Tired
of pitching into a hole?
Or out of a hole?
Fix it with unfired clay bricks!
Here
is a worn out mound!
Is yours
this bad? Probably not, but does your baseball mound end up with
holes where the pitcher lands?
Do you
know that landing holes can injure your pitcher or cause him to alter
his delivery? Maybe the bad mound is the reason he has trouble throwing
strikes.
Do you
want your mound to look good and be solid for your pitchers?
Fix
your mound
with this 30 minute project.
Reinforcing
your mound with unfired clay bricks. Source: brick factory or landscape
product wholesaler
In
this example, I completed the job with just a few baseball
field tools. I used the following:
- wheelbarrow
to haul the bricks
- damp towel on the
bricks to keep them soft
- square
shovel for cutting bricks and moving loosened dirt
- hula how to loose
dirt
- field rake to
finish the job
- tamp to flatten
and mash the seams together
- 30 unfired clay
bricks
First,
I marked out the landing area and went about 10 inches wider
and longer than the longest stride of the pitchers. This is a high
school field here. But you could do the same with a little league
field.
I used
the hula how and the shovel to dig out a rectangle about 3 inches
below the surface. This area should be level and firm.
Tamp if needed.
Then
lay the bricks using an alternating pattern as you see in the
picture. I filled in the shorter spots with bricks that I cut in
half with a shovel. It's easy to cut them. Just place the
flat edge and step on the shovel. It cuts right through.
Next I tamped the bricks down and together. I used
a damp, thin towel over the bricks. This kept the tamp from sticking
and picking up clumps. Most bricks wouldn't do that, but I did this
just in case.
So, here's
what it looked like after tamping the entire block back and forth about
four times. The bricks have melted together and are firmly in the
ground. I pushed some of the excavated baseball dirt back
along the edges and tamped it down.
Then
I used the rake to spread the rest of the excavated baseball dirt
over the top of the bricks. It was less than a half inch
deep.
I then
tamped this down using the same thin towel. Again
this prevents any lumps from sticking to the tamp and helps keep the tamped
surface flat.
At this
point, I was about 20 minutes into the job and the towel was starting
to dry out a bit. I used the field rake to smooth and slightly
rough up the surface.
Here you see a pitcher using the mound right after I finished the job.
Note: the pitcher's landing foot is not in a hole or making a
hole. The footing is firm, with just a little give since
the bricks are not hard as a rock, but still firm.
And of
course, the best way to keep lock in this mound improvement is to water
lightly and put a tarp over it when not in use.
You
can do this. Be a hero for our pitchers!
A superior pitching
surface prevents injuries and helps keep pitchers from messing up their
delivery.
Tips and Hints
- Keep the unfired
clay bricks from drying out. Haul them either with a damp towel
on them or in a plastic wrap to keep them from drying out. I use
a giant plastic bag and sprinkle some water on the bricks. Then
I seal them up till I use them.
- If the edges of
the bricks start to turn a light color, then they are drying out and
may not be usable anymore.
See the baseball
field project gallery for more examples including a softball field
mound upgrade.

Adding clay in front of the softball pitcher's
rubber
Click
here for more tips and hints about how to maintain your baseball field
mound after you add clay bricks
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