It’s my job: Keeping Oriole Park green

by Jacqueline Watts
editor@baltimoreguide.com

Camden Yards from the right fielder’s point of view is a gorgeous place, sunny and green, the grass like velvet stretching toward the far foul pole.

It is vividly, perfectly green, the color of green that suburbanites can only aspire to.

It is shortly after 11 a.m. and Nick Markakis, the Orioles’ right fielder, is not at work yet. Nicole Sherry is, however, with a crew of seven and three visiting interns, grooming Markakis’ office, so to speak.

Nicole Sherry is the head groundskeeper at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. She is quiet and and efficient, and despite her efficiency will put in at least 14 hours on the job today—from 9 a.m. till roughly 90 minutes after the game ends. That is the way it is when the O’s are in town. When they are out of town, the workday consumes a mere eight hours.

The grounds crew is responsible for keeping roughly three acres of Kentucky bluegrass uninterrupted by brown spots, dandelions, plantains and other blemishes that mere lawns might suffer from. It is also responsible for keeping the base paths as level and as smooth as a pool table and keeping the pitcher’s mound contoured just so.

“It is a full-time job, believe me,” says Sherry.

Sherry has a bachelor’s degree in agriculture from the University of Delaware and an associate’s degree from Delaware Tech and Community College. She is an expert in turfgrass with three years as intern or assistant groundskeeper at Camden Yards, then three years as head groundskeeper with the Trenton, N.J., Thunder of the Double-A Eastern League on her resume. This is her first year as head groundskeeper with the Orioles.

Sherry likes to make it clear that she is a groundskeeper, not a groundbreaker. She is not the first female head groundskeeper in Major League Baseball by a long shot—that honor goes to Heather Nabozny, who became the Detroit Tigers’ head groundskeeper when the team opened Comerica Park seven years ago.

“There are lots of women in agriculture and lots of women in turfgrass,” she says. “It’s not a big deal.”

On game days, the crew is in by 9 a.m. for mowing, watering and feeding. The field is mowed twice, producing the familiar diamond pattern. The crew waters every day, keeping the hydration consistent across the field.

During the game the tarp crew sits behind the outfield fence, ready for action dragging the infield or applying the tarp in case of rain. After the game the crew repairs the pitcher’s mound, which gets torn up by the pitchers’ spikes as 300 or more pitches are thrown per game. The crew also tidies the infield and batters’ box.
When the Orioles are on a road trip it’s time for heavier maintenance. The crew replaces sod that is damaged by wear and tear—those spectacular catches in the outfield with grass flying may produce cheers in the stands, but winces among the grounds crew underneath the stands.

Even in the offseason there is work to be done. The grass keeps growing well into November and sometimes December, and there is plenty to do to prepare for the coming season.

When Oriole Park at Camden Yards was built, it had Prescription Athletic Turf, which advertised that it could drain a downpour from the field and be ready to play in an hour. P.A.T. depended on a system of vacuum pumps to suck the water out of the field—and since the field could be mechanically drained, it could be perfectly level instead of subtly graded for drainage. The vacuum system is disconnected now, because the water drains just fine through the sand that the turf is grown in, and “if we had 16 inches of rain or something like that I doubt anyone would be playing.”

The morning maintenance was done and the crew took a break. Sherry scanned the field and saw something that needed doing—she crossed about 30 yards of field and picked up a tiny piece of cellophane wrapper in short right field. Details count.