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Are we going back to natural grass in the near future?


Goo Punch

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I wish our baseball field would go back to grass.
and put back Billy Goat Hill and the Bunker in left field. Saw David Windfield knock himself out cold against the bunker in left ran into it full tilt for Minn golden gophers. we won the game. Chief Siebert was awesome as always.
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  • 3 weeks later...

 

On 4/20/2021 at 12:41 PM, Blackcat00 said:

Your are not a fan of a fake batters box painted in? 

I am not. At the very least there should be dirt at home plate and around the bases. 

How old is the turf at the Disch?

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On 5/12/2021 at 7:29 PM, MrPhlegm said:
On 4/20/2021 at 7:21 AM, BurntOrange&White said:
I wish our baseball field would go back to grass.

and put back Billy Goat Hill and the Bunker in left field. Saw David Windfield knock himself out cold against the bunker in left ran into it full tilt for Minn golden gophers. we won the game. Chief Siebert was awesome as always.

I’m pretty sure Chief was in junior high or early high school when Winfield was in college. Maybe my memory is failing. 

Edited by ImissWallyPryor
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2 hours ago, ImissWallyPryor said:

But, the players might get dirty. Ever had to brush off after diving back to first?  It’s unpleasant. 

Yes, but without dirt when the pitcher knocks you down you can't get back up, give him a nasty stare, and get back in the batter's box without brushing off the dirt to show him how tough you are.

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10 hours ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

Yes, but without dirt when the pitcher knocks you down you can't get back up, give him a nasty stare, and get back in the batter's box without brushing off the dirt to show him how tough you are.

Yep, & everyone being all clean at the end of the game just isn't natural...

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  • 2 years later...
18 minutes ago, LTtxfan said:

Think I recently saw something about grass maybe coming to DKR in a few years ???

 

Pretty interesting article, but it would have been nice to get into the exact economics of grass vs. turf.

Of course the grass guy claimed that it "wasn't as expensive" because of the up-front cost of turf, but I can't imagine that's true. He didn't mention how much they spend annually on water, fertilizer, weed control and then of course the expense of have a full-time grounds crew on staff.

The market tends to speak for itself in this case and so I can't imagine that grass is actually cheaper or on-par with turf, otherwise the vast majority of schools would have grass instead of it being the other way around.

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Good article. Not surprised the guys they interviewed that are in charge of the fields at TCU, A&M and FC Dallas cut their teeth learning the trade at aggy. Except for a few years back in the 80s, aggy has always had a grass field that looks beautiful which you’d expect an ag school to have. We need to do the same and hire an aggy to put in a grass field at DKR and maintain it. With the oppressive heat we have in Texas, artificial turf adds and additional 30-40 degrees in temperature in the sun. That alone should cause schools to switch to grass.

Edited by Macklemore
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5 minutes ago, Macklemore said:

Good article. Not surprised the guys they interviewed that are in charge of the fields at TCU, A&M and FC Dallas cut their teeth learning the trade at aggy. Except for a few years back in the 80s, aggy has always had a grass field that looks beautiful which you’d expect an ag school to have. We need to do the same and hire an aggy to put in a grass field at DKR and maintain it. With the oppressive heat we have in Texas, artificial turf adds and additional 30-40 degrees in temperature in the sun. That alone should cause schools to switch to grass.

I'm with you in principle, but you lost me at "hire an aggy".

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7 minutes ago, deadshank said:

Would rather have NC State or UD  - Davis ag expert than aggy ag "expert" any day of the week.

Well, the results speak for themselves. The fields at Amon Carter and Kyle look perfect every time I watch a game from there. aggy obviously has a good program in place in training future field managers. Might as well tap into what works. 

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17 minutes ago, Macklemore said:

Well, the results speak for themselves. The fields at Amon Carter and Kyle look perfect every time I watch a game from there. aggy obviously has a good program in place in training future field managers. Might as well tap into what works. 

we're talking about aggy.  wouldn't give those meatheads a piece of bubblegum.

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Gimme a shout. UT alum speaking so no worries there.

Plus, I've kept my bermudaweeds grass looking not too shabby even during mega-Blastfurnace 2023.

Long story, short. I'll put in grass in DKR for the low, low price of tree fiddy million.

For no extra charge, when and if Reveille shows up I'll add some cayenne pepper around where it will be sitting.

 

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1 hour ago, Macklemore said:

Good article. Not surprised the guys they interviewed that are in charge of the fields at TCU, A&M and FC Dallas cut their teeth learning the trade at aggy. Except for a few years back in the 80s, aggy has always had a grass field that looks beautiful which you’d expect an ag school to have. We need to do the same and hire an aggy to put in a grass field at DKR and maintain it. With the oppressive heat we have in Texas, artificial turf adds and additional 30-40 degrees in temperature in the sun. That alone should cause schools to switch to grass.

There are plenty of good turf programs out there. Penn state is the Harvard of the turf world. Oregon state is good, Kansas state is good, Rutgers is good. Plenty of options other than aggy. But yeah, they know how to grow grass down there. 

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6 hours ago, perfectchaos007 said:

I thought it was torn up natural grass, but maybe I was thinking of early 2000s Reliant Stadium in Houston 

Mizzou’s artificial turf was terrible. I paused the video after their RB tore everything in his knee, and you could see an exposed seam in the turf as well as rotting turf clinging to the black pants of a a Mizzou player walking by. It was negligent for Mizzou to have that as a playing surface. 

