By John Kmitta
The end of the 2025 season for the Fort Wayne TinCaps (High-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres) also marked the retirement of Head Groundskeeper Keith Winter, who wrapped up an award-winning career at Parkview Field, home of the TinCaps.
“Nobody has won more grounds crew of the year awards, groundskeeper of the year awards, or playing surface of the year awards than the Fort Wayne TinCaps,” said TinCaps Team President Mike Nutter in an end-of-season video presentation to fans. “We are extremely grateful for his contributions over the years, we are in awe of the work ethic, and we would not have achieved the success without Keith Winter and all of his talented coworkers over the years.”
Winter thanked the entire Fort Wayne TinCaps organization — including Nutter and owner Jason Freier with Hardball Capital — as well as TinCaps fans and the Fort Wayne community.
“This community has embraced this team and gives you the feeling — whether you’re the groundskeeper, the facilities manager, the president or GM — that what you’re doing matters to people,” said Winter. “That’s very rewarding. I will miss that a little bit; but I also know that my time has come, and I have no second thoughts.”
What Winter accomplished in his sports field management journey has been incredible, but his path to get there is just as amazing.
Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, Winter attended Adrian College, where he played basketball and baseball. He then went on to graduate school at Ohio State University, as he pursued a career in journalism with a goal of working in baseball.
For the next 25 years Winter worked as a professional broadcaster for a cable television station in Columbus, while he and his wife, Kathy, raised their three sons. But in the process of raising those sons — all of whom played baseball into college — Winter coached them and took care of the fields on which they played.
“The more I took care of their fields, the more I was interested in it,” he said. “I became really passionate about learning more and doing more.”
In addition to managing the fields on which his sons played, from the late 1980s through the 1990s Winter was part of a group that took care of Lou Berliner Sports Park, a softball and baseball complex in Columbus.
“Over the course of my broadcasting career, I was always working on a field somewhere,” he said. “When my youngest son got out of high school and the reality of the empty nest was coming, I thought maybe I should try doing this professionally — much to my late wife’s chagrin at the time. I went up to Midland (Mich.) to work for the Great Lakes Loons to open Dow Diamond.
“I think I was incredibly qualified because I had done a lot of research, and I had 15 years of experience working on diamonds,” Winter added. “The head groundskeeper there at the time was thrilled to have me. He left after a year, and I moved into the role of head groundskeeper. I was 50 years old at the time. I was a mature man having raised a family. So I think I was qualified and equipped to take on that responsibility.”
Winter spent three years in Midland with the Loons, and the past 16 years in Fort Wayne.
“My wife called getting into professional baseball my midlife crisis,” said Winter. “But I think when you do that for 19 years, it becomes more than a midlife crisis. It became my interest and passion. I’m very blessed by the opportunity to do that for such a long time.”
According to Winter, getting into the sports field management industry later in life was extremely beneficial to his career.
“As empty nesters, my kids were grown; so I had the luxury of devoting all of my energy, all of my passion, all of my experience into that,” he said. “I think part of why I was successful is because I entirely devoted my working life to that, knowing that baseball is a real grind, but it’s only a 5-month-long season. So I was willing to pay the price to grind for five months knowing that I had a seven month offseason where I had a lot of freedom, time to travel, time to spend with my wife and be together.”
Winter was successful at his job from the beginning. During his first year with the Loons, Dow Diamond won the Midwest League Field of the Year award. Then, during Winter’s first year in Fort Wayne, as an assistant, Parkview Field won Minor League Field of the Year. As head groundskeeper, Winter and his crew went on to win Minor League Field of the Year in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2024.
“What was best about that is once you won the league award, that puts you on the stage to win the national award,” he said. “We got national recognition in ‘13, ’14, ‘15 and then in ’24, That’s a feather in the cap because then you are comparing yourself to all the other Class A fields in professional baseball.”
Winter and the TinCaps also won the STMA Professional Baseball Field of the Year for Parkview Field in 2017.
Despite the awards and accolades, Winter said the “greatest joy” of his career was the opportunity to instill a good work ethic and knowledge into the people who have come across his path.
“Training and teaching and bringing not only my work ethic, but my faith and my belief in Jesus into the lives of these young people has by far been my best reward and what I will remember the most out of this,” said Winter.
His message to others is that if you stay loyal and consistent, you’re probably going to be successful.
“When I was done raising my sons, I was raising a field, and I was raising those who came to work for me,” he said. “It’s about being authentic and
trying to instill integrity, character and work ethic into them.”
Winter has also spent years giving back to the sports field management industry — part of which was handling communication and organization for the Professional Baseball Sports Turf Managers Symposium.
“One of my greatest victories was getting Major League Baseball to recognize the symposium to recommend that all 120 PDL team groundskeepers attend,” said Winter. “Developing a working relationship and creating a sense of mutual respect with Major League Baseball was a big win in terms of keeping the symposium going.”
Winter added that being involved with the symposium allowed him to introduce a bit of white collar into what was traditionally a blue collar network by teaching marketing and public relations skills, and raising awareness of the skill and professionalism of sports field managers. He has also used the symposium and the networking opportunity it provides to encourage and mentor young sports field managers.
Now, in retirement, Winter hopes to stay involved with the symposium and with the industry, and has had discussions with Major League Baseball about mentoring and continuing to give back to the industry.
But before he delves into future opportunities, Winter plans to take some time to slow down the pace of life.
“I’ve spent the last 40-plus years raising three sons and then getting into pro ball,” he said. “I’ve been racing and running, and I’m literally slowing down. It’s been almost a year and a half since my wife died. That has changed my future. It has changed my outlook. But I’m going to keep pressing forward, and I’m excited for the future.”
Kathy Winter passed away May 3, 2024, following a multi-year battle with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), more commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
“It took her five years to transition into empty nesting,” Keith said. “Once she did, the next 10 years were unbelievable. We built our downtown condo in a 140-year-old building from the ground up. We took on this beautiful project, and we shared so much joy. I’m so thankful for the time we had.”
Kathy and Keith were open about sharing Kathy’s story, and their journey in faith, with others.
“Our position was gratitude. Because if you live by faith and walk by faith, when you get dealt a tough hand, you can’t say, ‘woe is me,’” Keith added. “ALS is miserable. I hated it then, and I still hate it now. But that was the hand we were dealt, and I dealt with it the best way that I could. The goal was for her life to be an inspiration, and we did that well. And now I believe the best is yet to come.
“I was a forward mover. I’m still a forward mover. God has something more planned, and I’m going to keep moving forward until my last breath. She showed me how to do that in death, and I surely owe that to her to do that in life. We had plans, but plans sometimes change. Now I will move forward with a new plan, and look forward to that coming to fruition.”
Keith is looking forward to spending time reconnecting with his five grandchildren, and just embracing the laughter and time with family and friends.
“I’m going to slow down, I’m going to take it easy, and then I’m going to see what opportunities God puts in my path,” he said. “I’m going to be content with whatever comes my way.”
[Editor’s note: To help in the fight against ALS, please visit https://www.als.org/]