The MLB All-Star Break finally ends today. Other than Marlins Park, no MLB stadium has hosted a game since Sunday, and a few stadiums filled that dead space in the summer calendar with concerts, as is becoming common.
Unfortunately, when you hold massive concerts on the field in the middle of summer, with the large crowds of moving people on a field not accustomed to or designed for that kind of foot traffic, bad things can happen. And in the wake of a Metallica concert on Wednesday night, Detroit’s Comerica Park is suffering. Via MLive’s Evan Woodbery:
Closer look at the Comerica outfield turf issues after the Metallica concert… pic.twitter.com/x2rqLN6PHf
— Evan Woodbery (@evanwoodbery) July 14, 2017
More award-winning dead grass photography… pic.twitter.com/DVOlwcb9Eb
— Evan Woodbery (@evanwoodbery) July 14, 2017
They're rolling the sod ribbon after BP to smooth it back out, I guess. pic.twitter.com/qA3xoyVJE5
— Evan Woodbery (@evanwoodbery) July 14, 2017
The Tigers are hosting the Blue Jays tonight, and while the field is apparently playable, it definitely isn’t in top condition:
“It’s not pretty. There’s no question about that,” said Tigers manager Brad Ausmus Friday afternoon before the start of a three-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays.
The grounds crew didn’t have enough time to order sod from their normal source, so the Tigers had to make do with what they had. That’s why even the re-sodded grass still appears discolored. It’s a different type and color of sod than the rest of the outfield; the grounds crew aggressively rolled it to make its surface consistent with the rest of the field.
“The sod they normally get comes from Wisconsin or something, and they couldn’t get it here quick enough,” Ausmus said. “They laid (the other sod) down; they rolled it out; they cut it.”
That’s unfortunate. This isn’t a new problem, of course; in 2015, the Cubs hosted AC/DC at Wrigley in September of a pennant race season, a move that necessitated similar re-sodding in the outfield while the Cubs were in the middle of a divisional and wild card chase.
Teams looking to boost revenue with these extra events are in a bit of a tight spot, since the baseball season is a long one, and for cold-winter cities like Detroit, there isn’t much room on either shoulder of the season to fit in concerts while avoiding conditions like tonight’s field at Comerica.
Hopefully no one gets hurt playing on shoddy sod.
[MLive; image via Evan Woodbery]
