Little League Complex

[foreplease]

Based on the photos, you're going to have an opportunity to do much more than mow and bag if they will let you. I would encourage you to push them - even if they think they do not want it initially - to let you do one field on a more complete program to show what you can do – just make sure you know what to do. With all that can be seen about current conditions in the photos, my opinion is that bagging clippings should be way, way down on the to do list. I understand your to do list is what they ask you to do.

I have worked on many fields that looked that way when I arrived.

The links the others provided look great, I am going to check them out. For baseball fields, you’re dealing with 1/4 of the area of a circle whose radius is an average of the distance from home plate to the outfield fence, plus two rectangles for the aprons in the area between the foul lines and the fence on each side.

example:
.25 x (3.14 x ((home plate to fence average distance) x (home plate to fence average distance))

+ width of 3rd base apron x distance to left field foul pole

+ width of 1st base apron x distance to right field foul pole
[technically, one of the two rectangles is larger than the other even if the width matches, otherwise part of the backstop area does not get figured in]
- area of infield dirt

This gives you total square footage of grass inside the fence. All meant to agree with what others here have said. Here, Little League size amounts to about 30 M in grass, Instructional is about 12 M, Softball is around 35 M, Pony about 40, and Babe Ruth with huge aprons is about 90-95. One park I spend a lot of time in has 6 fields. 5.5 acres (240 M) in grass inside the fences from 1 instructional, 2 Little League, 1 softball, 1 pony, 1 Babe Ruth.

On a full-size field with grass infield, you can count on about 12M as the area of the skinned infield surface, including base paths, mound, and batter’s circle. Soon, if things go well, you will need to know how much material you need in order to add 1/2" to the infield dirt.

You are going to see more of the fields than many who use them, so make sure you 1.) enjoy it and 2.) can see results for yourself, for your own satisafaction, from week to week.

[DLAWNS]

example:
.25 x (3.14 x ((home plate to fence average distance) x (home plate to fence average distance))

+ width of 3rd base apron x distance to left field foul pole

+ width of 1st base apron x distance to right field foul pole
[technically, one of the two rectangles is larger than the other even if the width matches, otherwise part of the backstop area does not get figured in]
- area of infield dirt

This gives you total square footage of grass inside the fence. All meant to agree with what others here have said. Here, Little League size amounts to about 30 M in grass, Instructional is about 12 M, Softball is around 35 M, Pony about 40, and Babe Ruth with huge aprons is about 90-95. One park I spend a lot of time in has 6 fields. 5.5 acres (240 M) in grass inside the fences from 1 instructional, 2 Little League, 1 softball, 1 pony, 1 Babe Ruth.

On a full-size field with grass infield, you can count on about 12M as the area of the skinned infield surface, including base paths, mound, and batter’s circle. Soon, if things go well, you will need to know how much material you need in order to add 1/2" to the infield dirt.

I'm not going to lie. This part of your post confused me. If you feel like explaining feel free. But I don't want to keep asking for so much info. You guys have been so helpful already.

[foreplease]

Area of a circle is pi x r squared
Foul line to foul line is 90 degrees, or one-quarter of circle
Figuring that does not inclue anything in foul territory, so we add the aprons
subtract dirt (skinned) area from total above to determine how much area is grass

The adding a half inch remark just meant once you get the grass looking good they may want you to bring in some more infield material, get that edged, leveled out, maybe take care of some of those puddles.

This looks like a good place to hone your skills. You wil probably rally be able to make a noticeable improvement by maintaining it well. Good luck!

[DLAWNS]

Thanks, that clears it up a lot for me.

[DLAWNS]

Just thought I'd update you guys that gave me all the advice. I got all the square footages that I need to calculate fertilization, cutting, aeration, dethatching, etc.. Well I met with the guy in charge of the fields and he was telling me that they were paying approximately $8500 as well as showing me the whole complex. I started to run the numbers. Here is what they were looking for...Approximately 30 cuts, (bagged) on 5 baseball fields (3 little league, 1 tee ball, 1 major) and 15 cuts for the common areas (which is not too much). 4 fertilizations per year with weed control, Weed control on warning tracks and on tee ball infields. 2 aerations a year as well as one dethatching. Does something not add up? There is no possible way that I could do this job for anything near this price. I was really excited at the chance to have this job. I ran the numbers a million different ways and just don't see how you can make money. I'm going to tell him that I don't want to waste any more of his time and that I just can't do it for this price. Any suggestions or comments about this? I'm baffled.

[foreplease]

It was good of you to follow through with folks here. I know just what you mean about being excited about having the job and seeing how you could do with it.

The reason they are trying to find someone to do it for $8,500 is that they have been unable to find someone to do it for $8,500.

In my experience, it is not worth chasing, as you appear to be too far apart. Chances are it will not end nicely or fairly. Anything you do now only educates them or makes a market for someone else.

Sorry it is happening to you. The bagging issue was a red flag to me...

[puppypaws]

Originally Posted by DLAWNS

Just thought I'd update you guys that gave me all the advice. I got all the square footages that I need to calculate fertilization, cutting, aeration, dethatching, etc.. Well I met with the guy in charge of the fields and he was telling me that they were paying approximately $8500 as well as showing me the whole complex. I started to run the numbers. Here is what they were looking for...Approximately 30 cuts, (bagged) on 5 baseball fields (3 little league, 1 tee ball, 1 major) and 15 cuts for the common areas (which is not too much). 4 fertilizations per year with weed control, Weed control on warning tracks and on tee ball infields. 2 aerations a year as well as one dethatching. Does something not add up? There is no possible way that I could do this job for anything near this price. I was really excited at the chance to have this job. I ran the numbers a million different ways and just don't see how you can make money. I'm going to tell him that I don't want to waste any more of his time and that I just can't do it for this price. Any suggestions or comments about this? I'm baffled.

This is probably the reason it looks the way it does, (pitiful shape) they have never been willing to spend enough money to have anything done correctly in the beginning. I can see looking at the drainage they had poor construction from the very start and whoever kept them up did a poor job. You get what you pay for, most of the time.


The sport complexes in this part of the country are immaculate in comparison to the pictures you posted. I've honestly never seen one look anywhere close to that bad.

[DLAWNS]

Thanks guys. That makes me feel better. I was blown away last night while I was running the numbers.

[treegal1]

Originally Posted by DLAWNS

Thanks guys. That makes me feel better. I was blown away last night while I was running the numbers.

dont be afraid of big #'s its just a few smaller ones hanging out together.

just next time white out the name on the water tower, my brother will love that field and make a killing.JK