Fans, Please Stay Off the Grass

Orioles head groundskeeper Nicole Sherry offers some turf maintenance insight in the article "Major League grass for sale," which details an effort by Scott's to cash in on insane fan loyalty by marketing grass seed blends used at baseball stadiums.

An excerpt:

Maintaining a lawn for the highly compensated guys in spikes to tear up requires a lot of work. Nicole Sherry, the head groundskeeper at the Baltimore Orioles' Camden Yards, puts in 16-hour days during the season. Of course, she's got three acres of Kentucky bluegrass to mow and manage.
 
"People think that we just take care of the grounds and that there is no science involved," Sherry told smartwomanonline.com. "But keeping this field perfect is a full-time, year-round job."

O's fans will have to wait to develop their very own patch of Camden Yards goodness. The product debuts in Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and St. Louis.

Meanwhile, fans in Tampa can get ahead of the pack by tearing up their grass and replacing it with carpet.

I probably wasn't the only kid who came away disappointed each time I tried to cut my parents' lawn like they do at the ballpark. It wasn't until I read Nine Innings years later that I realized you need Kentucky Bluegrass, which is shiny on one side, to pull off the effort.

MLB.com tells the detailed story of the new product and offers the obligatory "Field of Dreams" reference. They got their first, so they get the credit for quoting Shoeless Joe: "I'd wake up at night with the smell of the ballpark in my nose, the cool of the grass on my feet. The thrill of the grass."

Did I really just write a piece about grass? Must be the off-season. And I don't even have a new ballpark as an excuse like the guys over at Twinkie Town, who provide a detailed breakdown of the Target Field sod.


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