Is Turf Good Or Bad?

Papi- I agree completely with your points on infielders laying back, when they get to grass, normal ground balls become infield hits. Also, I saw a wicked bad hope this past weekend as a ball hit a seam and went off the 3B mitt.

But here in the Northeast, the only reason we have gotten most of our games in is because of turf. Without it, half our season would still need to be made up. Somehow, plowing the snow off a grass field might not work out so well. 

The other advantage of turf becomes the ability to have multiple sports use the same fields, season after season, without wear and tear. Unfortunately in certain areas of the country you will never get rid of it.

All the fields around here (Georgia) are grass, and we've got more than our share of bad infielders, so I don't think the turf is necessarily causing your problem.

Football fields are almost all turf here now, but they get used for soccer and lacrosse as well, and the turf they use these days is way nicer than what I recall being around 20-30 years ago (which wasn't used at the HS level anyway).  For those fields, I can't imagine what they'd look like if they tried to keep up with grass with that much activity.

Bird, have you noticed if there was an increase in injuries that might be related to turf, maybe knee or ankle?  I have heard that turf is a little rougher on the body...just curious

Yeah, we get some funky injuries that may be related to turf. A sophomore on my son's team, who was slated to DH, partially tore his PCL (one you don't typically hear about) and our starting CF tore a ligament in his thumb on a take out slide at 2b, while dragging it (no dirt on the bases, only the mound). Not sure that one is related.

Since the field is multi-purpose, the soccer guys and girls are always down with knee injuries as well as football players. 

The lack of warning track is also a major issue. Outfielders are always running into the fences on HR's.

All I know that this mom LOVES turf for how clean (relatively) the uniforms stay!!!!

I played football on the old "turf" (think indoor / outdoor carpet over top of concrete) and coached on the new stuff.  Without a doubt I like the new stuff better in terms of easier on you physically.

I think there is a legitimate concern playing on turf will make you lazy but that should come back to coaching.  Is the coach letting the player get away with it in practice?  If so then he will probably do it during games.  It's got to come back to being conditioned to attacking the groundball. 

Another legitimate concern about the warning track but how many fields that are grass that do not have a warning track?  This is another coaching situation - was it a flyball where the CF could be communicating how much room he had before the fence? 

Originally Posted by birdman14:…The other advantage of turf becomes the ability to have multiple sports use the same fields, season after season, without wear and tear….

If you meant that literally, I’m afraid you’re making a mistake. Like all things, turf has a lifetime, and its determined by many things. Place that have high use and lots of inclement weather might find themselves having to put down new turf in as few as 5 years. Is it more durable than grass? You bet your bippy. But its not like you put it down and that’s it forever.

You are correct (now that I'm being taken literally ). The turf is scheduled to be re-done over the next 2 summers in sections, after 10 years.

Just that with the use my son's home field gets, when it was grass, the outfield was a dirt patch -- kind of like a cow pasture after the cows are done. That and if it was drizzling the day before, the games where rained out. If it actually rained hard, it might be 2 days before it was ready. Also, it is an urban campus and has very little available land, so it is totally necessary.

I would think to replace existing turf would have to be less expensive then a brand new situation (not that I truly know that) because I would imagine the prep work, leveling and drainage, would be done (or at least mostly done). 

If your turf is only lasting 5 years, then either you're not maintaining it correctly or it was put down incorrectly. This stuff should last at least 10 years easy.

As for injuries, there are studies out there that have shown the synthetic surfaces have increased injuries. BUT a major flaw I have seen is that the majority of these studies have been conducted at the professional or higher-level college levels. Those locations don't have to worry about as many poor field conditions so it's hard to relate that to the high school level.

To give everyone the approximate cost, our local HS just built a new football stadium with the "new" turf.  Total cost of the project was $3.6 million with the turf cost about $800,000.  This was from the ground up: stands, field house, scoreboard, etc- the old field was in questionable shape after 40 years of use and not so good upkeep by the county and school.

Turf is not "install it and forget it".  There is maintenance as well though not as much as a "grass" field is.  Replacement is recommended in 8-10 years depending on use and upkeep.  I think the replacement cost was estimated to be in the $600K-$800K range.

The HS is the only school in the region with a turf football field.

Originally Posted by birdman14:

…Turf is not "install it and forget it".  There is maintenance as well though not as much as a "grass" field is.  Replacement is recommended in 8-10 years depending on use and upkeep.  I think the replacement cost was estimated to be in the $600K-$800K range.

Well, that makes it average at least $60K a year put aside to replace it, and I’m gonna guess at least another 10 per year maintenance. Yes, the maintenance costs are definitely a lot less than grass, and the benefits in a place where there’s lots of inclement weather are very much higher than grass as well. But, my guess Is grass would cost about 10% of what turf would cost to replace.

Like all things, if you’ve got the buck, it makes sense. Our school district has converted all 3 football fields games are played on to turf, but so far not even one of the 6 ball fields has had turf put down.

FWIW, I hear of more injuries on turf than grass.  2 former players went to college this past year and both will be medical redshirts...one tearing an ACL on a seam in the turf and another tearing thumb ligaments.

I know the Pirates replaced one of their training fields here in FL 2 yrs ago at Pirate City, cost was a Million plus a little....really nice....but in summer players say it can become ridiculously hot, around 120 on the field once last year...guess you have to have trade offs

You may consider selling ads on the turf to recover costs.

Bob

Turf is great. Here in the northeast, games can be easily played on turf where grass fields have no shot. Our field where my son played was the worst in the county in that you couldn't field balls aggressively without the risk of injury or bad hop going awry. This was both the infoield and outfield. Now it's the best field in the county or maybe the state and one of the few that can play a game after a morning downpour and you get true hops instead of who knows what..

 Is Turf Good Or Bad?

I'm not going to pass judgement on whether turf is "good or bad".  I'll leave that to the divine spirit in the sky, but many turf fields are necessary in the colder climates to play baseball in he Fall, March and April.   My son's conference season is short, and an NCAA bid is on the line.  They have to get 20 games (12 within the division and 8 in the other division).  to get in as soon as possible plus mid-week games.  No dillydallying.  The field has to be playable.  I know my son likes it because the only field maintenance the players have to do is on the mound. 

My brother in law works for a civil engineering firm in the Northeast.  For the last 5 years, he's spent his time replacing grass fields with artificial turf at colleges and high schools in New England.  It is certainly a growing trend up north and I'm seeing more and more fields in the Mid-Atlantic do the same.  Virginia Tech just replaced their field last year with a state of the art artificial turf.  It plays fantastic is the word from VT players and opponents.

quote:

biggerpapi posted...."I teach my infielders to come get the ball.  I think the turf makes them lazy and I'm not sure if I like it."

Coaches are a creative bunch.   You can figure out a way to get your guys to go after a ground ball.  What happened to a little screaming and yelling like in the ol' days?  Is this a kindler and gentler biggerpapi?

The one problem we have here is the members posting are all from different parts of the country and have sons playing at different levels of ball.

Here in the northeast, on the college level we can't play games without turf. Almost all our early games would have to be played away and south or west at significant cost -- another added advantage. 

In other areas of the country, this is not the case.