Holy Cross crew prepares Fitton Field for a tournament.

It's the bottom of the ninth inning atHeritage Park in Albany, NY, with

. the score tied. The Albany-ColonieYankees have their best bunter at the plateand their fastest runner on third base. Fieldmanager Tommy Jones and groundskeeperJohn Liburdi have been waiting for this mo-ment since the beginning of the season.

The batter lays a bunt down the first baseline as the overflow crowd of 7,000 fans risefrom their seats screaming for the ball tostay fair. Liburdi and his crew go crazy asthe ball stays in play and the winning runscores. Tonight they helped the Yankeeswin a big game.

As the happy fans leave the park andLiburdi and his crew begin two hours of fieldclean-up, Jones winks as he passes Liburdion his way to the locker room with the restof the team. Only they know the basepath14 sDortsTURF

between home and first was sloped slight-ly toward the pitcher's mound before thegame because they knew the Yankees hada good bunter and their opponents didn't.A little extra effort from the field crew com-bined with the skill of a good bunter putanother game in the win column for theteam.

Liburdi strongly believes that the work heand his crew do at Heritage Park plays a partin every win by the double-A Yankees andthe Albany-area amateur teams that useHeritage Park as their home field. They doall they can to gain the "home field advan-tage" by using every allowable trick in thebook. To him, that's what baseball fieldmanagement is all about.

Jim Long at Holy Cross College in Wor-cester, MA, takes a more practical view ofhis job-that a quality field is the fairest sur-

face for two teams to compete on. Longdoesn't have time for tricks- just high overallstandards. Part of the reason may be thatgrounds superintendent Long, athletic fieldforeman John Grosnihan and his assistantGuy Durocher have more than 30 acres ofsports turf to maintain to Holy Cross stan-dards. These standards are set largely bycollege president Rev. John E. Brooks andby Edward Bennett Williams, chairman ofthe Holy Cross Board of Trustees and ownerof the Baltimore Orioles.

The high quality of Holy Cross' Fitton Fieldis the same as that of the entire campuslandscape, carefully guarded by Brooks andmaintained by Long to win the respect ofboth students and alumni. The campus haspreviously won more than eight awards forlandscape maintenance and design.

Despite their differing approaches to base-

ball field management, liburdi and Longwere both winners in the first annual Base-ball Diamond of the Year Award sponsoredby Partac Peat Corporation, the Sports TurfManagers' Association and sports TURFmagazine. They willingly share of theirknowledge to help other sports turfmanagers achieve high standards of per-formance, appearance and safety for theirbaseball fields. The differences between thefields give a broad range of choices for qual-ity baseball field management.

Heritage Park was built in 1983 and isoperated under a 50:50 arrangment betweenAlbany and the town of Colonie. "Revenuefrom the park does not go into a city generalfund like in some stadiums," states libur-di. "All accounts are separate so we canuse income generated during the seasonto pay for our budgeted expenses. My job

Aerial view of Heritage Field, built and managed jointly by the Town of Colonie and the cityof Albany.

As winners of the Baseball Diamond of theYear Aw~ Liburdi and Long willingly share of

their krwwledge to help other sports turfmanagers achieve high standards ofperformance, appearance and safety

for their baseball fields.

would be much harder if I had to go to thecity for everything I need." At the end of theyear Albany and Colonie either split the sur-plus or reinvest it in the park.

During the '86 baseball season, more than320,000 fans paid to see the Yankeesplay-a record for the Eastern Conference.Liburdi hopes to expand the stadium's seat-ing capacity from 5,700 to more than 10,000with the surplus from 1986. Last July morethan 16,000 fans packed into Heritage Parkto see Ron Guidry pitch for the Yankeeswhile recovering from arm injuries.

Backed by a stadium maintenance budgetof more than $160,000, liburdi strives tokeep Heritage Park the best field in theEastern League and the fifth best in all theminor leagues. It has all the componentsof a professional stadium. A fully-automaticToro 680 system irrigates the dense stand

of Kentucky bluegrass, ryegrass and finefescue. The warning track and infield havebeen constructed and groomed to majorleague standards. More than 150 lights,totalling 245,000 watts, illuminate the fieldand stands for night events. A 48,000-wattcomputer-operated score board and mes-sage center sits above the left field fence,a donation from the Miller BrewingCompany.

