Marking your baseball field
turf cutouts for edging

Start by finding the right baseball field diagram for marking grass cutouts and edging your field. 

The basepath width and the corner cutouts are different between little league and highschool. 
Find the right one for you.

Be prepared for some surprises when you mark your baseball field to spec.  Mark your sprinklers so you don't hit them when edging.

You might find that some sprinklers are outside the cut out.  And you might find that some of your corner cutouts are not even close to the proper arc.

It's OK of modify the arc to match your field and make a nice clean cut out.  Some fields use arcs and some use squared off indents.  Be creative if needed.

Tools needed to mark your baseball turf for edging:

1. hammer - to drive the nail or screw driver in the ground that is hard
2. large nails or screw drivers - I like to use the screw drivers since I can use them to dig and find the base pegs also
3. line or stringer - wrapped around the nail on each end for a nice tight straight line
4. spray paint - I like stripping paint since I can paint a thin line with it
5. tape measure - base paths vary from 2-6 feet wide; corner arcs vary from 6-9 feet; mound radius varies from 5-9 feet.

Marking the corner arc at 1B and 3B: anchor the string at the back corner at the foul line.  DO NOT anchor at the base peg.  The entire base should be in fair territory.

If your pegs are positioned right, then the back of the base is 60 feet from the back point of home plate on a little league field... and 90 feet from the back point of home plate on a high school field. 

Marking the arc at 2B: anchor the string at the base peg.  If this peg is placed correctly, it is 60 feet from the center of 2B to each of the foul lines.  One of the most common mistakes is to put 2B totally inside the 60 feet square.  Read 90 foot on a high school field.

Marking at home plate:  Mark from the back point of home plate.

Marking the 1B and 3B base path edges: first, the foul lines should be in the middle of the base path.  So, on a little league field you measure two feet to either side of the foul line for drawing out the base path. On a high school field measure three feet to either side for a six foot wide base path.

Marking the infield edges to 2B: measure in 2 to 3 feet (depending on little league or high school) to get the spec cut for the infield grass.  Don't be surprised if you find it varies by more than a foot on older fields.  Work with what you have and make a straight line that fits your field.  I'd say half the fields I work on vary this much.  It's OK.  You can still make it look and play sharp

Drawing the grass cutouts and edging stripe: I try to mark all my grass cutouts lines on the dirt side of the string.  Then I know to cut off all the white spray paint when I edge. 

Alternative1: if you are using a power edger you can use part of the machine as a guide and walk it along the string without cutting it.  You might have to move the string in an inch or so to do this.  Just use part of the machine as a guide that is an inch to the left of the cutting blade.

Alternative 2: after you get the string in place, spray weed killer, on the grass past the string.  It will die, shrivel up, and can easily be hula hoed off.  This option works if you don't have much time for labor and can wait 2-3 weeks before you have a nice edge.  I do this in the fall so by spring, the edge doesn't need much work.  I can measure and place nails and screw drivers around the perimeter and string the whole thing at once.  Then just walk around the perimeter and spray.  Easy.

Current grass cutouts not to spec? What do you do? You can either cut it to spec or vary your cut to match what you have.  You still get a nice edge.  If you have quite a difference between the current edge and spec, you can also add top soil and plant some grass or you can plant sod right there.

In this example, we used a flat shovel to cut and edge the turf.  This field is not so bad this spring. Last year it was so far from spec with bad lips that we used a sod cutter to cut the baseball field grass edge. 
Now it is easier to edge with simple tools like a flat shovel.

A sod cutter is a good tool when the edge
for grass cutouts is so far from spec.

Good edges a year later. 
Use simple tools - flat shovel or lawn edger.
Do not use a sod cutter again.