Do you wonder why we ask you to do some of the maintenance items on our Field Work Day? For example ….. why do we shovel away the infield mix from along the fence line and back on to the field? In fact, why do we make it lower than the rest of the field?
The simple answer is that we want all that good infield mix on the field of play, not hugging the fence (hence, no drag mats close to or along the fence line). But there is more to it, and can be seen on Field 4 (AAA Field) with today’s rains. Because of the way Olive Park slopes, the water runoff from the cement areas drains onto the AAA Field at the 3rd base dugout area.
As a result, more water is saturating this area making it that much more difficult to recover from rain. Because the infield mix has not been shoveled away from the fence line, the slope of the field drains the water to the infield, rather than containing the water along the fence trough.
Thanks for reading,
Bruce MacCallum
Field Maintenance
