Pirates' Grounds Crew Teaches Tricks Of Trade To Area Ball Park Groundskeepers
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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- For many people, spring is filled with outdoor yardwork and exterior maintenance. It is no different for school districts and other organizations that are trying to maintain baseball and softball fields.
On Monday, the Pittsburgh Pirates teamed up with The Baseball Tomorrow Fund. PNC Park groundskeepers worked with local groundskeepers to discuss maintaining the fields, and how to do their best with a limited budget.
"It helps me take care of our school baseball field and football field, shows us how to prepare our fields for long-term maintenance, and tries to help save the district money," says Mike Sinclair, a school groundskeeper.
People at the workshop learned about four areas of maintenance: the infield, the outfield grass, the bullpen and mound areas, and the team's equipment.
"The biggest questions that we receive normally are, 'How can I get rid of the high lips [between the grass and the dirt] and prevent bad hops," says Matt Brown, a PNC Park groundskeeper. "Also, if people are seeing low-lying areas on their infield as far as puddling and stuff like that."
In addition, the Baseball Tomorrow Fund is awarding one local organization with a $10,000 grant. The money will be used to purchase new supplies, equipment or other things the team needs to keep their field in top shape.
"Everybody's trying to do as good a job as they can," says Brown. "So this is kind of an opportunity for us to kind of touch base with them and help out in any way we can."
