WEST SACRAMENTO – In baseball, you don’t have a home run without a well-kept home field.
“It is a little unchartered to have a major league team and minor league team to share a field for an entire season,” said Murray Cook, MLB’s field consultant.
With 150 games scheduled this season at Sutter Health Park between the A’s and River Cats, grounds crews will be closely managing the wear and tear on the grass.
“We have back-up fields [and] pieces of turf in several areas that we have ready to go,” Cook said. “We are monitoring that through drone surveillance to ensure we are capturing any area that may be starting to weaken.”
Underneath, the field also has what’s called an “air pat” system that can move fresh air and water onto the grass and clay to keep them healthy.
To make time for more major field fixes, the River Cats relocated six home games this summer to Tacoma, Wash.
“We’ve got five or six days in June that the calendar has been opened up for us for a replacement. We’ve also got the all-star break as well,” Cook said.
At first, the MLB pitched having the two teams play on a new synthetic turf field. The pushback was predictable.
“It’s not a secret that players prefer playing on natural grass, across the board,” Cook said.
Dianne Wolke of the nonprofit Safe and Healthy Playing Fields says, when it’s 100 degrees or more outside, turf is even hotter.
“At least 160-180. At least,” Wolke said.
So, turf was taken off the table.
The sod chosen for Sutter Health Park is used now at a minor league stadium in Las Vegas. MLB says it thrives in the hot summer sun.
“It’s really designed for the climate Sacramento has,” Cook said.
Cook says the biggest challenge when maintaining the field will be the unpredictable curve balls – like the weather. For example, if a lot of rain moves in and cancels games, that could force some doubleheaders – of which there are none scheduled right now.
