Life on the Trail: A Look Inside the Brooklyn Cyclones Grounds Crew

The vast majority of people often disregard the grounds crew when talking about the fun jobs in baseball.

Let’s face it; most of us only see them when their rolling out the tarp because the game we paid to see is being delayed.

However, there are a lot of tasks that makes the grounds crew so important to Major League Baseball.

So why write about it?

For those of you who did not read my last article, I worked this summer as a member of the grounds crew for the Brooklyn Cyclones, the Class A affiliate of the New York Mets.

Now I’m sure if we actually thought about it, we would all realize that the grounds crew does do a lot more than just pull the tarp and set up batting practice.

We even miss most of the work they do during the pregame because we are occupied by various happenings around the stadium.

Now obviously our five-man grounds crew has to do a lot more than major league grounds crews (in terms of individual time) however I’ll go through a typical day on the Brooklyn Cyclones grounds crew.

Let’s assume for a moment that today is Saturday, game time’s at 7:00 P.M.

8:00 A.M.

Yes we are getting to the ballpark that early. Now if you’re me, that means you’re leaving your house at approximately 7:15, meaning you’ve been up probably since 6:30.

So what are we doing at this fine hour in the morning?

Well, if you’re the head grounds keeper, doing one of the most important and essential jobs on the diamond, mowing the grass.

Now I know it doesn’t seem like a difficult job, just sitting on a machine and riding around the field for an hour or so, but you have to be precise enough and be paying attention to do it correctly every time.

Now the rest of us are working on a variety of other tasks.

The Bullpen mounds need to be fixed. The old worn down clay has to be removed, new clay put down, all of it tamped down on a slope, and then the turface (the dirt that is used) brushed back over it.

Now remember, there are two mounds in each bullpen, and each have at least two areas with holes, the rubber and then the planting area.

Sometimes the pitchers tail off to the side and create holes off from the normal planting area, making for a maximum of 12 areas that must be fixed.

The Cyclones put on fireworks shows after most Friday and Saturday night games, sometimes they are shot off from the outfield warning track.

Who do you think picks up all the debris?

That’s right, I do. Now the debris on the warning track has to be raked into piles and picked up, the debris on the outfield grass gets sucked up using a blower/vacuum.

Again, this doesn’t seem like a really hard job, and it isn’t, however when you’ve had that vacuum on your back for 40 minutes and all you have been doing is looking down at small disks, it can be extremely difficult.

11:00 A.M.

Ok, now that the busy work is out of the way, now it’s time to work on the big stuff, the clay work for the mound and home plate. Essentially the same process as the bullpen mounds, the only real difference is the use of different clay for the mound.

12:00 P.M.

Now that we have done a lot of the more labor intensive parts of the day, it’s time to work on the infield.

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