It’s only January, but Butler Traditional High School has baseball on its mind.

Work started Dec 28 to install an artificial turf infield at Butler’s baseball field and it’s expected to be done by the Bears’ season opener March 13. Coach Troy Frazier believes it’ll be a night the program won’t forget.

“The guys have been out to the field seeing the progress day-to-day and it’s been very exciting for them,” Frazier said. “I won’t be happy until it’s finished, but it’s been really cool to see the transformation and know what’s coming here in a few short weeks.”

Upgrading Butler’s facilities was one of Frazier’s first priorities when he accepted the job in July 2021.

Ballard, Eastern and Pleasure Ridge Park are three of the most successful baseball programs in the Jefferson County Public Schools system. They’re also the only three JCPS teams that play on artificial turf. All three were paid for by boosters and private donors.

“The biggest hurdle was financially because it is a very expensive project,” Frazier said.

In August, Frazier sent a project proposal to JCPS for a turf field. It wasn’t until December when the JCPS school board approved a donation total of $249,845.75 by the baseball booster club to install the turf. Although the project is underway, fundraising efforts are ongoing. The booster club is having its first event of the year, a trivia night, on Jan. 28.

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While Butler’s new field is an exciting addition for many in the Shively community, JCPS athletic director April Brooks hopes to see a day where updated equipment and facilities are commonplace throughout the district.

Brooks’ office is in charge of distributing funds throughout the district. In 2019, JCPS officials confirmed they are in “preliminary talks” about adding artificial turf at all 20 football stadiums.

“My No. 1 thing is that we have safe facilities for our student-athletes and spectators,” Brooks said. “And then we want to look at how can we use this at the middle school level or for our elementary kids.”

But she also knows there are limits to what some communities can provide.

“We don’t encourage [athletic directors] to go out and seek money, but sometimes there’s community partners that want to work with us,” Brooks said. “But for some schools, it’s really a barrier trying to find those resources.”

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Raising the funds

Working with the Butler Traditional High School Baseball Boosters, Frazier led the charge in hosting fundraising events. The booster club has averaged about two fundraising events per month since Frazier took over in July.

Parents and players played a big role. Angie Grissom has been a Butler baseball parent for the last five seasons and said the field’s been a problem for even longer.

“I would say over the last three years there’s been an effort to save as much as we could in preparation for if we ever did have the opportunity to get the field,” Grissom said. “When Coach Frazier came on board it became a mission.”

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Playing on grass not only requires more maintenance, but it also puts games at a higher risk of being canceled. Playing on summer travel ball teams, many players are also accustomed to playing on turf.

“This will be a good attraction for the South End,” Frazier said. “I feel like it’s really going to attract some players and students that want to come to Butler and be a part of a brand new facility.”

A vision for the district

The need for facility upgrades is a common theme throughout the city, and Brooks wants to add artificial turf fields at every JCPS school.

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“I get these tweets and what not that are like, ‘What are you doing?'” Brooks said. “But it’s not like I can just throw out a turf field like, ‘Here.’ I have to have a process to it.”

While Butler baseball turf project is funded by its booster club, other JCPS upgrades would have to be handled by the district budget.

Brooks’ process includes hiring a team of architects and engineers to assess and prioritize the issues with JCPS facilities.

“To rush things and not really think about the big picture, I don’t think that’ll help us in the long term,” Brooks said. “I’m really trying to do things the right way and that does take time.”

Turf fields are not a new idea in the city’s school system. JCPS and superintendent Marty Pollio have been talking about installing turf at 20 football stadiums across the district since at least 2019, and the anticipated minimum cost of a new field then was $750,000.

“Our ADs work really hard with upkeep,” Brooks said. “A lot of them are out there fixing things, painting and really trying to make sure that things stay as nice as they can for as long as they can. But as far as money and resources? It just depends on the community and how much they want to partner with the school.”

Butler’s new baseball infield could be a preview to the upgrades other JCPS schools hope to see during Brooks’ tenure. With upgraded facilities, JCPS schools would be able to host more KHSAA postseason events, cut down on maintenance and inject some excitement back into the community.

“Other coaches have reached out seeing what we’ve done and what works fundraising wise,” Fraizer said. “I think this opens the door to show that JCPS schools does have things going for us and fundraising is available out there. … In no way was it easy. But if we can do it in the South End it might instill in some other school that they can do it as well.”

