JOHN MASCARO’ S PHOTO QUIZ
ANSWER
From page 17
This line of turf on this softball skinned area is not really a problem; it is a solution to a problem. As you can see by the painted edge, this field had been measured and marked for lip restoration. As with many municipal fields throughout the country, lack of labor only allows approximately two main edge renovations a year— one at the end of the high school season and again in September. For the back arc, it is 95 feet measured from the middle front of the pitching rubber; they then paint a line at the desired measurement. The base paths are two feet inside the foul line and five feet outside the foul line measured from the apex of home plate. They do this for ease of dragging purposes, as their drag is six feet wide and they create a seven-foot base path, which helps with the reduction of creating lips on their field. First, they use an old-fashioned 1985 vertical edger. This cuts the grass on the painted line, and then they use flat-face shovels to stick in the cut line and kick the material out. After they kick the material( grass, calcined clay, ball mix) out of the edge, they rake the entire area into a straight line away from the edge and come through with a tractor bucket to pick it all up. From there, they back fill the edge with new ball mix, rake, tamp and roll. The field manager commented that if they had more time in their day and more labor, they would be able to keep up with this better and might be able to get away with a full edge once per year, instead of twice.
Photo submitted by Mike P. DiDonato, CSFM, grounds coordinator at RSU 14 Windham / Raymond Schools in Windham, Maine.
John Mascaro is president of Turf-Tec International
If you would like to submit a photograph for John Mascaro’ s Photo Quiz, please send a high-resolution digital photo to John Mascaro via email at john @ turftec. com. If your photograph is selected, you will receive full credit. All photos submitted will become property of Sports-Field Management magazine and the Sports Field Management Association.
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