Another ballpark upgrade for 2015: The Windy City ThunderBolts (independent; Frontier League) are installing a new artificial-turf field at Standard Bank Stadium. (more…)

Another ballpark upgrade for 2015: The Windy City ThunderBolts (independent; Frontier League) are installing a new artificial-turf field at Standard Bank Stadium. (more…)
More milestones reached at the new home of the Hillsboro Hops (short season A; Northwest League): seating and synthetic turf are being installed this week and beyond. The photo above was taken last week and shows the beginning of seat installation on the third-base side of the seating bowl. Also started: installation of the synthetic […]
Dutchess Stadium, home of the Hudson Valley Renegades (short season A; NY-Penn League), will receive some $1 million in renovations and upgrades after county approval. The outlay was approved by the Dutchess County Legislature on a 21-3 vote. Most of the money will go to infrastructure, such as upgrades to the ballpark’s electrical system. In […]
A Class AA Eastern League team in Ottawa will reportedly play on artificial turf based on the request of its future parent team — though there’s no team there yet and no parent team on tap. Gerald Sheehan, chief financial officer for Beacon Sport — the investment firm working on a plan to buy an […]
The Toronto Blue Jays are considering a major change to Rogers Centre: replacing the artificial turf with grass. It’s not uncommon anymore to find grass at a retractable-roof ballpark — it’s been done for years in Seattle, Houston and Arizona — but it’s a challenge to add grass to a facility built for artificial turf. […]
Ohio State is switching from grass to artificial turf at Bill Davis Stadium, a transformation that should be completed in time for fall practices. The reason for the switch to AstroTurf GameDay Grass: more reliability. The entire field will be turf save the pitching mound; the basepaths and batters boxes will be turf as well. […]
The regime change in Joliet, Ill., is complete, as a new ownership group led by Alan Oremus takes control of Silver Cross Field and sets up operations today. Now comes the fun part: prepping for the 2011 season. Steel City Baseball paid $915,000 for the privilege of playing at Silver Cross Field, along with all […]
The pieces are almost all in place for Steel City Baseball to field an independent Frontier League team in Joliet’s Silver Cross Field, as the City Council approved a 10-year lease; John Dittrich will be GM of the new effort. Yesterday was a big deal for Steel City Baseball, headed by local resident Alan Oremus, […]
Steel City Baseball Club LLC has closed on a purchase of the lease to Joliet’s Silver Cross Field and other physical assets held by the owners of the Joliet JackHammers (independent; Northern League), clearing the way for a new independent Frontier League team to play there next season. The city will consider a new lease […]
Forget about the old days of AstroTurf, the artificial turf with practically no padding, the stuff that killed careers — or certainly impacted them, as Andre Dawson can attest. Today’s artificial turf is making a resurgence in indy and college ballparks, as the product has improved significantly in recent years. It wasn’t that long ago […]