Baseball and Softball Fields: Design, Construction, Renovation, and Maintenance [Hardcover]

Jim Puhalla (Author), Jeff Krans (Author), Mike Goatley (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471447935 | ISBN-13: 978-0471447931 | Publication Date: August 14, 2003 | Edition: 1

Create the flawless playing field your team and its fans deserve. This book covers it all, from stadium and field design to fences and drainage to amenities for spectators. In practical, non-technical language, the authors outline the most common problems you?re likely to encounter and provide solutions for each, including special considerations for all major North American climate zones. With contributions from Major League groundskeepers who share their experiences in managing state-of-the-art facilities, this guide is your ticket to a truly gorgeous field.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Complete guidelines and specifications for designing, building, and maintaining baseball and softball fields

Baseball and Softball Fields is a hands-on tool for everyone responsible for the maintenance and management of baseball and softball facilities, including new construction and reconstruction projects. Packed with in-depth material on the design, construction, and maintenance of baseball and softball fields, this practical resource offers real-world knowledge from industry experts, including Major League groundskeepers. Other useful information includes guidelines, specifications, and tips for keeping playing fields in top-notch condition.

Leading professionals demonstrate the proven techniques and best practices they use year after year to overcome common problems, from cosmetic fixes for damaged turfgrass to spot drainage systems for wet spots on a field. Written in nontechnical language that professionals can quickly understand, the step-by-step guidelines in this book can be swiftly implemented without any background in field design, turfgrass management, or soil science. From recreational fields to state-of-the-art stadiums, coverage addresses a variety of useful topics for a broad range of ballparks, including:

• Stadium and field design
• Fences, dugouts, and bullpens
• Drainage and irrigation
• Soil selection
• Turf management
• Field aesthetics
• Renovation
• Skinned-area maintenance

With material addressing all three growing zones in North America–the warm season, the transitional, and the cool season–Baseball and Softball Fields is a potent resource for builders, managers, and groundskeepers of all types of baseball and softball fields.

About the Author

JIM PUHALLA is President of Sportscape International, Inc., a firm specializing in the design, construction, renovation, and maintenance of sports fields and related facilities. He has contributed numerous articles to Sports Turf magazine and received the magazine?s "Baseball Diamond of the Year" award in 1995 for reconstructing Boardman High School?s field in Ohio.

JEFF KRANS is Professor of Agronomy in the Golf and Sports Turf Management program at Mississippi State University. He has conducted extensive turfgrass research, as well as developed, patented, and commercialized four turf-type bermudagrass cultivars.

MIKE GOATLEY is Professor of Agronomy in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences at Mississippi State University. He has conducted turfgrass research in the areas of plant nutrition, plant growth regulation, and soil modification.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (August 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471447935
• ISBN-13: 978-0471447931
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 7.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #688,366 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jim Puhalla is the president of Sportscape International, Inc., a firm specializing in the design, construction, renovation, and maintenance of sports fields and related facilities.

Jim has worked in the sports field industry since 1978. His experience includes sports field project management and coordination, consulting, construction drawings and specifications, on-site inspections, and overall construction administration. He has been engaged as a speaker for sports turf conferences throughout the United States and has written many sports field magazine articles.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Technical Reference on Baseball Fields I could find, August 22, 2007

By 

Professor Challenger "The Ideator" (Florida) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Baseball and Softball Fields: Design, Construction, Renovation, and Maintenance (Hardcover)

I used this technical reference book for a course in Contracts and Procurement, in which I had to write detailed specifications for a baseball park. These specifications were part of a Request for Proposal to a fictitious group of general contractors.

This book left no stone unturned, educating me on all aspects of building and maintaining a ball diamond. My professor, who had seen many similar papers before, was impressed and I received a perfect mark.

I also interviewed a general contractor who was building 8 baseball fields, and found I was able to talk intelligently with him, and knew all the various terms and types of materials used in a baseball field, as a direct result of reading this book.

I was impressed with the overall knowledge of the authors, starting with how to grade the park for maximum drainage and playability, fencing, types of turf required for various weather zones in North America, pest and weed prevention, layout, dimensions, equipment used for maintaining and marking the field -- there wasn't one thing I wanted to know that I couldn't find in this book.

I recommend it very highly.