Follow Courier Journal reporter JL Kirven on Twitter @JL_Kirven for more updates on Louisville prep sports.

The Hoover City Council on Monday night approved a resolution for the city to enter a partnership with Hoover City Schools and the Hoover Parks and Recreation Board to add artificial turf fields on 11 baseball and softball fields in the city.

The city plans to pay an estimated $9 million for artificial turf on seven fields at Hoover city parks and the varsity baseball fields at both Hoover and Spain Park high schools, City Administrator Allan Rice said.

The Hoover Board of Education on Tuesday night is supposed to consider approval to pay for artificial turf on the two varsity softball fields at Hoover and Spain Park, Councilman John Lyda said.

The city fields slated to get artificial turf will be two large baseball fields at Hoover Sports Park East, two large fields at the city’s Spain Park sports complex, two softball fields at Hoover Sports Park Central and one large baseball field at Hoover Sports Park West (also known as Shades Mountain Park), Rice said.

The artificial turf should allow for more extensive use of the fields because the wear and tear on the fields won’t be as bad, Rice said. Also, both the city and school system won’t have to wait as long to use the fields after rain events because they won’t have to worry about mud, he said.

That potentially could help lessen the number of times kids have to be up late on school nights trying to squeeze in makeup games, Rice said.

Also, the large fields actually can be broken up into smaller fields for younger children, allowing for even greater use, he said.

The artificial turf fields, while expensive, cut down on maintenance costs because they don’t require all the water, fertilizer and mowing that natural grass fields require, Rice said.

Plus, “we’re pretty sure that moms all across the city will rejoice in not having to wash clay out of white ball pants,” Rice added.

The reason the city is agreeing to pay for turf on the varsity baseball fields that belong to the school system is because the city of Hoover actually uses those fields more than the schools do, mostly for tournaments being put on by groups such as the Perfect Game organization, Rice said.

While a high school team might play 15 games on its field in a year, the city and its management partner at the Hoover Metropolitan Complex, Sports Facilities Management, program hundreds of games per year on those fields, Rice said.

So it makes sense for the city to participate in the cost of the turf, he said.

The city plans to use money that is currently allocated for debt payments, Rice said. That money no longer will be needed to pay off a particular bond series because that existing debt likely will be rolled into new debt the city is planning to undertake, he said.

The turf should be a good investment because it will allow the city to schedule even more activity on the baseball and softball fields, expanding sports tourism and bringing in additional tourism dollars, Rice said.

On a related note, the Hoover school board already has budgeted $1.2 million to add new restrooms at the varsity baseball and softball fields at both high schools, said Matt Wilson, the school system’s director of operations.

Currently, the press boxes at the varsity fields have two single-use restrooms, but the new restroom facilities to be built each will have six stalls for women and three stalls and three urinals for men, Wilson said. Those restroom facilities are under design, and school officials hope to build them this coming spring, he said.

Timelines for construction of the artificial turf fields are still unknown, Rice said.

Hoover Councilman Steve McClinton said the artificial turf is a great idea that is long overdue.

In other business Monday night, the Hoover City Council:

• Agreed to hire a company called LandDesign to do an inventory of existing recreational facilities in the city and help the city craft a strategic plan for improving those amenities, expanding them or adding to them with amenities in new locations. That study will cost $239,000 and be funded in part by a $50,000 donation from Signature Homes, which suggested the inventory be done.
• Agreed to pay Amwaste a fuel surcharge for garbage pickup services when fuel prices rise above $3.05 per gallon for low-sulfur commercial disel fuel, Rice said. Fuel prices have hit garbage pickup companies hard, and this change will allow the price the city pays to float with the fuel market when it exceeds the base level, he said. “It allows them to cover their costs.”
• Agreed to use the $8.9 million the city has received from the federal government for COVID-19 recovery to replace revenue spent on payroll. The $8.9 million should cover three to four payroll periods and allow the city to use that money for something else, Chief Financial Officer Tina Bolt said. The City Council will decide how to use that money.
• Agreed to pay $58,675 toward construction of a fitness court at Veterans Park as part of a joint project with Shelby County and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama. The total cost of the fitness court will be $167,350, with Blue Cross providing a $50,000 grant and Hoover and Shelby County each paying $58,675. The fitness court will be a 40-by-40-foot pad with full-body workout stations, City Planner Mac Martin said. Sample drawings provided to the Hoover zoning board showed workout stations designed for core exercises, squats, pushups, lunges, pullups, agility movements and bends.
• Agreed to pay $20,000 to the Hoover City Schools Foundation and $15,700 to the Miss Hoover Foundation.
• Gave approval for developer Clint Sukar to build a three-story, 26,700-square-foot mixed-use building on 1 acre at 1869 Chace Drive, right at the edge of the commercial sector of Chace lake and near single-family homes. The plan is to have 10 condominiums with at least 1,420 square feet each on the top two floors of the building and 5,000 square feet of commercial space and six garages on the bottom floor.
• Reappointed longtime Municipal Judge Brad Bishop for another two-year term.

