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SPORTS FIELDS-Baseball Maintenance
Question to ask yourself about skin areas
- Do skin mixes drain water?
- Pound a coffee can into your mix and fill with water. Wait 4 hours. It probably won’t drain because it was designed
not to drain.
- Some mixes are designed to drain, i.e. hadeca mix.
Common design or maintenance errors associated with drainage
- Incorrect infield skin contours or percent of slope->1% to <2%-1.25 to 1.5% ideal. A 1% slope is about 1.25"
for every 10 feet. The easiest way to tell is to run a string line with a bubble at several angles across the skinned part
of the infield and measure the distance between the skin surface and the string. Once again, if your consistently going up
or down at 1.25" to 1.50" for every 10 feet, your in the right ballpark.
- Failure to isolate fields as individual drain units-do adjacent slopes and areas drain onto your field-your field has
a hard enough time draining by itself, let alone adjacent areas. Fields should ONLY drain the water that falls on them.
- Skinned infields should be the highest point on the field!!!!- Drain water away from skin area-wet skin areas are the
most problematic and biggest reason NOT to have games.
Other Common design or maintenance errors
- Insufficient clearance around field-fences, spectators, slopes, etc.
- Failure to provide sufficient access roads for players, machines, etc.- Do you have to cross 3 fields to get to the last
one? Build roads!
Common concerns and mistakes about infield skin mix grades or slopes
- If baseball and softball fields slope towards outfield- infield skin will usually be wet around the outside perimeter
of skin because turf will usually back up water like a dam either because of a lip buildup or the grade(slope) isn’t
correct. The easiest fix is to make sure the grade of the skinned area is consistent with outfield.
- Adding infield mix to low areas- changes slope and slope is responsible for drainage.
Infield skins- 2 layers
- Topdressing
- Base
Elements of a good infield skin
Traction- Footing
- Cleats should leave a clean print
- Not fluffy or no prints- too soft or too hard
- Check with players for advice
- Sand added under skin slows players, clay speeds players
Playability- Function of soil mix, topdressing and management of both
- Too much topdressing will cause the baseball to skid and skip across across skin
- Too hard will create erratic hops
Resiliency- How well field holds up
- Combination of topdressing and management
- Dictated by thickness of topdressing., moisture, spiking, and dragging techniques
Drainage- Function of soil mix
- MUST maintain a grade and keep lip buildup under control
- Water must be able to move across skin
- Skin should be at a grade of a minimum of ½% slope
- Amendments are short lived remedies
Appearance- Function of topdressing
Topdressing amendments
Calcined Clays – Kitty litter, Turface
- Kitty litter- clay is heated to 1,200 degrees
- Industry standard – relatively cheap
- Enormous amount of micropores, moderate bulk density (not heavy)
- Absorbs a tremendous amount of water
- Good for ‘opening’ a field up to improve drainage, esp. with high clay content, will resist compaction
- Biggest drawback is that it is impossible to manage moisture control and must keep dry when storing
Vitrified Clays – Turface,
- Top choice of professionals – more expensive
- Clay is heated to 2,000 degrees
- Does not suck up water
- Water will pass through vitrified clays at a consistent rate
- Will improve drainage - good for heavy clay skins
- Very heavy (high bulk density)
- Often used as a topdressing – has reddish color
- Can store outside since water will pass through it
Crushed Aggregates – by products of rock and stone
- Most common used products – inexpensive
- Can be marble dust or fired brick dust or granite dust, etc.
- Absorbs the least amount of moisture- allows moisture to pass through it
- Can compact over time – will have to spike periodically
- Will fluff – Stabilizers and water will keep material down and prevent fluffing
- Can store outside
Diatomaceous Earth – rock formed skeletal remains
- Most absorbent material out there
- Can create a glare
- Low bulk density
- Use in very wet areas
Infield mixes
Base soils
- All material should be able to pass trough a ¼" screen
- Surface grade (slope)
- Most critical factor when dealing with drainage
- Skin should have at least a ¼" slope to drain water
- Skin moisture will be dictated by grade of skin
- Sand should be less than 75% of mix
- Sands cause a loss of traction, have high mobility i.e. fluffing and wind movement, and are harder to maintain
- Silt and clay should be less than 50% of mix
- Silt is a binder that holds clay and sand together
- Clay provides plasticity to help traction
- Silt + clay + water = GLUE
- Clay increases traction but also increases moisture retention – can become too wet at times.
High sand content
- Greater than 75% sand
- Use calcined clays
Low sand content
- Use vitrified clays or crushed aggregates
Soil texture
- Particle size and shape will affect all aspects of infield skins
- Finer soils will increase traction and moisture and will soften the way baseball skids, hops, and rolls
Topdressing
- Must be soft but not too loose to prevent fluffing
- Friable- ability to break apart or crumble easily
- Judicious use of shallow scarification and turface, calcined clays
- Consistent topdressing mix
Other areas of interest
- Use hand blowers to accelerate drying in wet areas
- Foul line- chaulk goes INSIDE of line
- Use a post hole digger and turface to drain extremely wet or problem areas (tarp water after rain)
- Use your aerator to break up hard infield skins
- Use Astroturf batting pads- paint home plate on Astroturf
- Take pictures before and after a game to show wear patterns.
- Use a hand turf thatcher to scarify skin areas – cut every other tine off
- Use unfired clay bricks for home plate and pitchers mound areas
- Use tarps to hold in moisture and prevent wind erosion
- Broom edges after a game before dew or water moistens clay particles which will then smear into ground instead of moving
- Nail drag using 40 penny nails – go SLOW to prevent clumps forming
- Use cocoa mats to provide a smooth consistent surface without grooves
- Rake infield and leave grooves in desired direction to provide baseball with different spin patterns
- Drag mats- rotate 90 degrees so you drag the mat in "stiff" position-will level better.
- Use turface where players stand
- Use calcined clay in front of home plate to 10 –15 feet in infield to soften bad hops – too much can create
black layer (poor drainage)
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