The people ofFarmington prove asmall city can host

a national event justas well as a big city.'

Both the field and stands were built by volunteers to attract the Connie Mack World Series to Farmington.

Amateaior Dr<

BaseballrinaCard

For a week each August, many of thiscountry's finest baseball players fromthe ages of 16 to 18, and scouts

from more than 50 major and minor leaguebaseball teams, gather in remote Farming-ton, NM. The oil and gas community, tuckedinto the northwest corner of the state, is con-sumed by the sport of baseball — amateurbaseball that is. Since 1963, when city volun-teers built Orval Ricketts Park specificallyfor the Connie Mack World Series, the eventhas drawn more than 70,000 baseball fanseach year to the stadium.

That's not bad for a city with only 33,000residents. The closest large city is Albuquer-que, a three hour drive away. It takes fanseight hours to reach Farmington from Denveror Phoenix, the next closest cities. "TheWorld Series is the biggest thing that hap-pens in this city every year," says ParkSuperintendent Jeffrey Bowman. Thatmakes Ricketts Park the most importantfacility he maintains during the year. That

38 sportsTURF

importance shows. The park is the winnerof the Baseball Diamond of the Year Awardin the park, municipal and school category.

From the beginning, Ricketts Park hasbeen a community project. Every foot ofpipe, every yard of concrete, every bench,press box, Scoreboard, concession stands,fences, land, bases and the Kentuckybluegrass seed were donated by commu-nity businesses and organizations. Duringthe World Series, families provide room andboard for the visiting teams as local hotelsswell with scouts and Connie Mack teamsupporters from Puerto Rico to Seattle. Thecity has continuously supported the volun-teers and managed the facility since itscreation.

As the host city, at least one Farming-ton team gets to play in the World Seriesevery year. Beginning at the age of seven,Farmington youngsters start playing baseballin hopes of one day competing against eightof the best teams in the country and pos-

sibly being discovered by a major leaguescout. Parents, city businesses and com-munity organizations do all they can topreserve the baseball tradition of the city.It's no surprise that it consistently has someof the best out of 9,000 teams in the Ameri-can Amateur Baseball Congress (AABC)each year.

"The people of Farmington prove that asmall city can host a national event just aswell as a big city," says Joe Cooper, execu-tive director of the AABC, headquarteredin equally small Marshall, Ml. "A reporterfrom Sports Illustrated once said that he waslooking for Geronimo to come out of the hillsas he drove into Farmington." A large Indianreservation happens to be located on theoutskirts of the city. In fact, Albert Eaton,whose primary job is to keep Ricketts Parkin top condition, is an American indian.

The annual average rainfall for the moun-tainous region located 5,300 feet above sealevel is only seven inches. "All of our precipi-

tation comes from winter snowstorms andlate summer thunderstorms," explains Bow-man. The rest of our water is taken fromthree rivers that are fed by the snowmeltin the mountains. We have plenty of water,the problem is the rains come during August,right in the middle of the Connie Mack WorldSeries."

The turnout in Farmington is greater thanfor any of AABC's six other league cham-pionships. In addition to the Connie Mackevent, each year AABC sponsors the StanMusial World Series in Battle Creek, Ml; theMickey Mantle World Series in Waterbury,CT; the Sandy Koufax World Series in SanJuan, PR; the Pee Wee Reese World Ser-ies in Forest Park, GA; the Willie Mays WorldSeries in Hapeville, CA; and an experimentalleague series in Fayette, GA.

"The difference is the people in the Far-mington Connie Mack League who makesure the event runs like clockwork," saidCooper. "They have made it successful withthings like foster parent programs to feedand house the kids, helping pay some ofthe travel expenses for the other teams withgate receipts and fund raisers, and the qual-ity of Ricketts Park. There is so much sup-port for the World Series in Farmington thatthey had to add a second deck on the out-field fence to carry all the advertising."

While volunteers do much of the leg workfor the event, maintenance of the 8,500-seatRicketts Park is the responsibility of theDepartment of Parks, Recreational and Cul-tural Affairs. "Ricketts is like a second jobfor us in the department," says Bowman.And it was a big reason why he left Penn-sylvania in 1982 to take the job as parksupertendent.

Bowman's involvement with sports startedwhen he was a high school student in York,PA. He took a summer job with the city'spark department. One thing led to anotherand he ended up working on MemorialStadium, the home field for the Triple A YorkPirates. He was hooked. For the next fouryears, he worked at the stadium while heattended Delaware Valley College of Scienceand Agriculture in nearby Doylestown. Hisgoal was to be a major league ground-skeeper so he pursued and obtained adegree in agronomy.

