SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/306114
›› www.stma.org May 2014 | SportsTurf 29 We have managed MLB games in numerous countries; when the Montreal Expos (now Washington Nationals) played parts of two seasons in Puerto Rico I wore a couple hats, Head Groundskeeper/ Stadium Ops at Hiram Bithorn Stadium. We continue to manage this venue's MLB events including the past World Baseball Classic in 2013 and New York Mets series in 2011. MLB also receives requests from international federations to use professional players to compete in international tournaments. Some of those events have been the Olympics and Olympic qualifying games, Baseball World Cups, IBAF tournaments and the World Baseball Classic. Since players' contracts are owned by MLB clubs, we are responsible for evaluating and managing field of play operations in each of these countries before and during the tournament. ST: How far in advance of the games in Australia did you begin planning on the work that had to be done? Cook: Planning for the MLB opener in Sydney actually began about 16 months ago. The Sydney Cricket Grounds (SCG) has a storied past rich in history that goes back to the mid 1850's. It is the holy grail of cricket in Australia. Due to our past experience in working with the folks in Australia on projects like the Sydney 2000 Olympics and the Australian baseball league, we had a pretty good idea what it would take to build a baseball field there. However, constructing a Major League level field at the SCG we knew would be a challenge. Back in 1993 we did play an MLB exhibition series at the Oval in London so understanding a cricket pitch a bit was a huge plus. The challenge of this project was more than just con- structing a field; we had to create a ballpark. That meant fencing, padding, backstop, batters eye, bullpens, batting tunnel, locker rooms, dugouts, foul poles, etc. And just to add a twist, we had to get it all completed in 16 days. ST: Share with us what exactly you had to do with the field in Australia and include any especially interesting details or problems that you had to overcome. Cook: It's amazing what great things we can do when no one worries about who gets the credit. The recognition for the success of this historical event belongs to a huge team effort. The vision for bringing the game to Australia belongs to Jason Moore (Promoter) and Tom Nicholson, MLB's Director of Oceana Operations. The core players in the project management were Tom Parker, the head curator, and project manager Scott Egelton. These guys were just remarkable. From this group we had to assemble the right team of contractors and vendors. Evergreen, better known as Dad & Dave's turf farm, was selected to perform the transition. Graeme, Mark and Chappo not only had to execute the transition but after baseball was through they had to flip it back to NRL rugby in a week. Back in February 2013, we found that the slope of the pitch on the northern end where the infield would be placed would not allow us to construct a level infield; therefore a proper mound would have been difficult to install. In the fall of 2013 the SCG engaged Evergreen to level the area and re-sod before the Ashes took place in January. The Ashes event is comparable to MLB's All Star series. It's a match that pits England vs. Australia, which has been going on for more than a century. Other key players in the development of the games include Piers Morgan, Jamie Barkley and Michael Bangle, representing SCG Trust. They supported the event throughout the process which helped Tom, Scott and I to create something very special. It's great when the front office has your back. Some of the items we needed for the project became difficult to find and or create in Australia. One key item to the field was locat- ing the infield clay and mound clays. We worked closely with Andy McNitt's lab in the testing of soils to try and find a mix locally and after numerous tests and blending samples we were at a point of needing to order the clay from the USA. We gave Gail Materials a call and they helped out with a clay shipment that was transported in 11 containers (220 1-ton sacks). We also needed padding for the fence structure. We engaged Bob and Ken Curry of Covermaster to develop the pads and they had Greg Meeks from Turbo Link come over and handle the installation. We found a great terra cotta mix locally for the warning track. The local turf, better known as cooch grass, is a hybrid ber- muda-type turfgrass. We visited Evergreen's sod farm to see the Some of the items we needed for the project became difficult to find and or create in Australia. One key item to the field was locating the infield clay and mound clays. Laying out field and first harvest of sod from warning track area.