Grass Patterns in the Outfield

Well... with the start of baseball season you begin to think about the little things that make baseball great.

• The little helmets filled with ice cream
  
  
• People filling out box scores and struggling to know what to do when a team bats through the line-up


• The impeccably good accuracy of peanut ushers


• Seeing a fan camped under a foul ball, boxing out the sweaty guy with mustard stains on his shirt, only for it to doink off his hands and the stadium boo-ing (not singling anyone out... but there was a remarkably similar instance involving my roommate last season)
• How teams pay homage to St. Patrick's day by wearing Green hats, jerseys and chalk the lines green.

It signifies the start of spring, the beginning of summer and the familiar chatter of a stadium.

For me, i immediately think of Dodger/Doyer Baseball and many many afternoons and nights spent at Chavez Ravine rooting on Dave Hansen (HOF utility infielder... I made up the HOF part) and Kaz Ishii as they battled to entice LA fans to come early and stay late.

It also brings me back to my days of North Venice Little League where i played as a catcher for the minor league St. Louis Cardinals (Coached by Richard Page) and the major SF Giants. Let's just say that i made benito santiago's arm strength look whimpy.

While playing at North Venice, i mowed the three fields and always wanted to make patterns in the outfield.

I think the grass pattern in the outfield is very much under-utilized. The Red Sox and Mets do it all the time (pictured below). It serves no purpose other than make the blimp shot really really cool.

But, if you take a deep dive into the patterns, you realize its a work of art. Mainly because they are working with a canvas which is 90 feet x 90 feet. Think about what Van Gogh did with a canvas which was 36 inches x 48 inches.

The primary question that i have is: How do they make it look SO good when they are SO close and its SO big??? Is the grass cut in different lengths to make the designs or is it cut in a different direction?

Editors Note: This is when I get quasi-weird and relate it to business.

Is it outside the realm of possibility, that teams will convert this into sellable inventory? When teams become a sponsors, they can put their logo in the infield grass? Imagine the McDonald's Arches or something like that.

PS... I think its slightly funny that I inserted an "editor's note" as I am the Editor. Somehow I felt like it would bring a little more credibility to my disclaimer.

Side note: I think after this week, im going to reduce the frequency of my blog to one to two times a week and send an email when i post. Still trying to figure out how people can sign up to receive an alert but not trying all that hard. Send me an email if you want to be on the distribution list.