It's a quick jog for these duffel-bag-laden jocks on this Sunday in mid-March as they shuffle from parking lot to baseball diamond; a good thing since there's snow falling and most of them are wearing shorts topped only by nylon shells or ragged sweatshirts.

What's even better is that their ball yard happens to be inside a hangar-like space called the All-American Baseball Center, billed as the largest indoor training center exclusively for baseball in Pennsylvania.

Dan Ninemire, a former Pitt baseball coach, is the general manager of the new operation just off Route 8 at the Pennsylvania Turnpike exit in Richland.

It complements a similar All-American facility in Plum run by Mr. Ninemire that is bigger but is used for other sports training. The Richland center features a full-sized 90-foot artificial turf infield, seven batting cages, four Iron Mike pitching machines and a roster of trainers who besides Mr. Ninemire include Kevin Green, a former Chicago Cubs minor league hitting coach -- who is director of baseball operations.

The facility's clients include grade-school junior sluggers, teens from the Shaler Area High School varsity, the Richland and Mars athletic associations and a few VIP pros, including pitcher Jon George of the Colorado Rockies, first baseman Brant Colamarino of the Toronto Blue Jays and Pirates second-base prospect Jim Negrych, a former Pitt star and Big East Rookie of the Year.

Then there's the All-American-sponsored AAU teams, the Revolution and the Militia. On this Sunday afternoon, as parents gather in the lobby to watch a Penguins-Flyers hockey game, members of the Revolution and the Militia are in various stages of working out.

"We are just trying to grow baseball in our community," said Mr. Ninemire, who until 2005 was Pitt's assistant coach in charge of recruiting.

Mr. Ninemire talked of the discipline, hard work and dedication that can reap rewards no matter what one chooses to do in life.

"I think baseball always served that purpose. It's guided me through my life, and I'm sure it'll drive them, too," he said.

Rookies and guests can be thrown quite a curve ball, though. The first thing they see in the workout area this morning is a bunch of teens playing ... football?

Mr. Ninemire explained that these kids, Revolution players, haven't sold out but are merely loosening up prior to their UPMC-monitored warmup. "Tossing the football, it just keeps it fun for them, just changes things up," he said.

The center has partnered with UPMC Sports Performance, he added.

Once the warm-ups are over, the suicide sprints begin. A half-hour later, pitcher J.T. Terwilliger, 14, and shortstop Josh Barbara, 15, both of Fox Chapel, are ready for a break.

J.T., an eighth-grader at Dorseyville Middle School, said the facility sure beats hitting balls into a net in his basement. And it's even better to field ground balls on a full-size, winterized infield, added Josh, a 10th^-grader at Fox Chapel Area High School.

"These two places [the East and North facilities] are awesome, especially this one because it's 15 minutes away. You can come out after school," J.T. said.

"It's a big plus, I love it. You can get so much workout in here."

"At home you can do tennis balls, Nerf balls, but you can't take ground balls or anything," Josh said. "It gives us an advantage," he said, because the other teams' players "are playing video games at home and stuff."

Mr. Ninemire became convinced that a public, year-round facility could work in the climate-challenged Pittsburgh area after he saw what a world-class facility at Pitt, the Cost Center, could do for his college team.

Still, he allowed that being a baseball coach at Pitt made him feel somewhat out of place in a town where Panther football and basketball reign.

"It is sort of the stepsister," he said.

Too bad, because the Cost Center was "fabulous because you got to see what we could do with those college kids. We kept that rolling into training kids at younger ages."

Nicholas Satovich, 11, an Adlai Stevenson Elementary School fifth-grader from Plum, plays first base. Like a lot of the kids, he hooked up with Mr. Ninemire a few years ago when the coach ran youth clinics at Pitt.

Adam Salandro, 11, of Monroeville, is a sixth-grader at Mosside Middle School in the Gateway School District.

"They teach you more advanced stuff, get you ready to play at a higher level," he said, working on infield exchanges and ground ball blocking techniques.

"In the winter you wouldn't be able to do it," he said. "It'd be snowy and cold."

Matt Sprinkle, a hitting instructor who's working the cages this day, came here from Waynesburg College where he had been baseball coach.

He's well-prepared to deal with pretty much anything, including the backbreaking suicide sprints that start each day.

"Major league players explode when they do things," he explained. "We're trying to prepare their bodies for those same kind of explosive movement."

Nobody complained, however, about being able for once to keep up with players in Florida or the Southwest.

"This is the kind of comprehensive training kids out West and South are getting, working on their craft 365 days a year. It's a baseball school in every sense," Mr. Sprinkle said.