Earlier this year Sydney Cricket Ground team took on the momentous task of turning its cricket ground into a baseball pitch and back again in a matter of weeks.
By Jill Park
Major League Baseball (MLB) came to Sydney in March when Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) hosted the Los Angeles Dodgers and
Arizona Diamondbacks for the opening series of the 2014 Major League Baseball Season.
The project entailed turning the SCG’s cricket ground into a baseball pitch worthy of the US teams and back again ready for the start of the NRL season. SCG Curator Tom Parker oversaw the process from start to end with the help of Major League Baseball’s leading agronomist Murray Cook (see Q&A).
Cook, who consults for the MLB through Brickman Sportsturf, travelled across to the SCG seven times in the lead up to the event. He worked with the promoter Jason Moore, his Project Manager Scott Egelton and the SCG team on meeting the MLB’s specific pitch requirements.
MLB standard
The last cricket match of the season was held on Wednesday 26 February 2014 and Parker and his team started bumping in straight after. Baseball was scheduled in less than a month, so turnaround had to be quick and efficient.
Evergreen Turf, an existing contractor of the SCG, controlled all the pitch works for the project. The company worked closely with Parker and his team to ensure that all the pitch features were authentic.
“Originally we were hunting around Australia for the infield clay for the baseball diamond,” Parker says. “We thought that we’d found something that was suitable, but Murray wasn’t happy with that. They were very tight on the specifications.”
Unable to obtain material that met MBL physical specifications, Murray Cook made the decision to import infield material from the US. Two hundred and fifty tonnes of MLB certified infield clay (San Diego Gold Infield Soil) in one-tonne bulk bags were imported from California in December 2013.
The warning track material was sourced in Australia and consisted of a crushed and washed terracotta. The 70micron clay was transported onto the pitch using tractors and trailers equipped with high flotation tyres.
Evergreen Turf was careful to use high flotation, low ground pressure machinery to avoid damaging the remaining turf while work was underway. In the first instance, the company removed 2700m2 to accommodate the warning track, which acts as a warning to fielders that they are at the pitch boundary. A further 1025m2 of turf was then removed to accommodate the pitchers mound and skinned areas. Additional turf was also required to be removed to construct the warm up areas termed Bull Penns. In total 5000sqm2 of turf was used for the whole project.
Two 360-degree dumpsters were run on rubberised tracks to spread the warning track material and it was laser graded to the height of adjacent turf.
And back again
A priority concern was that the pitch be returned to its normal state straight after the baseball games were complete in time for the Dragons v Rabbitohs game on 5 April.
Turf was grown in the exact same profile as the SCG at a turf farm in Windsor in the 12 months leading up to the baseball game. Called ‘Ready to play’, the turf was grown at 50mm thick and ready to roll.
To Parker’s trained eye, the pitch was returned to its perfect pre-match condition. “You couldn’t tell the baseball had been there,” he says. “There were no significant turf lines to say that’s where the warning track was or that’s where the infield was. All went perfectly.”
Weather was kind to the SCG team, but it was having the right contractors that Parker attributed the success of the project to.
“I think we also had the right contractors in place to do the right jobs. Scott Egelton Managing Director of Pier Property Group controlled all the contractors. Each selection process was very tight and he did a great job of making sure he had the right people.”
On the weekend in question, the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 3-1 on the Saturday and were again victorious on the Sunday afternoon winning 7-5.
“We’d gone from baseball to NRL and then AFL in a matter of two to three weeks,” says Parker.
Murray Cook,
Consultant at Brickman Sport
Q. How long have you been working with MLB?
A. I’ve been MLB’s field and stadium consultant for more than 20 years. I also worked for major league and minor league teams managing their fields and spring training complexes. Wherever MLB hosts games internationally, I’m called on to assist in the project planning and operations.
As President of the Brickman Sportsturf division, we manage several professional baseball fields around the country. Several of the guys that I brought to the SCG to work side-by-side with the SCG grounds staff managed pro baseball fields – Chad Olsen, Eric Ogden and Chad Kropff.
Q. What In your opinion makes a great baseball pitch?
A. Since 70 per cent of a baseball game is played on the infield and base areas, the key to making the field perform properly is the infield clay areas, pitchers mound and batters box.
Q. Were you impressed by the way the SCG/contractors handled the project?
A. In 2000 I worked closely with local contractors on the baseball field at Homebush and Blacktown, so I had a pretty good idea of the quality of work the country puts into sportsfield construction and maintenance.
But at the SCG, we knew building a MLB field in 16 days was going to be challenging. Tommy Parker (SCG Curator) and his staff were awesome. Since they have to work with grades and clays on the wicket, the language of levelling, compaction and water management was similar. Tommy put together a great team of contractors on this project that all had the ‘can do’ attitude.
Every project of this size needs a maestro. Jason Moore’s vision needed a person to put the pieces together. That was Scott Egelton from Pier Properties. As a project manager you couldn’t ask for one better. You have to understand that the field construction was just a small part of the SCG’s 16-day transition. We also needed to construct outfield fencing, foul territory fencing, add padding to all fences, build dugouts, backstops, batters eyes, bullpens, batting tunnels, foul poles, locker rooms etc ...
Then take it all out after the baseball event in one week for a rugby event. The amount of planning that went into this project was extensive and our team of professionals did a great job.