Although the stadium is open nine monthsa year, you can find liburdi there nearly ev-ery day. He begins his turf management pro-gram in the spring as soon as the snow melts.by aerating both infield and outfield with atractor-drawn Dedoes drum aerator with half-inch hollow tines. As the cores dry, hedetatches the aerator from the tractor andconnects a harrow to break up the cores.

continued on page 16

ADril.\ 1987 15

More than 16,000 fans packed Heritage Field to see the recuperating Ron GUidry pitch.

Quality Baseball Diamondscontinued from page 15

The following day he again uses the trac-tor with a Lely spreader attached to lightlytopdress the infield with sand. Finally hespreads granular preemergence herbicideand wetting agent. "I've saved lots of moneyby using a tractor and attachments insteadof individual pieces of equipment for each

job," says the thrifty Liburdi.Using a soil test kit he bought for the park,

Liburdi tests both the infield and outfieldsoil once each month for nutrient levels andpH. The backbone of his fertilization pro-gram is a 24:4:12 fertilizer containing slow-release nitrogen in the form of IBDU. Hemakes a second application of the fertiliz-er in mid-June and a double-rate applica-

tion in October. He irrigates immediatelyafter each application. "I've noticed earli-er spring greenup and better root depthsince we started using slow-release nitro-gen and kept a close eye on phosphorusand potassium levels," states Liburdi.

One reason he switched fertilizers wasalmost two inches of thatch that built up afterthe sod was two years old. "Thatch mess-es everything up," he recalls. "Not only doesit make the field too soft, it forces you toirrigate more than you should have to. Thesoil would be moist but the turf would bedry as a bone. It took three men three daysone fall to mechanically dethatch the fieldand get rid of the debris. I decided that wasenough."

Liburdi called up Norm Hummel, turfspecialist at Cornell University, and askedfor his advice. That's when he purchasedthe aerator, switched over to slow-releasenitrogen and started using a wetting agent."Not only did the thatch problem stop, weuse less water, less fertilizer and the grassroots are deeper," says a relieved Liburdi.

Aeration is discontinued until the peakcrabgrass germination period is over in Juneto prevent breaking the herbicide barrier inthe soil. From June to November the fieldwill be aerated an average of twice a month.The aerator is brought out after each non-sporting event like a concert or flea mar-ket to relieve any resulting compaction. Afterthe first June aeration, Liburdi makes one

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application of Oftanol insecticide to controlwhite grubs.

You start to see the finicky side of Liburdiwhen you ask him about mowing and in-field preparation. The importance of the in-field becomes apparent immediately.

The outfield is mowed three times eachweek with a Jacobsen Trim King riding reelmower. Although the clippings are left onthe field, they are left there by design. Liburdicalls it the clock system of mowing. On Mon-day, the outfield is mowed from north tosouth. On Wednesday the direction ischanged to east to west. Finally on Friday,the outfield is mowed from northeast tosouthwest. The result is a checkerboard pat-tern which makes the outfielders feel likethey are standing on a golf green.

The clock system is also used on the in-field with a walk-behind rotary with "razor-sharp" blades and grass catcher. "It's likeparting your hair," says Liburdi. "You partit the same way all the time and it lays downautomatically. We want the turf to grow asupright as possible."

Many baseball fieldmanagers wHl ten youthe skinned area ismore important than

the turf.

One way he doesn't want the turf to growis into the skinned area. That's forbiddenterritory for grass, weeds and rocks. Theskinned area is one area so important toLiburdi that he bought a specialized pieceof equipment for it, a Smithco infieldmachine. The machine is similar to a sandtrap groomer with modifications to handleclay base path mixes.

Many baseball field managers will tell youthe skinned area is more important than theturf. To them, selecting a base path mix ismore critical than selecting a seed mix.Liburdi goes so far as to use different mix-es for different parts of the skinned area.

Actually the word "skinned" doesn't fitthese areas. After the field is graded, thelocal soil in these areas is removed to adepth of six inches. Drain tile are installedalong the bottom of the excavated areasbefore the base path mix is added.

