FEATURE
Maintaining Synthetic Turf Ballfields
It’s
By Arthur Eddy, ASLA, LEED AP
winter now and the switch over from fall to spring sports in the Northeast starts with the winter freeze breaking and players anxious to get out of the house and play. It also means it’s time for baseball and softball. Over the past few years there has been an influx of synthetic turf baseball and softball fields due to the ability to play in inclement weather. The growing popularity of these two sports being played on synthetic turf as well as the addition of overlays of multi-use sports poses new challenges for sports turf managers. These fields have different wear patterns and require different attention than a typical multi-use field.
Synthetic Baseball Field
Baseball Home Plate
Pitcher Mounds Baseball and softball pitcher mounds come in all sizes and shapes with synthetic turf: 1. A clay mound can be formed with curb and infield mix. While these mounds are great for the pitcher, the material also migrates into the turf which can cause problems. The pitcher is constantly walking towards home dragging infield mix into the synthetic turf. That infield mix will get down into the fiber and will become compacted and create a very hard surface in front of the pitcher that can impact how the ball is played at the mound. Once this area is heavily compacted, there is no other option but to replace the turf in that area. 2. A portable mound. Portable mounds can be covered with synthetic turf and can be moved to allow for the rest of the field to be opened for play, but the pitching surface is somewhat counterintuitive to how synthetic turf performs. The pitcher wants to dig in in front of the rubber and as they go through their motion, push off and drive off the rear foot, putting force down on the forward foot which is going to move infill and create stress on the synthetic fiber. This leads to the breakdown of the fiber down to backing in front of the pitcher’s rubber and the landing area of the pitcher’s foot. These areas need to be replaced typically every other year. Because these areas need to be replaced regularly, having an attachment system like Velcro hook can ease the replacement but getting the Velcro to adhere to the mound or new turf will need to be carefully installed and monitored during the season.
14 • New England BLADE • Winter 2022
Batter’s Box The batter’s box is another highly impacted area on the field. You typically see a lot of right-handed batters with a smaller number of left-handed batters thus causing the right-handed batter’s box to wear out prior to the left-handed batter’s box. Adding infill will help to slow the breakdown of synthetic fiber in this area, but the wear is inevitable. Batters want to dig their cleats into the surface, stressing the fiber and displacing infill.
