By: Sam Jellinek
ALLENTOWN, Pa. - Very often, the only time that someone notices the playing surface of a ballpark is when something goes wrong. A stray pebble causes a bad hop, a sprinkler head cover twists an ankle, or the warning track fails to drain properly. For IronPigs Director of Field Operations, Andy Gossel, the best compliment he can ever get on the field at Coca-Cola Park is that when he’s told it’s not affecting play:
“There’s always a little bit of ego or pride when our players say they prefer playing here or when visiting teams come in and say how great the playing surface is here...Our goal every night is that the field is not a factor in the outcome of the game. To allow the players to determine the outcome of the games. That it’s not a bad hop, or too hard, or too rough to slide, or whatever the case may be, we want players to be the ones to determine the outcomes of games,” Gossel said.
For a facility and playing surface that is entering its 16th season, Coca-Cola Park and its playing diamond is in impeccable shape. But to be in impeccable shape, that requires a lot of continual upkeep. For example, this past offseason saw the Coca-Cola Park diamond get a completely reworked warning track and accompanying drainage system in addition to a regrading of the infield to meet new Player Development License (PDL) specifications.
“Every single one of the job descriptions I’ve ever read and fulfilled have said to provide a Major League quality playing field. So we take that very seriously here,” said Gossel.
Of the two offseason projects, the new warning track consumed the most time, effort, and manpower. Owing to its original construction design and normal wear and tear over the course of 16 years, the warning track surrounding the field wasn’t draining as well as it once had.
To correct this problem meant digging up all of the entire existing warning track material, replacing the drainage system, and then layering on new track material. The new warning track has new drainage tile going all the way around the field and a special warning track material (Crimson Stone Ultimate Two track material shipped from Tuscaloosa, Alabama for those wondering) that has the ability to drain about 60 inches per hour in the fully compacted setting of a warning track.
“So far, I’ve been using a one-inch house trying to just puddle the warning track a little and it’s been tough because of how well it’s draining,” Gossel explained. “After spraying it with the hose, within 30 seconds the water is gone. That means that with bad thunderstorms or heavy rain, we may have standing water, but I wouldn’t be surprised if 15 to 20 minutes later it has drained.”
The other offseason project, regrading the infield, was an endeavor necessitated to meet PDL guidelines. This is something Gossel has grown accustomed too ever since the PDL came into existence in 2020 when Major League Baseball took over the Minors. That has meant more stringent guidelines for field grading and field quality.
Gossel said, “There have been some challenges, like this past offseason regrading our infield to meet the PDL standard. But, we also got lucky that in other areas like the new rule of the runners lane down to first, we’re fortunate enough that we already met those standards in terms of grass relative to basepath to first.”
These offseason projects serve to constantly refresh the Coca-Cola Park playing surface, something that has been a crown jewel of the experience of an IronPigs game since day one. And Gossel wouldn’t have it any other way, “Our goal every night is to give the players a playing surface where they can show off their talents every night. The other goal is for our fans to totally enjoy walking into the ballpark. Whether it’s the first time that season or 75th time, we want them to go ‘Wow, that’s what a baseball field should look like.’ That take your breath away, a-ha moment.”