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/621615
FIELD SCIENCE 12 SportsTurf | January 2016 www.sportsturfonline.com Day games pose a special challenge in keeping the play- ing conditions consistent from the beginning of the game through the last out. Any combination of dry air, wind, and sun will dry out an infield much quicker than a cloudy day or a humid night. Preparing the infield surface and managing moisture during the pregame hours of a day game will ulti- mately have an effect on improving the playing conditions in the later parts of the game. "For a day game, we'll apply a little more conditioner, which is our calcined clay product. One of many things I learned out in San Diego is we'll get as much water on in the morning as we can, and we'll come back over top of that water with what we call a "mulch layer," putting out dry conditioner over top of a wet surface. It acts kind of like a mulch layer to trap that moisture in and then we'll continue our watering practices after that," Turnour says. Depending on the amount of conditioner already on the infield, as well as the environmental conditions for that day, Turnour says they'll apply another 10-20 bags of calcined clay for a day game. "It would certainly be more of a challenge to manage moisture without a calcined clay product," Turnour says. "It holds moisture up on the top and it gives the players a nice, consistent surface to play on. It prevents it from being muddy or sloppy when it's wet. It provides traction." When it comes down to it, playability is Turnour's main focus. "At the end of the day, for the game, we know what kind of a field we want to present to the players so anything we can do to get it to that, we do. Our main goal is making sure that we provide a safe, consistent playing surface for them day in and day out," Turnour says. "Ultimately, we are here for the play- ers. We want to make sure when they come out on their home field they know what to expect. They can rely on the field that they are going to be playing on. For half of their games they are here at Nationals Park and we want them to feel comfortable out here. We want them to feel at ease. When the ball is rolling across the infield we want our infielders to know how that ball is going to react. The more consistent we can make that for them, it makes their job a lot easier. Aesthetics, certainly we all strive for an aesthetically good-looking field. But on the list of priorities, it's down past safety and consistency." ■ ST Stacie Zinn Roberts is a writer, speaker and marketing consul- tant. Her company, What's Your Avocado?, is based in Mount Vernon, WA; she is the author of "How to Live Your Passion & Fulfill Your Dreams." Opening Day 2015 head groundskeeper, Washington Nationals.