The baseball team has been cleaning their own field for many seasons and each player
has a scheduled job before and after each practice and game. The pitchers (above)
rake and brush the pitchers’ mound to keep the dirt from clumping together.
Pitcher Payton Robinson (below) brings equipment back to storage after pre-game
scheduled cleaning.
The Lion's Roar / Elizabeth Brown
Baseball season is underway and the Lions baseball team is 31-13 overall this season. With great players comes great pride, not only for the sport, but for their playing field as well. Unlike other sports, the baseball team takes care of their field themselves.
Before every game, after every game, before every practice and after every practice, the team spends their time taking care of the field in many different ways.
“We are pretty detailed about it,” said volunteer assistant baseball coach Kaleb Manuel. “Every position/group has their own thing. We’ll have guys picking up little dirt globs off the infield grass to hula-hoeing and raking the warning track and raking the corners. We have guys with a blower that blows the dirt chunks out of the grass. Everybody’s got a role.”
The team has a schedule they follow every day and it tells them their task for the day.
“They have a list in the dugout like which players take care of what,” said senior catcher Chris Eades. “For example, before we go down for practice, we’ll have three or four guys who water the field every day. We have early work before every practice and before every game. So, it’s like thirty minutes of whatever you want to do. Usually coaches are down there working on double plays, hitting and catching work. Then we have guys who set up for BP (batting practice) and then after batting practice is over, we’ll have guys break it down, take things off the field. Then, re-water the field, drag it, get ready for in and out before the game.”
The schedule not only goes for before the game, but after as well. Everyone works their own position. The catchers work on their plate, the pitchers work on the mound, third baseman will do the work on third base and first baseman will do the work on first base.
“The middle guys either pick up trash, make sure the dugout’s clean, sweep out the dugout, blow out the dugout and make sure it’s nice,” said Eades. “Just like your room at home. You want to come home to a nice place every day; you don’t want it to be a mess every day.”
Working on the field not only teaches the players how to keep their field clean, but it teaches them principles.
“I think the biggest lesson is the pride in what they do,” said Head Coach Matt Riser. “When they go out there and they see how good the field looks, they can commend themselves on that, the amount of work they put into it and the time they put into it. The first lesson they have to learn is they want people to be proud of what they’re putting out there from a product standpoint obviously for baseball, but in anything they do in life. Me as a head coach, I think that was the first thing I had to learn, that everything’s a reflection of how I handle my business.”
Taking care of the field is not just so it looks good, but so the team can perform at their best.
“We want the field to look appealing to the fans and also for us,” said Eades. “We don’t want to go out and play on a field that has bad dirt or has holes in the batter’s box. We want it to be comfortable. We want to feel at home.”
According to Riser, the team cleans the field for many reasons, but the weather can also affect the field.
“The amount of work that goes onto it from a practice standpoint, the amount of work that goes onto it from a game standpoint, the divots and the chunks, you know you got to go back and fix those,” said Riser. “If you leave them for a day, for twenty four hours, Mother Nature can take care of that and harden up and you can get things the way you want it to be. The best way to do it is to leave it better than you found it, so to speak so when you go out there it’s nice and clean.”
The players may have to clean up the field before and after games and practice, but they use this time to become closer as a team.
“We cut up out there and joke around after games,” said Eades. “We talk about what went well, what went bad. We just joke around and have fun with each other out there, really we just try to let the time go by because it isn’t the funnest thing to do, work on the field, but you want it to look good for fans and for us as well, playing on it.”
The players have been cleaning the field for many seasons and will continue.
“Our guys will always work on the field,” said Riser. “Just from a mentality standpoint and a pride standpoint, just a little bit of self-ownership that you take into whenever you do it yourself.”