This field sucks. Should never have gotten rid of the old turf. It was fine. Should have just gotten some new astro turf. Field turf is awful for baseball.
I personally don't know if FT is aweful for baseball or not... but turf sliding pits is DEFINITELY aweful for baseball! This sucks!!!!
None. The field turf will slow down baserunners sliding. It also really slows down the ball. It is gonna be a tough adjustment for our players changing from never having to charge the ball to having to charge like crazy to get the ball.
Have any of you guys ever actually played BASEBALL on field turf? I spent the entire last summer practicing and taking ground balls on it daily due to the floods in Iowa. It's really not as bad as you make it out to be. Sure, it's slower than astro turf. But its still WAY faster than the natural grass most of the players have played on their whole lives. Keep in mind, most of these kids didn't have professional grounds crews to manicure the fairway length infield you guys are used to seeing in the pros, CWS, etc. They played on relatively long (therefore slow) grass infields. They're spending this entire off-season on grass and eventually this new field turf, they'll get used to it. I also disagree with the complaint that it will slow down sliding baserunners. Field turf isn't long grass, it is still relatively short, and the rubber actually reacts very much like dirt when it is slid on. Speaking from experience, you slide farther (and faster) on field turf than you do on dirt, IMO. When this stuff gets wet, you can literally slide 15-20 feet if you dont do a pop up slide. I do REALLY wish that the plate area was dirt (along with the mound obviously), because I didn't really like hitting on field turf. I would also like to add that I too would have preferred the dirt infield, but the arguments against the turf have been pretty baseless IMO. The only cause of my preference is the tradition of the dirt.
The field turf is FINISHED and it looks great. It really makes the new DFF shine even more than it did last year. The horns will start practicing on the field immediately and will play all of their fall games at DFF, not at Dell.
No dirt around the plate is awful. Hitting on anything but dirt is never good. And I also don't like no dirt around the bases. It is a baseball field damnit. It is all about dirt. I am really disappointed with the field turf. I have played baseball on it before and it is by far my least favorite out of Grass, astroturf, and field turf. But no dirt is absolutely awful.
We'll see how it goes this season? Dirt is all about baseball. I'm guessing the uniforms don't get dirty either?
walked around inside Disch Falk today and it looks beautiful. watched the team for a while. you really need to see it for yourself to see how awesome it looks. it will take some gettin used to watchin clouds of rubber balls fly up when the ball hits the turf.
Sounds like we can say goodbye to dirty uniforms. Unless there is a brawl on the pitcher's mound that goes to the ground.
Unless something has just very recently changed, they are still playing Rice at Dell. "play all of their fall games at DFF, not at Dell."
I don't like the idea of field turf... *however* It did take me a season and a half to notice the base paths were field turf when Washington switched. The dish and the mound are dirt, the warning track is purple.
Why would anyone, who is contemplating a career in professional baseball, want to play on a field where you bat off a carpet?
No, but you build up such a large static charge, when someone tries to tag you, the arc blows the ball right out of their glove.
Yea Augie really liked the turf in Lubbock. The field turf sucks but I can deal with it. It is the lack of dirt that sucks.
