Back to the Future

The Texas Rangers join the movement back to fake grass:

Texas’ decision will make it the fourth of the 30 major league teams to use artificial turf. Toronto’s Rogers Centre and Tampa Bay’s Tropicana Field have had artificial turf since they opened, and Arizona’s Chase Field is switching from grass to turf this season.

ESPN.com

The original artificial turfs were basically a carpet laid on concrete. The ball bounced high, and the running on stone led to injuries. As teams rebulit their infrastructure away from multi-use stadiums, they went back to grass. Only the always closed domes kept the fake fescue.

Artificial turf survived, however, and underwent major improvements. The third generation turf plays more like real grass. I played in the marching band in college, and the turf at that time could be dangerous. If it was wet at all, in was easy to slip while walking across the surface. A few years ago Harvard replaced their football stadium grass with the new turf. (They also installed an inflatable dome so the stadium could be used for spring sports practice in the winter.) We did a half time show in the rain, and it was like walking on grass without the mud.

In a place like Texas, where maintaining grass is costly due to the high heat, this will be a boon. The new turf might be much more cost effective in other climates as well, and I would not be surprised to see a return to a high number of fake grass stadiums in the near future.

from baseballmusings.com http://bit.ly/2MJSVBH