BASEBALL
SFMA Harry Gill Award. Indyk was curriculum coordinator for Rutgers’ Annual Athletic Field Maintenance and Construction continuing education course, and Cipperly served as an instructor in the course for many years. During that time, Cipperly delivered practical“ how-to” baseball and softball skin surface management education to hundreds of school, municipal, and county park sports field and grounds managers that attended the course. Many of the images associated with this article are scans of 35mm slides Cipperly used during his Rutgers Office of Continuing Professional Education course lecture.
But Cipperly’ s commitment to sharing his knowledge and expertise extended beyond the Rutgers Continuing Education classroom. He hosted two highly successful Sports Field Managers Association of New Jersey( SFMANJ) baseball infield-focused education events at what was then Tiger Field. A 2011 Infield Maintenance Clinic featured presentations by Bill Deacon, head groundskeeper of the New York Mets, and Mike Boekholder, head groundskeeper of the Philadelphia Phillies. In 2013, Cipperly hosted the SFMANJ Fall Field Day with Deacon and other professional baseball groundskeepers such as Dan Purner( Somerset Patriots) and Mike Morvay( Lakewood BlueClaws).
For his efforts, Cipperly was posthumously awarded the inaugural( 2015) SFMANJ Dr. Henry Indyk Memorial Award, which honors an individual who has demonstrated“ a tireless commitment of service and hard work contributing to the advancement of both sports fields and sports field managers in New Jersey.”
Raymond J. Cipperly Field is the premier natural turfgrass baseball field in the Middlesex County( New Jersey) Magnet Schools’ inventory of baseball diamonds and annually hosts the Greater Middlesex County( GMC) High School Baseball Tournament.
AWARDS AND ACCOLADES Sports Turf Managers Association( which later became SFMA) selected Tiger Field as its Field of the Year in the Schools and Parks Baseball category for 1990. A detailed article in the May 1991 issue of Golf & sportsTurf titled“ Tiger Field earns its stripes,” noted that organized baseball at East Brunswick Magnet School began in the mid-1970s and the need for a home playing surface became recognized( Trulio, 1991). Cipperly and a school administrator examined an unimproved turfgrass stand on school grounds late one afternoon and sited locations for the bases relative to the position of the soon-tobe-setting sun. The playing surface had humble beginnings: weeds, bare spots, rocks scraped away by players before every game, and an infield created using a sod cutter.
Under the direction of Cipperly, playing surface quality and field definition improved. In subsequent years, conventional infield mix was imported, improved turfgrasses were introduced, and a warning track was installed. Fencing was established
Raymond“ Ray” Cipperly served in various roles, including baseball coach and athletic director, for Middlesex County Magnet Schools, and was instrumental in the early development and upgrades to the baseball surface named in his honor. Photos courtesy of the Raymond J. Cipperly slide collection.
and carpentry students built two dugouts and a backstop. By 1990, pre-game skin surface watering was being practiced, a robust turfgrass fertilization schedule was in place, and mowing was performed eve- sportsfieldmanagementonline. com May 2026 | SportsField Management
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