At Heritage Park, a carefully-mixed com-bination of sand and clay was used in thesix-foot-wide base paths. Two inches at atime of the mix were spread, wet down androlled. A similar procedure is necessary forany holes or ruts made by players duringa game. They have to be filled, wet downand packed. If that isn't done, the mix in

the hole will dry out and become loose be-fore the surrounding mix.

Each year Liburdi rototills Terra-Greensoil conditioner into the top two or threeinches of the base paths to renew their tex-ture, stability and moisture-holding capacity.A good base path mix retains enoughmoisture to prevent dust, is firm enough forsolid footing and a true ball bounce, is freeof rocks and easily workable for grooming.

The soil mix in the pitcher's mound andbatter's box receives even more attention.The mound is tricky because pitchers canbe easily distracted by an uncomfortablelanding on their follow-through after a pitch."The first thing most pitchers do when they

get to the mound is dig out push-off andlanding spots with their cleats," remarksLiburdi. "You give them a good, solid moundand they don't need to dig holes." To makehis mound solid, Liburdi replaced the soilin the front half of the mound with BeamClay pitcher's mound mix. The special claymix provides the extra firmness pitchers like,says Liburdi, and has reduced the amountof time his crew has had to spend on repair-ing the mound after games.

Batters also need to feel comfortableabout their footing when at the plate. Theylike to work their cleats into the dirt as theyget into their stance. A larger particle size

continued on page 19

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Quality Baseball Diamondscontinued from page 17

of clay mix called Home Plate Mix is usedby Liburdi in the batter's box.

Stone dust is Liburdi's choice for the warn-ing track and coaches boxes. This by-product from rock quarries is inexpensive,retains moisture well and discourages weedor grass growth. It grooms easily and looksgood.

One thing Liburdi works very hard to avoidis accumulations of base path mix in theturf areas called lips. He does not allow thecrew to operate the infield machine to theedge of the turf areas. Instead, his crew handrakes the edges to keep any mix from get-ting on the turf and then uses the infieldmachine. Between games the skinned areasare packed with a 650 roller.

Part of the trick of making a baseball fieldlook sharp for a game is protecting it dur-ing pre-game batting and fielding practices.After the field has been prepared andmarked for a game, Liburdi covers themound, the batting cage area and batter'sbox with specially-shaped pieces of Ter-raCover, a fabric cover that absorbs muchof the weight of players standing on it. Ny-lon netting is placed in the fungo area be-tween the mound and the plate. The net-ting prevents hard-hit grounders from mak-ing divots. in the infield turf.

After batting practice, the cage is movedoff the field, the covers are removed and

John Liburdi with Baseball Diamond of theYear trophy.

the lines and mound are quickly touchedup. "We've cut our pregame preparation timein half," says Liburdi. "It gives us more timefor other things that might go wrong at thelast second."

Liburdi gives the same amount of careand attention to the field for 20 college and

high schools and 15 Babe Ruth and LittleLeague games each year as he does forthe Yankees 70 home games. Each yearthe park hosts four baseball camps for chil-dren. Early in the season, Liburdi invitessports turf managers from area schools andleagues to Heritage Park for free educationalseminars on baseball field management."What we do at Heritage may not be prac-tical for non-profit leagues to do to theirfields," admits Liburdi, "but it gets them start-ed in the right direction. Lots of times, they'llcall later to ask more questions. That's agood sign in my opinion."

Holy Cross' Fitton Field is a New Englandsports landmark. Built in 1905, the field wasused frequently by the Boston Red Sox andthe Boston Braves for exhibition games. Inthe early days, residents of Worcester sawbaseball greats such as Babe Ruth, CaseyStengel and Jimmy Fox play at Fitton Field.

The Red Sox don't play exhibition gamesthere anymore, but for the last two yearsHoly Cross has hosted the Eastern Collegi-ate Athletic Conference Division One Base-ball Championship and the New EnglandHigh School Championships. More than 100events are played on the field every year,including all home games for the college'sfreshman and varsity baseball and soccerteams. Fitton Field continues to earn its repu-tation as a New England sports landmark.

The site of the field was originally a marshcontinued on page 20

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Babe Ruth used to play in exhibition games with the Red Sox when Fitton Field was young.

