Infield designs

I am debating changing the design of my dirt infield. I think dirt has been continually spread onto the grass beside the infield dirt and not brushed off, creating about an 8 inch hill on each side beside the base. You can see how this might be a danger as well as an eye sore. Because of the layout of my field, and the enormous buildup of the lip on the third base and first base lines, I am thinking about cutting the infield out like Fenway Park in this picture.
Just wanted to get some feedback on what the baseball community around here thinks, and the advantages and disadvantages of using this design. Let me know what you guys think.

 

I did this once on two 13-14 year old fields. Eventually the lip moved but it was essentially out of play so it wasn't so bad. It did help the area where a ball is being fielded.

 

IMO, the only negative would be more curves to have to keep edged. It's certainly an easy way to eliminate the lip, but i would make the cut-out linear.

 

linear?

do you mean that you would bring the edge of the dirt out further past the bag, but make it straight edges, like 3 sides of a rectangle?

 

I am trying to figure out were you are getting the water to have grass. I would think people would be asking how to do sand art about now!!!!

 

Yes.

 

TW

if you aren't extremely diligent in your routine field maintenance practices, you will have a "lip" no matter what your field design is. I don't know where you are located, but an excellent source for baseball field prep and maintenance issues is Tommy Walston of Grainger Stadium at Kinston, NC (the minor league Kinston Indians). google the info and you should be able to find Tommy; I know he's on the K-Indians website.

If you're not in eastern NC, Tommy could still probably help you or recommend others in his line of work in other parts of the state.

There's an organization that deals with these issues; has conferences, workshops, field days, training opportunities, etc. Tommy has been the president of that group. He's won numerous awards for his field at Kinston.

 

I didn't know the guy's name, but have always heard that the Kinston Indians' maintenance guy was extremely helpful.

 

bad hop due to lip

speaking of this, did you guys see the hard (but routine) ground ball in the BoSox / Indians game the other night that hit the back lip of the grass in front of the Indians' SS and bounced high over his head into the outfield?

So plays affected by field conditions even happen in the bigs!!

 

That was home field by design. Groom the field and let you players know and let the other team learn. It is more common around the plate area and down the lines for bunts.