Help with field!

If you have a pressure washer, or access to one, just pressure wash the lips out

Won't that kill the grass?

FYI:  A quick Google search produced a pretty sweet website for field maintenance:

http://www.ultimate-baseball-f...d-up-with-water.html

Be careful with the soil added to a field. There are specific mixes that can be added to level out a field most reputable soil providers can get it.

Also I would put in clay bricks under the batters boxes and mound with a small layer of clay over them. With a little maintenance after each game you will not get the big holes that develop without them. 

Agree with BOF on the box and mounds. As for the lips, it's best to remove those with a sod-cutter. But that's so the field will play right; I doubt they are contributing much if at all to the field seeming like a bowl.  For that  you may need to dig trenches and install french drains.  Amending the dirt may help but with infield mix, not clay.   

Best to get somebody who knows what they're doing in to take a look.  If there's a local golf course in good shape whoever takes care of it is the guy you need to talk to.

Definitely this!  Unfired/compressed clay bricks will give you an outstanding pitcher's mound and extremely low maintenance batter's boxes.  The money spent is worth every penny.

No.  I learned that one from the heads groundskeeper at the Pirates spring training facility.  Our County also does that for the LL fields, grass hold up fine if you don't use a concentrated jet, that might cut the grass

Interesting... I can see how that would work for small lips, but with big ones the root structure gets established so I'm not sure it would be as effective.  Anyway, once the lips are gone make sure to teach the kids how to rake the right way so they don't come back.

I completely agree with the pressure washer.  It will not kill the grass.  I have done it for over 20 years.  If you have turface, it will flush out.  Then you can take a drag and even everything up.  Can do inside and outside lips and you'll be surprised at the amount of dirt/turface you will have. 

Actually I never used a pressure washer.  I use the same hose we water the infield with.  We have a connector right behind the mound.  Just get a good stream from the nozzle. 

Sodcutter. Rent one from Home Depot for $40. Quick and easy and will leave a clean edge. May have to add a little clay, but probably not if the width of the lip isn't ridiculous.

The real trick with using water to wash out “lips”, is to not try to do it all at once, and to give the area a deep soak first. No matter what anyone says, what you can’t do, unless you’re talking about a grass like Bermuda where even a cutting can root, if you expose too much of the subsoil plant, you’re looking for trouble. So, the best way to do it is to not expose more subsoil plant material than maybe ¾ inch at most. Then give the grass at least several days to develop more roots, then spray out some more dirt. I know it sounds time consuming, but even a 6” lip can be easily gotten rid of in just a few weeks.

One more hint. Go get something like a cheap piece of plywood or plastic to use as a “stopspray”. What I mean is, when you’re spraying the grass around the areas between 1^st and 3^rd, just spray toward the dirt. But if you have cutouts or are doing the 1^st or 3^rd baselines or plate area, use the wood or plastic to stop whatever you’re getting rid of from just moving to another grassy area. A good jet of water will blow dirt as much as 10-20’, so just stop it.

I have achieved this two different ways.  We took a sod cutter, cut the lip out, used the sod cutter to remove another layer of dirt and then replaced the sod.  It wasn't that tough but did require us to do this in the all.  Naturally, we seeded as well in that area. 

The second way we did this was to take a high pressure hose and remove some of the lip.  Then, we went and removed a couple of inches out of the lip intersecting the grass and infield.  We did this about every two feet.  (Across the lip and not with the lip if this makes sense.)  Then, we waited for the area to firm up slightly.  It did this while we were removing the small sections from the lip.  We rolled this area a bunch with a roller that didn't have great width but it worked.  We flattened our lip considerably. 

Both ways worked out. If I had to pick and the fastest in the long run was the sod cutter. 

Actually, the best and easiest way to deal with lips on a baseball field is too not get them in the 1^st place! I think if more people understood where the lip comes from, we’d see fewer and fewer of them.

The main culprit is dragging. Trying to get super close to the grass couple with going as fast as possible to get the job done will do it. As the drag moves through the dirt, tiny pieces are kicked up, like a boat moving through the water. Most don’t go very far, but even a small percentage of them that land over in the grass is all it takes. We’re talking literally millions of particles. By far the worst thing to do is to get the drag actually on the grass. Another culprit is players kicking dirt just to be doing something, or walking from the dirt onto the grass. Each time that happens a few particles are transferred.

Depending on the kind of grass you have and height its mowed, one thing that can be done to make things a whole lot better is to either sweep it off after every field use using stiff bristled brooms. A local JUCO redid its entire infield area between the dugouts almost 10 years ago and it still looks great and no lips can be found. After use, the field gets dragged, then players grab brooms and start sweeping. If someone else uses the field, they have to post a security deposit. If they don’t sweep the field, they lose the $250 and players who have to do it get paid for their time using that money.

I used to use a high pressure nozzle held very close to the grass to push the particles off the grass, and I’ve seen others use a blower or air compressor and get great results. The trick isn’t what’s used to get the dirt particles off the grass. The trick is in doing it faithfully after every single field use. If that’s done, one good going over at the end of the season will keep you from having to mess with lips for a very long time. The trouble is, everyone has to take it seriously and do it.

Don't forget raking.  Improperly done it causes almost as much damage as dragging, especially on the basepaths.

Originally Posted by JCG:

Don't forget raking.  Improperly done it causes almost as much damage as dragging, especially on the basepaths.

GOOD POINT!

A good hint about raking is to never rake across the base path. No matter how careful you try to be, it doesn’t take long to make it low in the middle and high on the sides.

I watched our coaches do some significant work on their lips last year... couple kids brought their half-ton trucks out onto the field and rolled them down that way  

It comes down to how big is the lip - if it's not that big then I would go with the water hose with good pressure.  If it's a pretty big lip I would get the sod cutter or straight edge shovels with the guys.

As others have said don't drag the field by getting so close to the lip.  The clay / turface / field conditioner will get pushed toward and into the grass which causes the lip.  Rake near the lips but be careful about pushing clay / turface / FC towards the grass or you're going to create a lip.  Honestly best thing to do is about once every 6 weeks pull out the hose and just spray for preventative maintenance.

Another preventative maintenance thing you can do is invest in some soft bristle brooms.  After practice have the guys sweep the grass back towards the dirt.