The "Blue Book" get an update
“Sports Fields: Design, Construction, and Maintenance,” fourth edition, expands the book’s global appeal and includes new content for the modern sports field manager
By John Kmitta
"Sports Fields Design, Construction, and Maintenance," by James C. Puhalla, Jeffrey V. Krans and J. Michael Goatley, Jr. boasts a long and storied history as a resource for sports field management professionals.
Known by many in the industry as “the blue book” for its signature cover color, the book has evolved with each edition to meet the changing needs of the sports field manager. The new fourth edition of “Sports Fields: Design, Construction, and Maintenance” introduces a wide range of updates. It expands the book’s global appeal; includes information on sports not previously covered, such as cricket, rugby, pickleball and beach volleyball; features a revised pest management section; and delves into current technological issues such as autonomous equipment, robotics and artificial intelligence (AI).
For a better understanding of what the “blue book” has become, it helps to understand its origins, as well as its impact over the past several decades.
FROM IDEA TO REALITY
In the late 1970s, Puhalla owned a landscape construction company and was asked to renovate an infield for a youth baseball association.
“We were more than halfway done when I saw that the base paths weren’t lining up with the foul poles,” said Puhalla. “I assumed a baseball field was a diamond shape, so we made it a diamond instead of a 60-by-60-foot square. We tore up all the sod and re-laid it so everything lined up.”
The following year, Puhalla ran into similar issues with football field dimensions during an irrigation project. His search for information was to no avail.
“Back then, there was no Google, no YouTube, and we didn’t have Windows,” he said. “I went to a library, and the only thing I found was a pre-World War II engineering book with a tiny baseball field diagram showing the field grading toward the outfield fence.”
Throughout the 1980s, Puhalla continued to learn from his own mistakes and the mistakes of others. He eventually joined the Sports Turf Managers Association (STMA) in 1987, and began reading articles in SportsTurf magazine.
But the true turning point for Puhalla came in 1993 when he lost a bid to build a new baseball field. The company that was chosen due to its lower bid ultimately made mistakes, and the field was unplayable for years.
“That’s when I realized someone needs to teach people how to do this, and how to do it right the first time,” said Puhalla. “I drew 10 hand-sketched diagrams, added some basic text, and that became the seed of the book.”
In 1995, while in Florida to accept his STMA Schools and Parks Baseball Field of the Year award, Puhalla saw a trade show booth for Mississippi State University (MSU) Golf and Sports Turf Management. After the conference, Puhalla sent his 10-page booklet to MSU. As a result, Krans called Puhalla and invited him to speak to MSU students about the sports turf industry. Krans and Puhalla were soon discussing the possibility of collaborating on a book, and reached out to Goatley to gauge his interest in joining them.
“Sports field management was a small part of the industry,” said Krans. “It hadn’t really caught on yet. We were interested in establishing programs and educating young men and women in the industry. But up to that point we were mainly training people to be golf course agronomists or superintendents.”
According to Krans, Puhalla’s drawings were unlike anything he and Goatley had seen before. They realized there was an opportunity to create something that could be an educational resource for practitioners and students alike.
“From that point, we just kind of plowed our way through with Jim’s drawings,” said Krans. “Jim was a design/build person, and that was a great advantage for us because we had someone to keep us on track, and show us what he’s doing and what he’s done. The three of us came up with what you see today, and we’ve been trying to make it better with time. We’re at the fourth edition because everything changes.”
According to Goatley, development of the book also led to the development of a network of people in the sports field management industry.
“We were probably 90% golf, 5% sports field and 5% lawn care at that time,” said Goatley. “But we found out that sports field managers were as passionate as any other segment of the industry in terms of what they were doing. We had a lot of advice coming from people who were actually doing sports field management.”
RECEPTION, GROWTH AND LEGACY
The book was initially published in 1999 by Ann Arbor Press, and early reaction was fantastic. The authors were soon offered a contract to write three additional books, including “Baseball and Softball Fields: Design, Construction, Renovation and Maintenance,” which is still in print today.
The contract for the books was eventually sold to John Wiley & Sons publishing, which soon moved forward with a second edition of the book that now included involvement and review from STMA.
According to Goatley, the book quickly became an important tool in preparation for the Certified Sports Field Manager (CSFM) exam.