His first job out of college was on the crewat Philadelphia Country Club in Gladwine,PA. When the assistant superintendent ofparks job opened up in York, Bowmanreturned to his hometown and was soonpromoted to superintendent. The stadiumsatisfied his thirst for baseball. The Piratesinstalled one of the first AstroTurf infieldsin York before deciding to install one atThree Rivers Stadium. But, then the Piratesclosed their franchise in York. Bowmanstarted looking for ways to keep up hisassociation with both baseball and parks.

The opportunity came in 1982, when BobHudson, the city's director of Parks andRecreation, was looking for a park superin-tendent with baseball background. "Therewas no doubt about Farmington's interestin baseball," Bowman says. "It also had acity golf course, 14 other softball and base-ball fields and 900 acres of parks andmunicipal grounds. But, the best part wasI didn't have to hide the fact that my maininterest was baseball."

You don't just walk into a strange com-munity and start changing things. You haveto prove yourself first. "Knowing how to deal

with coaches and parents is a big part ofmanaging fields in a park system," Bow-man points out. "You also have to work withthe members of the department who havebeen doing things a particular way. Whenpeople have been nice enough to give theball park fertilizer and supplies, you usethem."

The first thing Bowman did was teach thegrounds crew how to make sharp edges onthe base paths and to set up the mound,batter's box and bull pens to professionalstandards. He surveyed and aligned thebases, made new patterns for chalking thebatter's box, and asked that string bestretched down the base lines before mark-ing the field. "Little things add up to makea big difference," Bowman points out. Hehas since added a clay stabilizer to the basepath dirt that makes the sandy soil pack bet-ter and hold more moisture.

The second thing he did was put togethera schedule for all cultural practices. "Mowing,fertilizing and irrigation were all assignedto certain crewmembers for certain timeseach week," Bowman adds. A special ballfield crew for the entire park system wascreated and put under the watchful eye ofJim Henry. The condition of all the fieldsis now checked each day by the presentforeman Jay Wilson.

Since Ricketts Park is busy from Janu-ary through September with more than 132games and nearly 200 hours of practices,there is little time to make major repairs."Our biggest problem at first was just keep-ing the turf properly fertilized and irrigated,"said Bowman. "We have to irrigate the sandysoil heavily. That causes the fertilizer to leach

continued on page 40

"A reporter oncesaid that he was

looking for Geronito come out of t

hills as he drove iFarmington.'

A second deck had to be added to the outfield fence at Orville Ricketts Park because of the demand for advertising.

May, 1988 39

Crew at Orville Ricketts Park during World Series Week.

City Provescontinued from page 39

out quickly. Quick-release nitrogen lastedonly a few weeks before it was gone. Wealso had an old quick coupler irrigation sys-tem that needed constant attention."

To correct the problem, Bowman and hisnew assistant Jim Henry, a turf graduateof New Mexico State University, decidedto switch to a 34:6:4 sulfur-coated ureaapplied monthly beginning in March. They

also started spraying the field every monthwith a solution of chelated iron withmicronutrients. As the root structure of thebluegrass improved it was more tolerant ofdrought stress caused by the sandy soil.

Still, it became clear that the manualquick-coupler system and the labor itrequired had to be updated. Once again,the community responded and donated themoney for an automatic Toro system with1800 Series pop-up heads in the infield and

Super 600 heads for the outfield. "Now wehad a handle on water and we could irrigateat night when the field was not in use," Bow-man recalls. "Disease isn't really a problemhere, except in August, since it is so drymost of the year."

The bluegrass started to respond. Thenext step was to remove a thatch layer thathad built up over the years and to getimproved bluegrass varieties into the turfthat were more drought tolerant, more dis-ease resistant for August, and a darkershade of green. For that, Bowman neededan aeroblade seeder/thatcher. The commu-nity came through with a Jacobsen seeder.The seeder was put to use that fall on boththe stadium, the park fields and the golfcourse.

The other piece of equipment that Bow-man and Henry fixed up and put to use wasa drum-type aerator. New tines and a com-plete overhaul gave the old unit the abilityto once again relieve compacted soil. Bow-man also saw it as a way to keep thatchunder control and to provide even penetra-tion of water and nutrients into the soil.

To put a pattern into the turf, the outfieldis mowed twice each week with a triplex reelmower followed by a riding rotary mowerwith a vacuum system. The infield is mowedwith a walk-behind rotary mower that col-lects the clippings. "The teams like the fieldmowed as short as possible," says Bowman.

continued on page 42

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City Provescontinued from page 40

The outfield is mowed at 11/4 inch and theinfield at one inch.

Their final step to improve the turf dur-ing the busy season was to pregerminateperennial ryegrass seed to fill in divots aftergames. "We have a problem with the areain front of the mound and along the outsideof the base paths," explains Bowman."Grounders hit in front of the plate duringgames and practice really do a job on theturf. If you don't keep up with that area, itgets almost bare after a couple of months.We're going strong for nine months, so wehave to do all we can to keep grass grow-

ing there. We usually resod this part of theinfield before the Connie Mack WorldSeries."