Local

Written By: David Elliott
Published Date: 09-13-2022

The Russell High School baseball field at the Shaffer Sports Complex will soon feature an artificial turf infield.

The Russell County USD 407 Board of Education voted six-to-one Monday to accept a bid from Mid-America Sports Construction of Lee’s Summit, Missouri to install synthetic turf in the infield of the RHS baseball field. The outfield will remain natural grass.

The total project price tag is $573,482. The project is contingent upon receiving a minimum of $300,000 in private donations.

USD 407 Interim Superintendent Clark Coco…

Coco said this project will make the baseball field more of a multipurpose facility.

Board Vice President Dr. Joyce Ellis cast the lone opposing vote.

No official timetable has been set, but the idea is to have the project completed during the fall and winter and have the field ready for the spring season.

Also Monday, the Board voted to install privacy fencing around the new air conditioning units in front of Simpson Elementary School.

The Board also approved the purchase of new iPad cases for recently purchased iPads.

Derrick Hall, CEO of Arizona Diamondbacks, received complaints about the natural playing surface at Chase Field for many years.

Players grumbled that the grass had dried and hardened over the course of the season, causing the ball to bounce too high and roll too fast. Medical staff feared that large patches of dead lawn could pose a risk of injury. Fans complained that the grass looked ugly after a summer of Phoenix’s harsh desert conditions and limited sunlight from the stadium’s retractable roof.

However, Hall refused to consider an alternative. “I’m a traditionalist,” he said. “I wanted real weed.”

Hall gave in last year and agreed to replace the grass in the downtown Diamondbacks ballpark with artificial turf. He changed his mind after discovering an artificial turf technology that he believes truly mimics the reality of the game and the impact it has on players ‘bodies: Shaw Sports’ B1K (“Batting 1,000”) system Turf from Georgia.

Artificial turf almost disappeared from Major League Baseball. Now it’s suddenly back. After eight years of having weed in their Little Havana home, the Miami Marlins switched to Shaw’s lawn in 2020. The Texas Rangers will also use it at Globe Life Field, their newly constructed stadium in Arlington, due to open later this month.

This represents a controversial change in ballpark design: three organizations, or 10% of MLBs, are moving from grass to turf within 12 months.

“We didn’t want the best Major League Baseball turf, we wanted the best Major League Baseball playing surface,” said Rob Matwick, Rangers executive vice president of operations. “People might say baseball should be played on grass. I would say it should be played on the best surface we can bet our players on. “

The Texas Rangers decided to install turf in their new stadium: Globe Life Field.

Photo:

Jerome Miron / Reuters

Artificial turf came to baseball in 1966 after the grass at the Astrodome in Houston died of a lack of sunlight the previous year, forcing the Astros to play on green-painted dirt. AstroTurf – renamed ChemGrass after arriving in Houston – quickly conquered the industry as indoor (Kingdome in Seattle and Olympic Stadium in Montreal) and multi-purpose stadiums (Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh and Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati) became fashionable. By 1982, when the Minneapolis Metrodome opened, 10 of the 26 teams (38%) were playing on artificial grass.

Not everyone bothered to watch baseball play on a neon green carpet. In the 1988 film “Bull Durham”, as Kevin Costner portrays, Crash Davis delivers a monologue that includes the line, “I believe there should be a constitutional amendment banning AstroTurf and the batsman-designate”.

Taste began to return in 1992 when the Baltimore Orioles moved into Camden Yards, a baseball-only facility that sparked the construction of “retro” stadiums across the country. These stages contained elements from earlier stages and all contained grass.

