Rain Proofing the Infield

FTLComm - Tisdale - April 19, 2001

Tisdale takes its recreation seriously, after all the ball diamonds provide the community with a lot of fun and are busy almost every night of the summer. Beginning last fall the town began a process of upgrading the infields of each of the diamonds giving them a little height to allow them to drain quickly after a rain. New surface material has been brought in to put on top of the present infields and we are seeing the process well underway. The material in these fields was just available fill and

like most Tisdale soil is unrelenting gumbo clay. The process involves working the mateiral up this will allow it to dry out then it will be smoothed out and topped with new surface material. This this process complete water will not lie on the diamond after a shower and play will be able to resume immediately. The hard ball diamonds have already been topped with crushed shale which dry almost instantly but cost about $15,000 an infield. It is a plan that eventually these diamonds will receive a similar treatment in the future.