College of Agricultural Sciences

Spotlight

TURFGRASS SCIENCE GRAD HELPS PREPARE
PNC PARK FOR MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL ALL-STAR GAME

Few can say that millions have looked upon their work with approval, but Andrew Bartley of Pittsburgh can, and for the 23-year-old Penn State alumnus, that represents just another day at the office.

Well, not “the office” exactly, because the graduate of the renowned turfgrass science program in the university’s College of Agricultural Sciences reports to work each day at PNC Park, the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he is assistant to the manager of field maintenance.

The grounds crew’s job got a lot more interesting with the Pirates hosting Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game July 11. The eyes of millions of TV viewers in the United States and around the world where baseball is played and revered will be on PNC Park.

“They’ll all be looking at the field, but if we do our job well, few will notice and the playing surface will never come up in the announcers’ conversation about the game,” Bartley says. “It’s true most people who watch baseball games don’t really appreciate what goes into preparing the field, but that’s OK.”

Working on a field for a game viewed by a huge audience is not new to Bartley. Before leaving Penn State, the New Castle native spent a semester working with the Beaver Stadium crew, helping get the home of the Nittany Lion football team ready for games that often were televised across the country.

“Working with the Beaver Stadium crew taught me a lot, but it is a lot different working with the Pirates,” he says. “A lot of the focus for baseball is on the ‘skin’ area around the infield, dealing with the dirt aspect of a field. Football is a shorter season, but there is more wear and tear on the field with 300-pound men pushing each other around. However, because baseball season is so long with so many games, professional baseball fields take a beating, too.”

Bartley interned with the Pirates in 2004, and he believes that experience led to him landing the field maintenance job and starting work two days after graduation in May 2005. “The relationships I established when I was an intern, and showing that I was reliable and could handle the work, no doubt were important to me getting the position,” he says.

The Pirates grounds crew will prepare the playing surface for the All-Star game much the same as it does for regular season games, but a few flourishes will be added, according to Bartley. “We will do a special mowing pattern with a star in the outfield,” he says. “On the dirt, we’ll create a design with a stencil, using a special ‘calcined’ clay that turns colors when it gets wet. And of course there will be painting on the dirt -- ‘All-Star ’06.’

“The All-Star game will be a nice experience to put under our belt, but all of us are happy to see it come and we will be happy to see it go,” Bartley said with a chuckle. “It is good for the city and helps generate a lot of money for the local economy, but despite all the fuss, we will pretty much do what we always do to the field.”
Bartley’s favorite part of his job is just working outside. “I wouldn’t want to be stuck behind a desk -- that’s just not for me,” he says. “Working for the Pirates an hour from the town where I grew up as a Pirates fan is pretty cool. But I am not sure I want to do baseball fields for my whole career because we put in 16-hour days during the season. That might get old.”

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