Turf fields / combo fields

[RingEmUp]

I had the dish last night, nothing of real interest during the game.  The game was quick, 1 hour and 35 minutes.  The most interesting thing was the field itself.  Most of the outfield was also the football field and everything except the mound was the soft turf with the little black rubber pellets to keep it nice and soft.  I think I cleaned the plate twice.  I also think the field cost the home team a run as a kid started his slide into home and barely made it to the plate, easy out call.  This was my first experience with one of these fields.  Anyone else dealt with these fields.  There was a lot of random dead ball territory because of no real fence line down first and third. 

[MadMax]

You just experienced FieldTurf, @RingEmUp... I'm surprised you haven't encountered it before given your SoCal location. Yes, it plays markedly different than grass.

... or snow... Which we still have.

[noumpere]

 Yes, it plays markedly different than grass.

 

But the umpiring is still the same.

[RingEmUp]

You just experienced FieldTurf, @RingEmUp... I'm surprised you haven't encountered it before given your SoCal location. Yes, it plays markedly different than grass.

... or snow... Which we still have.

 

I just moved back to SoCal so this was new to me.  I never encountered it in Florida or Kentucky.

[Majordave]

Florida didn't need it and most of Kentucky is too poor. I worked on it at one school in Lexington and at U of Louisville. Can't think of any other high schools, or colleges for that matter, that had it back in 2009 in KY.

There are a lot of turf fields in KC area. And even in some of the little 'burgs of rural Kansas.

[law_reb]

One of our local high schools has installed field turf for the home plate area.  We played a game in which everyone got a little muddy due to recently melting ice/snow, except for me.  They don't have any dirt on 1st or 3rd baseline, so I was on the field turf or grass the whole game.  I just wiped my shoes clean and my partner was carrying around 5 pounds of dirt on his shoes.  Never even had to clean the plate.  It was pretty nice.  Slides into home plate were quick and long due to the moisture.  Pitches in the dirt(brown field turf) seemed to have a little extra bounce.     

[ElkOil]

I had the pleasure of calling some tourney games on this field a couple of weeks ago.  Gorgeous facility.  The only dirt was the front of the mound.  Never had to clean the plate, my shoes or my uniform.

 

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[blue23ll]

There were several fields in California that had that turf, and we have several in the area I work now. The only issue I have had with it is sometimes those black pellets fly into your face on a slide or when the ball bounces near the plate area. 

[maineump]

Field turf is great to work on. As stated before, you stay clean!

Any moisture makes sliding quicker, so if doing a FED game, then watch for the over slides on the DP ball. Also slow down your timing on tag plays, as the runners tend to overslide and lose contact with the base. You may be changing a safe to an out call.

 

Issues that I have seen -

1. The field is hot in the summer (you can feel the heat radiating up) Especially if it rained earlier and the sun comes out.

2. Those little black ball things have gotten in my eyes from balls in the 'dirt' and if the F2 glove has any on it on high pitches. And man do those things sting the peepers.

3. Base ump needs to be on the ball, as the batted ball gets to you much quicker.

4. If the visiting team is not used to the turf, then there are a lot of extra base hits to the outfield (more running for me)

 

 

If it wasn't for turf, I would be sitting for 2-3 more weeks because of snow.

[elares]

I worked my first game on artificial turf today.  The entire infield, first and third base lines,  and foul territory up to the bases was all turf.

I found it disturbed my between inning routine when I didn't need to brush the plate and removed the option of faking the dirty plate to put a quick eye on the catcher after he got bonked.

 

Good times, sunshine, umpiring.  A great day.