Dave and Luke’s field of dreams

Dave and Luke remember their own fields of dreams as they broadcast live from Safeco Field (ap file)

He’s known for a lot of things from his love of Gilbert and Sullivan to space, but few know Dave Ross was an aspiring baseball player and ballpark builder as a youngster in upstate New York.

As Dave and Luke visited Safeco Field for their special broadcast Wednesday, Dave recounted building his own field of dreams in the family’s big backyard.

“Of course, part of it was the fun of trying to get all the measurements right and realizing that our backyard was in fact not big enough for a regulation size field. So of course, I had to reduce it proportionately. So it was more of a math problem,” Dave says.

Dave admits his mom was less then happy about some of his undertaking, especially using the family pillow cases for bases.

“I had no idea what was in them (real bases), so it was mostly old undershirts I put in them, completely destroyed them,” he laughs.

Then there was the matter of groundskeeping. In his quest for the perfectly coiffed field, Dave admits he did some serious damage to the lawn.

“We had a pretty big yard. I scraped off the hill for a mound and bases,” he recounts.

The biggest challenge was finding enough players. Dave had to rely on his dad and younger brother, along with a set of special rules.

“If the ball goes past the chestnut tree it’s a double, if it only gets as far as the elm tree it’s a single, if it goes off the tennis court it’s a triple,” Dave says.

Luke Burbank has his own memories of bringing the national past time to life.

Like Dave, finding 18 players was always a challenge, so they relied on the time honored tradition of imaginary runners.

“Ghost runners are the foundation of all child baseball experiences because you never have enough players so it’s always like ‘ghost runner at second,'” Luke says.

He took imagination one step farther, often playing by himself when no other friends could be found. He says a rise in a back alley and a brick wall made for a perfect mound and catcher.

“So I made a little tape strike zone and I would sit out there with my little battery powered radio and reenact every single pitch. It was so much fun.”