30 SportsTurf | March 2015 www.sportsturfonline.com
"I
f you don't like the
weather then wait a day"
is a common statement
in Missouri. That must
have been the thinking for
scheduling conference baseball games
here in February several years ago.
Unfortunately this cannot be helped; in
the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic
Association (MIAA) with our 14 teams,
and many other Midwest and northern
conferences, it is standard. The question
is, what do we do when it's Baseball vs.
Snow?
Here at the University of Central
Missouri much of the time we are just
far enough south that we will be able
to pull off games in February but 2012
was not one of those years. Home
games were scheduled for a February 20
doubleheader followed by another dou-
bleheader on February 23 and a single
game on the 24th.
The tarp was put on the field on the
19th as 2 inches of rain fell into the 20th.
The next day the snow started. Over the
21st and 22nd we got 11 inches of snow
and then on the 23rd and 24th another
13+ plus came (after that much you just
quit measuring). So though the games
were of course cancelled, another was
scheduled for March 7 and we had a team
really wanting to practice on their field.
No frozeN tuNdra
Several days later we had main campus
cleared and safe so our attention could
turn back to the field. The amount was
no longer 2 feet due to the snow com-
pacting and some melting from the
bottom. Many people had told me to
blade the snow to the warning track and
scoop it over the fence. But the problem
Snow vS. baSeball:
one turf manager'S Story
FACILITY & OPERATIONS
■ By Brad Mackey
