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Untitled Document
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Infield
Mixes:
What Works Best Now |
| April
3, 2007 -- Issue 2 |
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| Better
Fields for Better Play |
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You need
more baseball dirt for your infield. What do you do?
Most folks just call the local landscape supplier and ask for another
5-10 yard load of crushed brick for their baseball field.
Is this the best thing to do?
Well, it depends on who you are trying to please by adding more dirt:
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the budget guy says keep the price as low as possible
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the field maintenance guys says he can only spend 10 minutes max
prepping the field
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the players just want good bounces and good footing
So, what do YOU
do?
If you're like me, you want the best infield mix so the players
have a safe and playable field.
Generally this
means the infield mix needs a combination of clay, silt, and sand.
The higher the competition or the older the players, the more clay
you need in the mix.
For example, a good baseball mix for PONY league and high school is
50% crushed red brick, 20% clay, and 30% soil. A professional
mix is 60% clay and 40% tichert #2 sand.
Now what would
you end up with if you try to please the others:
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For the overly budget conscious guy: get cheap gray track fines
which is just ground up rocks. Cheap, but not very good footing
and little moisture management. As I write this stuff is $15
a yard.
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For the maintenance guy who wants to work fast and get on with other
things: get the fines or get a load of nothing but decomposed granite
or crushed brick. It will drag fast (and create lips as well.)
Bad footing, but easy to level out. But not good for moisture
management. As I write this stuff is approximately $25 a yard.
Me, I'm in this
for the players. I'll get a good infield mix that is 50% crushed
lava rock and 50% clay. As I write this mix costs $29 a yard.
If we don't look out for the players, who will? They just want
to play. Hopefully you are looking out for them as well.
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