I don’t like the artificial turf at Allen Community College’s baseball and softball fields. It’s not because of the quality of the turf or how the ball bounces on it. Rather, it’s because it’s missing the one component I feel is vital to a baseball or softball field — dirt.
Don’t get me wrong, the facilities at ACC are great.
Less than a day removed from Monday’s dusty chaos at the Crest High School baseball and softball complex, I found myself in a different world covering Iola High School’s baseball and softball opener at ACC. Although the scoreboard for the softball field was on the blink, everything else was fine. Parking was easy and the fact that the IHS barbecue team had set up a concession stand was a bonus.
Between the Iola boys team taking Chanute to extra innings and winning, and on the other diamond the softball team going toe to toe with Chanute, despite fielding a team almost entirely composed of underclassmen, I almost didn’t notice the sanitary nature of playing on the artificial turf.
Almost.
With every slide, every throw from the mound, something was missing.
It was too “clean.”
Seems I like the dusty chaos of a real field, even though it means I’m always wiping my camera lens thanks to Kansas’ notorious winds.
But Colony’s play was distinctly different. A cloud of dust would indicate the amount of torque a player put into every step, every turn of his or her foot from a throw or swing of a bat. To me, that’s an integral part of the game. What makes baseball and softball elegant isn’t what’s necessarily taking place on the field at that very moment, but also taking a second to notice the dust hanging in the air, dancing among the stadium lights.
Maybe I’m being too romantic. I certainly don’t feel this way about football. Replacing the grass with artificial turf at Mustang Stadium isn’t so bad because grass is just a playing surface in football. But on the diamond, it’s a component of the game.
Turf fields are great, because they require little maintenance, but turf baseball and softball fields sometimes feel a bit corny. Instead of dyed base paths and slippery mounds, I would love for someone to figure out how to affordably integrate dirt with a turf on the infield. For now, it would likely create a lip and have players getting injured from tripping or the ball might take a funky bounce and negatively impact the game.
Landscaping is a complicated industry, which is why baseball coaches spend hours having them manicured just right. It’s a sacrifice a person like me — a baseball admirer and not a baseball enthusiast — may not be able to fully appreciate. Nowadays, I don’t know a lot of people in any community who have time to make those sacrifices. However, every time I drive past a baseball/softball complex and see its entirely turf fields, I can’t help but feel a slight detachment from the game’s once undeniable link to nature.
