Surface Conditions of Highly Maintained Baseball Fields in the Northeastern United States: Part 2, Synthetic versus Natural Turfgrass

Abstract

Pace is a measure of the relative velocity at which a ball travels after impacting a playing surface. Information about the pace of balls impacting highly maintained natural and synthetic turf baseball field surfaces is minimal. A survey was conducted in 2005 to document the pace and surface hardness of baseball field playing surfaces in the northeastern United States. Nine natural turfgrass baseball fields and five synthetic turf fields were evaluated. Surface pace and surface hardness values of these highly maintained fields differed little between synthetic and natural turfgrass. Surface pace measurements on synthetic turf surfaces were slightly less variable from field to field than those measured on natural turfgrass surfaces. Much greater differences in surface pace and hardness were detected between the non-turfed basepaths, reported in Part 1 of the project, compared to either natural or synthetic turf. Within the parameters of this study, the natural turfgrass surfaces and the infilled synthetic turf surfaces evaluated differed little in surface pace or surface hardness.