Transforming Your Baseball Field Ebook

Transforming Your Baseball Field

• I myself had my playing career cut short because of a bad field. As a senior playing in the last high school game of the year, I was running home from second base, rounded third, and hit a gopher hole. My right leg was in shooting pain. Anything that could rip did.
• Back then, arthroscopic surgery wasn't mainstream yet - I had my knee totally opened, fixed, and sewed up. I was in a cast for 3 months. I limped for 2 years. End of the baseball dream for me.
• I had seen my first son denied playing as a junior league all-star because a wicked hop at second base split a finger on his throwing hand.
• I saw my second son as a junior in high school twist his ankle playing third base because the opponent's field has such a bad lip at the grass edge.

Well at first, I did nothing when I saw these terrible pregame bad hops and watched it repeat for a couple weeks.

But not being a complete moron, I reached back into my experience as a groundskeeper for the AAA baseball team in the Texas Rangers franchise.

So, in 2003 I jump-started my baseball field maintenance skills by spending time with other AAA groundskeepers and suppliers of professional sports. I have since then used what learned to renovate 29 baseball and softball fields.

And then I built a baseball field maintenance website in 2006, (www.Ultimate-Baseball-Field-Renovation-Guide.com) have now fielded baseball field maintenance and renovation questions at a rate of 1 a day for the last two years, and have now reached a point where there is demand and high interest in this handbook.

I call it "Transforming Your Baseball Field into a Winning Field", because if you use this baseball field maintenance book:

• You don't need high priced equipment available only to major league sports and golf courses.
• You don't need a million dollar budget to have a winning baseball or softball field.
• You don't need a crew of full time sports managers. You just need a few who know what is going on and what to do.
• A quality field lets your coaching efforts stand out. Now you don't need to be embarrassed when teams visit your 'yard.'
• You can use equipment and materials readily available at local home improvement stores or local rental shops.
• You can quickly reach a point where you identify exactly what you need to do and develop a specific plan to make the improvements.
• More and more players, coaches, parents, and umpires will look forward to playing on your fields!

In short, you become comfortable with baseball field maintenance and management while staying well within your comfort zone and your budget.

Master Baseball Field Maintenance with my New book - Transforming Your Baseball Field into a Winning Field within 8 weeks - Guaranteed!

Now with my new 132 page baseball field maintenance manual, you can quickly master the amazingly powerful techniques that took me seven years to develop and refine for use in Little League, High School, and College.

In its pages, you'll discover:

• Learn exactly how one field manager uses an ordinary rental tool to instantly remove lip buildup at the grass edge. Page 63.
• Whether you like it or not, this will affect your ability to enjoy every other aspect of the game. Page 6.
• Understand how and when to use your drag and then how you can get the most out of it. Page 43.
• Discover how to build a table top on your mound for your pitchers. They'll thank you for this. Page 47.
• Pros do this to their infield dirt at least once a week. Your field will benefit from this too even it you only do it once. Page 66.
• Learn how to tell what your baseball mix is made of and how to improve the mixture. Page 38.
• Understand why adding more crushed red brick mix to your infield may backfire and undermine your best of intentions. Page 36.
• The single most important thing you can do to improve your ball field. Page 11.
• Discover why you need to use a plastic fan rake instead of a metal fan rake when raking your grass edge. Page 43.
• The secret to knowing how long to wait before your sod is finally ready for you to play on it. Page 86.
• Five questions you need to ask about your field before ordering more baseball dirt. Page 77.
• Discover how I cut my baseball field maintenance time by more than 50%. Page 95.
• Learn the correct sand or clay mix to use that will get you good bounces and firm footing. Page 41.
• And more ...

• What never to do - if you have any hope of giving your players good footing in the batter box. Page 49.
• Four questions you should ask your players before you change your infield dirt mix. Page 39.
• Don't use your tamp this way ... not unless you absolutely don't want your players to have good footing. Page 48

• Want sample work day plans and checklists? Then simply follow these examples. Page 112.
• The #1 mistake that will absolutely force your pitcher to quit. Page 45.
• Discover the secret of how to level your turf subsurface for a perfectly smooth infield. Page 30.
• The most important skill you'll ever learn in sports field care. Page 132.
• Discover how the infield mix for a softball field differs from that of a baseball field. Page 35.
• An overlooked technique to use if you want to get your field to the next level. Page 8.
• Discover the biggest mistake made when aerating and how you can avoid it. Page 21.
• How to fix the gaps if your sod pieces shrink and leave gaps. Page 87.
• Discover the most common mistakes made with your infield layout. Page 48.
• And so much more ...

• Find out secret to getting the most out of what you put into baseball field maintenance. Page 54.
• Discover the one thing that is the biggest obstacle to your field improvement projects. Page 10.
• Learn how to avoid the biggest problem most people make when watering their grass. Page 32.
• How the art of the quick fix is something you need to have in your hip pocket when needed. Page 100.
• Trying hard isn't good enough. Find out why you need to master this as well. Page 92.
• Why you should avoid using decomposed granite if at all possible. Page 78.
• Master this in the fall and you won't make the same mistake in the spring. Page 14.
• Discover the fertilizer that helps grass grow thick and green without making it grow too fast. Page 75.
• Master the technique the pros use to give your turf a perfectly straight edge. Page 62.
• Learn the simple change that easily could have prevented lip buildup at your grass edge. Page 42.
• Discovery the biggest mistake you could make when you need field maintenance advice. Page 94.
• Unbelievable, but true! Why you should run a steam roller over your infield turf. But one thing you must do afterwards. Page 65.
• Knowledge of this potential problem will enable you to keep your steam roller from freezing up and coming to complete stop in the middle of rolling your infield dirt. Page 68.
• Discover the "Big Three" in the best top dressing mix for your baseball field turf. Page 26.
• PLUS a very important baseball field maintenance technique to keep your base path from developing when you drag or remove standing water. Page 51.

Here's a snapshot of the table of contents so you can see the topics this book covers and you can decide if this book is for you:

1. Safety and Playability Matter: You Decide How Much
   
2. Transform Your Baseball or Softball Field into a Winning Field
   
3. Develop a Sports Field Improvement Plan That's Right for You
   
4. Turf Maintenance Made Easy:
   mowing, sprinklers, aerating, edging, top dressing, seeding, leveling, fertilizing, irrigating, and spot seeding
   
5. Baseball Dirt and Its Conditions:
   analyzing and correcting your dirt mix, the warning track, mound, home plate, base paths, and repairing lip buildup
   
6. Use Proven Equipment:
   aerators, mowers, sod cutters and edgers, spreaders, rollers, thatchers (power rake), tractors, and assorted tools
   
7. Use Quality Materials:
   dirt mixes, fertilizer, sand, seed, sod, and topdressing
   
8. Keeping the Momentum Going

More...