I am planning on building a bullpen with two rubbers. When I was in college, we had a nice on that was wood on both sides and the back. The sideboards were cut at angles to give the proper slope of the mound and the wood frame was filled in with dirt. Has anyone ever built one of these? If so, I could use some advice on how to go about constructing one.

Construct out of 2 X 12 X 14 on back and 2 X 12 x 16 on sides. Use a 2 X 4 X 14 in the front to tie it together. Make sure you square and level all the way around. Measure 3 1/2' off the back edge or 10'6 from the front and start your slope down to 2" on both sides. Put stakes in the ground and screw to lumber on the inside for stability. Add dirt, tamping as much as you can. You can add fill dirt on the bottom but should use mound clay once you start getting close to a finish. Place rubbers 4' apart and 3' from side boards. Run string across to make sure rubbers are level with top of boards. You should fill to the sides of your boards to form your slope. Make sure you keep covered so the dirt does not wash away

You may need to ask this in the Ask the Ump forum but I am thinking that you cannot have this type of mound in playing areas. If it's outside the fence then you are good to go but if you want it inside the fence in foul territory I don't think it's legal. Reason is there is no gentle slope for an OF to run up if there is a play to be made.

It will be outside the field of play behind our dugout.

Coach, here is something to think about IF you aren't building it on the playing field (inside your fence). We built a 4 station bullpen. Our pitcher throw in opposite directions so two are throwing one way and two are throwing 180 degrees opposite. We have portable backstops which our shop class built behind each. Note, these are straight backstops and not the type used for hitting. We placed our bullpen in an area where I could monitor both the bullpen and batting cages. In our situation, it is down the left field line. Why 4 throwing? Well, I can have 2 varsity pitchers throwing and 2 JV pitchers throwing AND coach all of them at the same time. I expect that when one pitcher is getting coached, they all are listening. Those 4 then do their other "work" like leg work together. The older, more seasoned pitchers, help train the lower level kids. This also allows me to have a point on the field where I can look while throwing bp and instruct pitching, hitting, etc. BTW, we have a volunteer coach that is always in the bullpen and so, no kid every throws without a coach present.

If you have cross ties around they are easy to use to make your box for the mounds. I have had several different set ups, but for my practice mounds....concrete and astro-turf work great.

Go to the search engine for this site and put in pithcing mound. Yes that is spelled right, the guy spelled it wrong. Anyway it has directions and a great picture of a bullpen mound.

We just rebuilt our JV pens with concrete borders instead of ties and it is much cleaner and easier to maintain. It looks much nicer and will last forever where ties break down and move. We did it with donated labor and concrete at cost which made it affordable. If you are going to use clay make sure you lay bricks down and only put a very thin layer of clay/dirt mix, prevents them from getting giant holes at the landing spots. Once we get a few more $$ we are going to go to all concrete and astro turf. This will last much longer and require much less maintenance.

BTW plates are already on concrete pads with turf on top with painted plates. Much cleaner and no maintenance.