Despite all these basic improvements,Ricketts Park is used for three months inthe winter while the turf is dormant and theirrigation system is drained. "We get freezingtemperatures into March and can't riskdamaging the pipes," explains Bowman.Still, beginning in January the high schoolis practicing five days a week. As the teamplays its first games in March the bluegrassis just coming out of dormancy starved formoisture.

"As soon as we can, we aerate the fieldheavily, fertilize and irrigate to help the turf

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come out of dormancy quickly," states Bow-man. Any deficiencies revealed by soil testsduring the winter are corrected. "We mowthe stadium starting in March even thoughwe don't make our first cut in the parks untilApril. The temperature still drops belowfreezing at night." By the end of May, thecrew applies Trimec to eliminate broadleafweeds that invaded the field in the winterand early spring.

During May, after just one month of stronggrowing weather, the Mickey Mantle andConnie Mack leagues start sharing thestadium with the high school. "We're busyseven days a week from May 1 to end ofAugust, from 1:30 in the afternoon to 10:30at night," says Bowman. "By June, the tem-peratures are into the '90s. We have bothpractices and games during the day andgames almost every night."

The activity on the city's 13 other soft-ball and baseball fields is just as intense,not to mention the golf course. Adding tothe work load the past four years was con-struction of new neighborhood parks. Asnew subdivisions are completed, land setaside for parks has to be converted intoplaygrounds. "You'd think with thedepressed oil and gas market, everythingwould stop," Bowman said. "But not here.The community has backed parks all theway, even passing a five year, $7.2 millionsales tax. We're going to build another 18-hole golf course, a four-field soccer com-plex, a swimming pool and develop the river-front into a large park."

But as August rolls around, the entire com-munity focuses its attention on Ricketts Park.Two weeks prior to the Connie Mack WorldSeries the park is closed for preparation.Bowman pulls up to eight crewmembersfrom the park field crew over to Ricketts tohelp Wilson and Eaton. "We resod wornareas, overseed with pregerminated seedand cut new edges," he states. "The moundand batter's box are rebuilt after we rea-lign the bases. After doing another soil test,we usually give the field a shot of liquidchelated iron to green it up. Members ofthe Connie Mack Homerunners Club comeover at night to prepare the concessions.With the proceeds of the concessions theclub helped provide the facility with a newScoreboard in center field. It's a real com-munity effort."

Park Director Hudson also devotes hisfull attention to Ricketts working with AABCto promote the event across the nation.Homes are lined up for the players. Pressboxes and hotels are readied for sportsreporters from across the country. A 16-game, double elimination tournament iscarefully scheduled to allow 30 minutesbetween games for field work. Billboardsand the Scoreboard on the outfield fenceare touched up. The stadium gets a freshcoat of paint while the concessions and res-troom facilities are polished. By mid-August,Ricketts Park and field look almost new.

From dawn to midnight during the ten-day event some type of field work takes

42 sportsTURF

place. "Since that is our rainy season," saysBowman, "we tarp the infield at night whenclouds move in and leave the covers on thebases, mound and battter's box except dur-ing games. We baby the dirt, wetting it downtwo or three times a day. We also watchclosely for any signs of disease since humid-ity is up and temperatures hang in the 90s.So far, the bluegrass hasn't let us down.The vacuum system on the rotary mowerputs a nice pattern on the outfield even ifwe don't mow that day."

After a month of constant hustling andthe championship game, the park crew hasone more assigment at Ricketts—to get itready for a circus. That's right, elephants,horses, clowns, acrobats and all theirparaphernalia. "The circus makes for a niceend to a busy year," Bowman remarks. "Theonly thing hard to take is seeing theelephants and horses tromping across that

Jeffrey Bowman with Baseball Diamond of theYear Award.

beautiful field. Fortunately, we have threemonths of good growing weather with noevents to let the turf recover."

In September, the field is aerated, fed witha complete fertilizer, drill-seeded with a mix-ture of perennial ryegrass (75 percent) andKentucky bluegrass (25 percent). Irrigationcontinues two to three times each week untiltemperatures fall in November and the sys-tem is drained. "We try to avoid lush growthin the fall to let the turf go dormant slowly,"Bowman explains. "We want the turf todevelop roots instead of foliage so it canwithstand the late winter practice schedule.We make sure the micronutrients are therefor the roots."

Farmington's position as a central figurein amateur baseball is secure, accordingto AABC's Cooper. "The Connie Mack WorldSeries in Farmington is one of the finestamateur baseball events in the countryplayed on one of the finest diamonds," heboasts. "Maybe the guy from Sports Illus-trated was right, maybe the spirit ofGeronimo is there watching over RickettsPark."

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