So, the home opener’s been postponed from today until Tuesday at 4:15. We got about 6 inches of heavy snow today here in Jersey. I assume they got a similar amount in the Bronx. The snow’s certainly not going to melt by tomorrow afternoon.
So how will they get the snow out of Yankee Stadium?
I’d assume snowblowers would damage the turf. Could they melt it? If so, would the drainage system be too frozen up to be able to handle the runoff? What about the snow in the stands?
In any case, I’m sure the grounds crew are unhappy campers at the moment.
In many stadiums, a forecast of snow, or the onset of snowfall, will lead the grounds crew to pull tarps across the infield, just as during a rain delay.
For snow in the stands (at least in the stadium I’m familiar with), workers use hand shovels to move the snow from the seating aisles to the stairs, then push it down the stairs to the edge of the infield, or in the bleachers, to the edge of the outfield. And yes, they do throw the snow down from the upper grandstand to the lower grandstand.
From the edge of the infield, the snow is loaded into trucks on the infield and carted out of the stadium, usually to a corner of the parking lot.
Thank you. What about the outfield? (It would be pretty funny if they just left the snow out there. Well, it would be funny for us, not for the players!)
Presumably in the outfield, you can just rig up a snow plow on a tractor of some kind and push the snow out through the opening in the outfield fences.
Hey BobT, have you ever tried to plow a grass field with a snow plow without turning it into a field of mud? I’m smiling because, I can’t think of too many people who would WANT to snowplow a grass field …
So GreenBean and I are anxiously awaiting an answer…
But despite all the best efforts of the grounds crew, there’s a limit to what can be done to prepare a field from a heavy snowfall. The Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees all postponed games scheduled for April 7, due to the recent snow storm.
They just gave the answer to the outfield question on TV: They borrowed some giant tarps from Giants Stadium to put over the outfield. Then they swept the snow off the tarps.
Walloon: They didn’t postpone the home opener due to snow on the field as much as the fact that there would have been a huge snowstorm going on during the game. I think.
Along with the Giants stadium tarps in the outfield, they were using lawn tractors with a squeegee on the bottom edge of a snow plow. They funneled the snow to the dugouts, where they then melted it with hot water hoses. Thanks to all that, Godzilla hit a grand slam! GO YANKEES!
Let’s give a round of applause to all of baseball’s groundkeepers. They don’t get much recognition, but it’s hard to get grass that green and cut in such perfectly pleasing geometrical patterns so that when you enter the stadium, it takes your breath away and a chill up your spine that instantly recalls a memory from your childhood. It’s an art. Hooray!
I’m smiling because, I can’t think of too many people who would WANT to snowplow a grass field …