“Through my engagement as an STMA board member, I was able to tell people that we’ve got a one-stop shop that you can have as a reference, and is as complete as anything that’s out there,” he added. “The really cool thing about this book is how comfortable people are coming up and talking to us about what’s in there, and giving us ideas and feedback. That has been a great way to meet a lot of people and to have that connection. A lot of those people have had that book now for close to 30 years since the first edition.”
And although the agronomic strategies have for the most part remained the same throughout the subsequent editions, technological changes and other industry advancements drove the need for updates.
“There would be new chemistries, new fertilizers, different release characteristics, new technology and new ways to deliver irrigation,” said Goatley. “We were always looking for ways to improve, update, and bring something new to the table.”
Added Krans, “The industry drives innovation, and one example is synthetic turf, which was not included in the first edition. As synthetic turf gained popularity on sports fields, rather than excluding it, we said we need to be inclusive such that the book would fit not only the people with the natural turf, but those who manage synthetic turf.”
According to Krans, as the skills of sports field managers improved and the industry grew, the authors continued to keep up to make the “ blue book ” more complete.
Said Goatley, “It was always evolving as an industry. So, how could we come up with a resource that would match where this thing is going?”
According to Krans, much of the success of the book was about timing.
“When we met Jim, the time was right; towns and cities were building sportsplexes, soccer was getting big, and the industry was growing,” he said. “It all came together, not by purpose, but more by accident; and we took the opportunity that was presented to us.”
Added Puhalla, “It’s by accident, but it’s a lot of hard work, too. We gave people something different, and something that they could talk about.”
UPDATED FOR TODAY’S SPORTS FIELD MANAGER
Now people will be talking about the fourth edition of “Sports Fields: Design, Construction, and Maintenance,” which features international topics, additional sports, a refined pest management section, and information about technological advancements.
“We’ve got a lot of new topics that will be interesting to not just people in this country, but all over the world,” said Puhalla.
From the beginning, the authors have enlisted the assistance and expertise of industry colleagues to ensure the best and most accurate content possible. That tradition continues with the fourth edition.
“Scott McElroy from Auburn helped us write a chapter on robotics technology with mowers and painters,” said Goatley. “Brad Jakubowski from Penn State helped us with a chapter on weather. Mark Heinlein helped us with hybrid systems.”
The new focus on international offerings presented the authors with some challenges, especially when it came to the sport of cricket.
“We found a gentleman in Australia named John Shannon who had written about cricket,” said Goatley. “He jumped on Zoom meetings with us and let us tell him about the book. He helped us write our cricket chapter. We want the expertise of the folks that live in these different parts of world to partner with us on these efforts.”
According to Puhalla, part of the globalization of the book is that the printed book will remain the same, but the authors are looking for experts from other countries to write online chapters describing what’s different with their local climate, turfgrasses, soils and pests.
For the pest management chapter of the fourth edition, the authors have divided the continental United States into seven regions.
“I reached out to many industry colleagues and academics and asked them to tell me the most important sports-field-specific pests in their zone,” said Goatley. “We used this chapter to address all of the pests specific to those seven regions, as well as Hawaii and Alaska. I think that’s a change our readers are going to appreciate.
“The pest management chapter in itself could become a book because of all the control methods and materials,” he added. “But we didn’t need this book to get larger, so we converted all of our pesticide recommendations into one of our Extension service publications.”
Readers will also appreciate that the fourth edition delves into topics such as autonomous equipment, robotics, and AI.
Said Goatley, “All aspects of that are going to change so fast that our goal was to make sure we’ve introduced a subject, talk about where we’re at, and prep the sports field manager to pay attention. In this age of AI and remote sensing, never forget the importance of what you do because you’re still going to have to be the ultimate decision maker; but we’re going to have lots of tools to help us make better decisions. You might as well embrace it, because the AI genie is not going back in the bottle.”
In addition to the other updates, the book also now features a chapter devoted to SFMA.
Said Goatley, “We’ve always talked about them, but we asked SFMA to help us write a chapter telling SFMA’s story and why people should join.”
With its expanded global scope, updated technologies, and expert contributions, the fourth edition continues legacy of one of the most trusted resources in sports field management.
“Sports Fields: Design, Construction, and Maintenance, Fourth Edition” is available now through Wiley publishing (https://www.wiley.com/en-us/), Amazon, or via local booksellers.