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21 hours ago, oSuJeff97 said:

Pretty interesting article, but it would have been nice to get into the exact economics of grass vs. turf.

Of course the grass guy claimed that it "wasn't as expensive" because of the up-front cost of turf, but I can't imagine that's true. He didn't mention how much they spend annually on water, fertilizer, weed control and then of course the expense of have a full-time grounds crew on staff.

The market tends to speak for itself in this case and so I can't imagine that grass is actually cheaper or on-par with turf, otherwise the vast majority of schools would have grass instead of it being the other way around.

People had better start paying attention to water usage. There were high schools in Texas that could not water their fields this summer at all because of the drought. As a result, they could not play on the fields this fall.
 

Florence HS is one I am aware of for certain. People are moving to Texas by the thousands. Combined with drought conditions, it definitely leaves something to consider. Does that impact UT? 

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2 minutes ago, Tex Pete said:

People had better start paying attention to water usage. There were high schools in Texas that could not water their fields this summer at all because of the drought. As a result, they could not play on the fields this fall.
 

Florence HS is one I am aware of for certain. People are moving to Texas by the thousands. Combined with drought conditions, it definitely leaves something to consider. Does that impact UT? 

https://www.kvue.com/article/money/economy/boomtown-2040/austin-surf-park-development-plan/269-ad341134-2a39-4a0d-b941-d26ce51cae66

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11 hours ago, ImissWallyPryor said:

Mizzou’s artificial turf was terrible. I paused the video after their RB tore everything in his knee, and you could see an exposed seam in the turf as well as rotting turf clinging to the black pants of a a Mizzou player walking by. It was negligent for Mizzou to have that as a playing surface. 

I knew a LB who played there in that time frame. He also blew his knee out and effectively ended his career because of that shitty turf. Theirs was worse than average turf, though. 
 

Iowa State also has a great turf grass program, I understand. 

1 minute ago, BurntOrange&White said:

Seems like a bad idea to me. I work in real estate. People need to open their eyes. 

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On 10/18/2023 at 1:49 PM, oSuJeff97 said:

Pretty interesting article, but it would have been nice to get into the exact economics of grass vs. turf.

Of course the grass guy claimed that it "wasn't as expensive" because of the up-front cost of turf, but I can't imagine that's true. He didn't mention how much they spend annually on water, fertilizer, weed control and then of course the expense of have a full-time grounds crew on staff.

The market tends to speak for itself in this case and so I can't imagine that grass is actually cheaper or on-par with turf, otherwise the vast majority of schools would have grass instead of it being the other way around.

Lightly-used grass is generally cheaper longterm because you have to replace the artificial carpet every 5-10 years.

HOWEVER, the main economic benefit of artificial turf is that you can have more events (quantity and variety) on it, in any weather or time of day, with essentially no additional cost. So if you can get paid for more events (professional stadiums) or want a heavy-use multifunctional field (high school), having an artificial turf field is better.  Basically, one AT field can replace several natural turf ones.

EDIT: Note that heavily-used grass (where you are doing constant repairs) is much more expensive.

Edited by JBJ
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11 minutes ago, JBJ said:

Lightly-used grass is generally cheaper longterm because you have to replace the artificial carpet every 5-10 years.

HOWEVER, the main economic benefit of artificial turf is that you can have more events (quantity and variety) on it, in any weather or time of day, with essentially no additional cost. So if you can get paid for more events (professional stadiums) or want a heavy-use multifunctional field (high school), having an artificial turf field is better.  Basically, one AT field can replace several natural turf ones.

EDIT: Note that heavily-used grass (where you are doing constant repairs) is much more expensive.

Ah cool thanks.

If it's really cheaper in the long-term, I wonder why (seemingly) the vast majority of colleges use the artificial stuff? 

And every 5-10 years seems way more regular than just my anecdotal recall of how often OSU has replaced theirs. I feel like we just replaced a few years ago and the time before that was a LONG time ago... like before Gundy took over so at least 12-15 years, but I definitely may be wrong about that.

And man - it just seems like "lightly" used grass fields would be hella expensive to maintain year after year with water (especially in this part of the country), fertilizer, weed control, seeding/re-seeding/over-seeding, etc.; plus the fact that you need to employ a full-time grounds crew.. (or maybe they farm it out?). 

I do wish we had grass just because I think it looks better and "feels" more like the football I grew up with.

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2 hours ago, oSuJeff97 said:

Ah cool thanks.

If it's really cheaper in the long-term, I wonder why (seemingly) the vast majority of colleges use the artificial stuff? 

And every 5-10 years seems way more regular than just my anecdotal recall of how often OSU has replaced theirs. I feel like we just replaced a few years ago and the time before that was a LONG time ago... like before Gundy took over so at least 12-15 years, but I definitely may be wrong about that.

And man - it just seems like "lightly" used grass fields would be hella expensive to maintain year after year with water (especially in this part of the country), fertilizer, weed control, seeding/re-seeding/over-seeding, etc.; plus the fact that you need to employ a full-time grounds crew.. (or maybe they farm it out?). 

I do wish we had grass just because I think it looks better and "feels" more like the football I grew up with.

This is OSU's third artificial field: 2005, 2014, and last year.

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