Quality Baseball Diamondscontinued from page 19

bordering the Blackstone River at the baseof Mount St. James. To help Holy Cross turnthe marsh into baseball field, a nearby steelcompany filled in the marsh with cindersfrom its large coke ovens. Although thecinder base of the field provides excellent

drainage most of the season, the field isoften flooded during the spring when thesnow cap on Mount St. James melts. Springbaseball games were frequently cancelleddue to the muddy state of the base paths.Summer heat would kill large patches ofthe Kentucky bluegrass and fine fescue turfsince irrigation was never installed. In the

fall, the field is used as a parking lot dur-ing football games.

With 175 acres to maintain, Jim Long seeshimself as a generalist. "I can't drop every-thing else to concentrate on the field," heremarks. Faced with the problems inher-ent in the field and the high expectationsof President Brooks, he had to act. The first

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step was to assign John Grosnihan and GuyDurocher the job of improving not only Fit-ton Field, but all the intramural fields on cam-pus. One by one the problems with the base-ball field were corrected.

The traditional sand/clay mix was exca-vated from the base paths and pitcher'smound down to a depth of six inches. Stonedust was installed in place of the old mix.Immediately drainage of the skinned areaimproved. There was no more mud to con-tend with and weeds that used to grow inthe old base path mix did not develop inthe stone dust. Maintenance is now sim-ply a matter of grooming with a Toro Sand-Pro, light rolling and hosing. Maintenancetime of the base paths was cut from 24 manhours per week to four.

"We can have the field back in play wi-thin hours of a rain storm now," says Long.If a game is interrupted by a short shower,Grosnihan applies Diamond Dry to the basepaths before letting the players back on thefield.

To restore dense turf to the portions ofthe field compacted by fall parking and tornup by winter soccer, Long has the crew aer-ate heavily with a Ryan Trac-Aire. A Rogersseeder is then used to verticut and over-seed both infield and outfield. Starter fer-tilizer is applied and the turf topdressed withscreened loam.

The only missing ingredient was water.Instead of installing permanent irrigation,Long opted for a water cannon by Larch-mont Engineering. Not only did the travel-ling sprinkler make the renovation a suc-cess, it is now used regularly throughoutthe season. The crew also uses the can-non to wet down the base path mix.

One of the steps toward treating the fieldmore like high maintenance turf than utili-ty turf, was a greatly increased fertilizer pro-gram. Now the field is fertilized six timesfrom May through September. Preemer-gence herbicide is applied twice in May anda postemergence dicot weed· killer is usedin late June.

The difference in the field is dramatic. Afterthe outfield is mowed with a Jacobsen TurfKing reel mower and the infield with a 24-inch walk-behind rotary, Long adds a spe-cial touch of his own. He picks up the clip-pings and gives the turf a checkerboard pat-tern with a Toro Rake-o-Vac pulled by asmall diesel tractor. "I don't believe in tricks,"says Long, "but the vacuum comes prettyclose."

The Holy Cross crew considers some ofthe "tricks" as standard practice. During bat-ting practice the mound and batting cagearea are covered with green carpet to pro-tect the dirt and markings. Lips in the turfare removed each spring. Four times a yearthe field is aerated to keep the surface openfor drainage.

It's a boost to Long and his crew to havethe support of Edward Bennett Williams,owner of the Baltimore Orioles and chair-man of the Holy Cross board. "Mr. Williamstakes special interest in Fitton Field," saysLong. "He likes to visit with the crew and

Heritage Park installed a Toro irrigation system when the field was constructed in 1983.

Fitton Field still does not have lights. To addlights might in some way break an importantlink with the past that sets the 81-year-old

field apart from others.

The condition of Fitton Field has improved greatly since Long started using a water cannon.

walk the field when he's on campus for boardmeetings. His interest in baseball rubs offand he encourages us to make the field asgood as possible." Maybe it's the thoughtthat Ruth and Stengle once played on Fit-ton Field that draws Williams to field afterboard meetings.

Today, the field meets the same high stan-dards as the rest of the Holy Cross cam-pus. Fitton Field still does not have lights.

To add lights might in some way break animportant link with the past that sets the 81-year-old field apart from others.

Both Heritage Park and Fitton Field areimportant parts of their communities. BothLiburdi and Long understand this and makethe effort to preserve the quality of their fieldsthrough maintenance. That's what madethem the first winners of the Baseball Dia-mond of the Year Award. Q9

April, 1987 21