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Reply to "Back at it again"

Well, those are all great comments, but as in other things in life, every field is a different situation, and when dealing with the lower levels especially, every year there’s a huge influx of new people to try to get on board and do things the “right” way.

 

Our situation’s problems begin with this being a community that has Augusta aspirations with a muni budget, and very little desire to do anything other than drive a $15K golf cart to the park, drive it wherever they please, then drive back home again leaving the work to someone else. That’s not a problem most fields have, but it really is a problem. The guys who mow know where the sprinklers are and avoid them, but not John Q. Public. The maintenance people also know where the low wet spots are and avoid them like the plague, but not Jane Q. Public. Then you have the problem of dad having a golf cart that will go 35mph and using it to drag the infield field just as fast as he can, often sending the drag over the grass.

 

For those of us who’ve grown up loving and respecting the game, it isn’t a problem. It’s the dad who never played beyond LL and doesn’t have a clue what it means to have pride in the field. Those are the people you hear comments from like, “Its only grass”, “It only takes my gardener a few minutes a week to make my yard look great”, and the best one, “I pay my dues, let them take care of it!”

 

A few years back they had to close the small field for a week to do some work and the league made arrangements to have the baseball games be played on the softball field. The parent went bat s*#t nuts and refused. Rather than have the boys play a couple games on a dirt infield, they built a 46’ mound on the big field planted base pegs. After a week that included about 20 small field games and 3 or 4 big field games, the big field’s infield was pretty much shot for the rest of the season all because a dirt infield wasn’t “good enough”.

 

It’s difficult to fight that kind of mindset.

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