New Field At Comerica Ready To Go Despite Winter Weather Challenges

Sports Fan Insider

Keep up with your favorite teams and athletes with daily updates.

By Ashley Dunkak @AshleyDunkak

COMERICA PARK (CBS DETROIT) Thanks to months of seemingly constantsnow and unrelenting below-freezing temperatures, the process of laying a new field for Comerica Park turned out to a bit more interesting than anticipated.

Its been very difficult, head groundskeeper Heather Nabozny said Friday. Weve had to remove snow twice. One time it was almost 11 inches. The next time, we had to remove four before we could even start to think about grading the field and laying the sod and then getting warm enough temperatures during the day to lay the sod, wait until our field thawed. Sand doesnt hold much moisture, so it thaws a lot quicker than finer-textured soils the warning track, the infield, the mound.

We heated those areas the mound, the plate, the infield skin, with large heaters and a tarp, so we melted the frost out of there, Nabozny continued. Its been a challenge.

For all the trouble the winter weather caused Nabozny and the rest of the Detroit Tigers grounds crew as they worked to prepare the playing surfacefor Opening Day, the process could have been even more hectic.

We were able to take the [old] field out in the fall, which helped out a bunch. If we werent able to do that, then I probably wouldnt have slept all winter, Nabozny said. We took out, oh gosh, 700 tons of root zone and organic material, so then we had to add 700 tons of material, grade it all out. Its a big process. So we got it close so that in the spring time all we had to do was come in, touch it up and lay the sod.

The process of laying the field took several days. Arrivingfrom Colorado, the sod came toComerica in climate-controlled trucks, their temperatures kept at 50 degrees so the sod would not freeze. Cut into strips measuring 40 feet by 4 feet, each piece of sod weighs more thana ton. The transport took35 semis.

Despite the less-than-ideal conditions of this winter and the way it delayed the laying of the field, Nabozny said she is not worried about the grass.The huge pieces of sod get locked into place by a special machine that slams each strip next to the previous one, packing the pieces together so tightly thatone cannot see or feel the seams betweenthem.

Go here to read the rest:
New Field At Comerica Ready To Go Despite Winter Weather Challenges