Jacksonville's Mandarin Info Blog

We have lived in the Mandarin area for a very long time.  I have 4 children and now a grandchild so I have used almost all of the parks in this area included in the zip codes 32217, 32223, 32257, 32258 and 32259.  We are revisiting all of them for this blog to take pictures and to give reviews.  The most recent one that we have used is:

Burnett Park Community Center
3740 Burnett Park Rd
Jacksonville, FL 32257
(904) 268-7510

Last year my youngest daughter wanted to learn to play baseball so we signed up with the Mandarin Athletic Association and she was placed on team.  The fees were reasonable and the season was short as it was Fall.  We liked the coaches and they were patient with the newcomers.  She was the one of the only 2 or 3 girls that tried out that season.  But the coaches were great and the other members of the team pretty much took her in stride.  All of the practices and games were played at Burnett Park which has 6 baseball fields, 4 tennis courts, 2 basketball courts and a children’s jungle gym for the younger kids to play on.  They also have a snack bar opened during the games with the usual hotdogs, hamburgers, chips, drinks and ice cream.  The bleachers are all metal and pretty cold during the late fall and early winter when she played.  The public bathrooms need some repair especially those near the tennis courts.  Every time we went was not on a trash day or it was late in the afternoon after quite a few teams had practiced.  I had hoped to get a collection of volunteers together to keep it clean but that was a wash.  The fields are kept nice though and the children’s equipment seem to be in good repair.

We had a good time after my daughter got more comfortable with her teammates and with the rules of the game.  She even managed to hit a few during the later games with a little help from Mandarin Mill where they have a batting cage and practices.  Sadly, my daughter did not want to play baseball anymore because she had some kind of falling out with one of the players during the tryouts in the spring.  But maybe next year she will want to play softball with the girls!

Mandarin Mill Family Golf
10910 San Jose Blvd
Jacksonville, FL 32223
(904) 262-7888

The park is opened all year round.  And you can play or practice on the fields at anytime unless there are team practices.  The park has some old oak trees for shade and pine trees to screen the traffic noise coming off of I-295.  There is a community hall on the premises but we have never used that.  The park in located in the middle of an established community and not very close to any major arteries so if you are not familiar with the Mandarin Area you are going to want to “GOOGLE MAP IT” on your first try.  There is a care-taker onsite for any problems.  Of course, there is no admission charge for any of the city parks.  There is ample parking unless of course it’s baseball season.

Something you may not know about Burnett Park is that the area to the west side of the park use to be a Horse Training and Show Area.  When we first moved to the area the park had two sides separated by a screen of pine trees.  The pine trees are still there but the horse track, tower and bleachers are gone and have been replaced by two more baseball diamonds with dug-outs and practice boxes.