As recently as 2018, only two teams played on an artificial surface: the Toronto Blue Jays at the Rogers Center with retractable roof and the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field, the last domed stadium in baseball. Given the ongoing rumors of the Blue Jays potentially considering grass and the Rays actively looking for a new stadium in Florida or elsewhere, the end of artificial turf in baseball seemed possible after more than half a century, if not imminent .

“You can make turf that looks exactly the same but is still not grass,” said Mark Anderson, a 47-year-old Savannah, Georgia resident who runs the popular MLBcathedrals Twitter account, which posts images of ballpark images become its 82,000 followers. “It’s the fake versus real Christmas tree argument: some of the fake ones look phenomenal, but it’s still not a real Christmas tree.”

Chuck McClurg, vice president of Shaw Sports Turf, understands some fans think that way. “That’s a natural answer,” he said. “Baseball is America’s pastime. It was always played on natural grass. ”

But McClurg and the teams working with Shaw now insist that this latest incarnation of turf bears no resemblance to old-school AstroTurf, or even newer versions made up of individual blades of grass. A vegetable filling made from 90% coconut is used instead of the traditional rubber pellets and sand. Teams say the new substance looks like actual soil.

The ground team prepares the field for game action at Tropicana Field, the home of the Rays.

Photo:

Dirk Shadd / Zuma Press

Jamie Reed, Rangers Senior Director of Medical Operations and Sports Science, actively participated in studies at Auburn University to test the surface. In 2018, Shaw visited the Rangers’ old stadium and shot baseball out of cannons to test how they would behave on the turf so it could reproduce speed and jump onto turf. Shaw also conducted kinesiology studies to create a surface that would not cause injury. This ultimately led the Rangers to abandon their original plan of trying natural grass in their new park in favor of Shaw’s lawn.

“I’m sure this artificial playing surface will be better in the future than trying to play real grass in a really difficult environment,” said Reed.

The three stadiums that replaced their grass have a lot in common: They play in cities with extreme weather and have retractable roofs. Three other teams – Astros, Milwaukee Brewers and Seattle Mariners – are currently playing in stadiums with retractable roofs and natural grass.

In Miami, the amount of rain and high humidity made growing good quality weed a challenge, resulting in a surface that was “inconsistent to our players” and “aesthetically not up to our standards,” said Adam Jones, chief revenue officer of Marlins. He added that man-made surfaces will make it easier for the marlins to use the stadium for non-baseball events during the season.

In Marlins Park, sand is placed on the artificial turf surface.

Photo:

Miami Marlins

In Arizona, Hall said, adding turf has improved the experience for players and fans alike. In the case of grass, the diamondbacks had to keep the roof open until 4 p.m. before 7 p.m. at the earliest so that the sunlight falls on the grass. As a result, the players trained outside at temperatures of 110 degrees or more before games. Often times, the air conditioning didn’t turn on quickly enough to keep fans from sitting in a scorching building at the start of the game. Now the roof can remain closed all summer.

Hall admits he was initially concerned about the fan reaction but felt better in last spring practice session after the Diamondbacks installed turf on one of their practice fields. During a meeting with Special Adviser Joe Garagiola Jr., a woman outside the organization sounded disappointed with the move to turf.

“I just don’t think I’ll like it,” she said. “We should play on that.”

Then she pointed to the artificial turf.

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Should artificial turf fields be eliminated in baseball? Take part in the discussion.

Write to Jared Diamond at jared.diamond@wsj.com

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In 1988 Bull Durham, Kevin Costner’s character Crash Davis says, “I believe there should be a constitutional change banning AstroTurf and the batsman-designate.”

It’s a good thing Davis doesn’t play in MLB these days as the designated batsman is alive in half the league and artificial turf is enjoying a resurgence.

Before the 2020 season began, three of the 30 MLB teams – the Arizona Diamondbacks, Texas Rangers, and Miami Marlins – switched from grass to artificial turf. While it’s only three teams, that’s actually quite a big increase as only two teams (the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Center with retractable roof and the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field) played on artificial turf last season.

The turf that the Rangers, D-Backs and Marlins will play on is called B1K and is made by Shaw Sports Turf of Georgia. Although synthetic, teams believe that the imitation grass mimics reality in terms of the game and the effects it has on players’ bodies.

“We didn’t want the best Major League Baseball turf, we wanted the best Major League Baseball playing surface,” said Rob Matwick, executive vice president of business operations for Rangers, to the Wall Street Journal. “People might say baseball should be played on grass. I would say it should be played on the best surface we can bet our players on. “

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