Chittick Field

Chittick Field is a sports complex in Long Beach, California. Originally constructed (and still used) as a stormwater detention basin named Hamilton Bowl (after Hamilton Junior High School, which was located nearby[1]), it is also known under multiple other names: Dee Andrews Sports Complex, "The Hole", "El Hoyo", and as a result of its deterioration in the 2000s, "The Dust Bowl".[2] The complex includes a football field, an all-weather running track, and three lighted soccer fields.[1]

Located along Walnut Avenue, to the north of Pacific Coast Highway,[3] the basin was built in 1936[2] to capture stormwater runoff from the Signal Hill area, as well as oil from an occasional oil gusher from one of the oil wells that dotted the neighborhood at the time.[3] The basin still slows the peak flow of water downstream to the Los Angeles River during major storms; restoration of submerged playing fields after such occurrences takes about 90 days.[2] The bowl overflowed during the 1939 California tropical storm.[4]

The baseball diamonds were originally built in the detention basin in 1950, with major expansions that included a soccer field and parking in the 1960s and the 1970s. Hamilton Bowl was renamed in 1983 in honor of Brian Chittick, a creator of the Kid Baseball Association,[2] and in 2021 was again renamed to Dee Andrews Sports Complex at Chittick Field after a former city council member.[2]