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.
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FieldScience Table 1. MOUND WEAR (clay displacement) in weeks 1 and 4 with the four products clay displacement on the toe plate and landing areas and summed. These num- bers, along with the number of pitches thrown since the last rebuild, were used to calculate a value of clay displacement (or deflection) per 100 pitches thrown. At the end of each bullpen pitchers filled out a daily assessment sheet to subjectively rate the firmness, shape, consistency, moisture, and cleat indentation characteristics of the mound on a 1 to 10 scale, with 1 = worst and 10 = best. These subjective data are not presented, but they greatly influenced the overall qualitative judgments expressed later in the report. RESULTS Mar Mound: On the first day of the HOW THE CLAYS WERE EVALUATED In an attempt to simulate four different "intensities" of maintenance programs, bullpen was thrown Monday through Fri- day for 4 weeks. During week 1 (March 14- 18) the mounds were re-worked each morning before bullpen being thrown; in week 2 (March 21-25), the mounds were only re-worked on Monday, Wednesday and Friday; in week 3 (March 28-April 1), the mounds were re-worked on Tuesday and Thursday; and in week 4, mound re- working occurred only on Wednesday. Each pitcher practiced off one mound for an en- tire week and then rotated to the next mound type in week 2 and so on. A tight schedule was kept so that each mound would receive the same number of pitches each week. Quantitative data was collected at the end of each day on the depth of greatest study Mar Mound did not perform well. The first bullpen resulted in the highest measured clay displacement of the study at 9.2 inches/100 pitches (Table 1). The pitcher dug into it easily at the toe plate and landing area, leaving a small hole in- stead of simple cleat indentations. At the end of week 1, the average wear per 100 pitches was 4.5, which was second only to Turface. However, no other product showed more improvement through the 4 weeks as Mar Mound, ending at a 1.9 inch wear >> TOE PLATE hole after day 1 on Mar Mound. >> TOE PLATE hole for Turface mound in week 2 >> DIAMOND PRO landing area showing firmness. >> PRO'S CHOICE toe plate showing chunking and slickness. 10 SportsTurf | October 2011 www.sportsturfonline.com