching cages. Visitors can pitch at a target catcher`s mitt from regulation distance (shorter for a small fry), have balls and strikes ``umpired``
electronically and each pitch`s speed posted. Batting cages let visitors take a whack at the elusive sphere, and there is a baseball theater where continuous movies of important plays and players are shown.
If you want to impress your friends, for $5 the Faceball Card Studio will put your picture on a baseball card together with whatever batting and fielding record information you want imprinted on the reverse.
Thrill rides are the stuff of the Boardwalk half of B&B.; With two roller coasters, several swinging boats and Himalayan trains, a log flume, enormous Ferris wheel, a parachute tower and assorted Octopus-like machines, B&B; offers more of these maniacal machines than any other park in the Orlando area.
Pride of the thrillers is the new, $2.2 million Grand Rapids log flume, which runs for nearly half a mile to a height of 65 feet and has two sets of drops. Sharing top thrill honors is the refurbished Hurricane roller coaster, the biggest in Florida and one of the biggest wooden coasters in the country. Another coaster, formerly called the Zoomerang and now known as the Double O, makes 360-degree loops forward and backward. People afraid of heights should avoid Big Wheel, a huge Ferris wheel that soars 16 stories above the ground.
Many of the thrill rides were already in place when Harcourt Brace, the book-publishing conglomerate, bought Circus World last May. Harcourt Brace promptly closed the park, redesigned it to the tune of $50 million and renovated all rides, adding some and eliminating some, including a high-tech roller coaster it deemed unsafe.
Special jarrah wood, the same used in Atlantic City, was imported from Australia to build the boardwalk, which runs throughout the park.
``It`s 40 percent stronger than oak,`` said Roger Kurz, B&B;`s marketing director, ``and it will last 50 years without maintenance.`` About 35,000 2-by-4-inch planks, each 14 1/2 feet long, are in place.
Landscapers brought in 3,000 trees and 300,000 plants and flowers, creating lovely walks and perspectives. One of them, a quiet oasis with a pond set amid the sound and fury of the rides, bears the appropriate name of Park Place.
B&B; also expanded the park from the 65 acres Circus World had used to 110, boosted parking to 5,000 spaces from 1,500 and added several attractions. One of them is Dance USA, where visitors can listen or dance to live or deejay music under a large, permanent tent.
