How to drag the field?

[Lemond]

The worst "hump" I have seen is at the fields for 18U Boulder IDT. At East Mapleton Fields, if you are sitting in your chain you literally cannot see the leftfielders feet and bottom shins. That hump serves as a launching pad from softball missles.

Was on one of those fields last summer. Could not see DD’s knees in left field sitting in the first bleacher seats on the first base side of home. That was lip, plus landfill wave, though.

 

[Dabears17]

I got the business card today of someone from Duraedge who said call him with any field maintenance questions. Guess I have bought enough conditioner the past 8 weeks to justify a support person .

Someone stole the keys for the ATV we use to drag our fields over Christmas break, and it took them until about 2.5 weeks ago to get the starter replaced. So I did a lot of hand dragging for mid Jan to mid Feb. I have a field broom as well.

 

[flash277]

You drag the field like this.........

 

[CoachJD]

I did that once last fall. Had a bunch of rain on a Friday night, and we had games Sunday morning. With the lower fall temps and sun, I knew it wouldn't dry out without some help. Raked it all by hand Saturday. Woke up Sunday feeling like I went 10 rounds against Tyson. Too old (or at least too out of shape) for that....

I always give myself blisters.

A few years ago, my DW and I raked for about 3 hours the night before a game we wanted to get in. I knew I had to rake early to give it a chance to dry out the next day.

It unexpectedly rained more over night. I didn't even know. It took me a while to figure out why the field was still so wet the next morning.

I now have access to a turf field in March, so my insane raking days are hopefully over.

 

[Northball]

an entire field, by hand, before. It took 4-5 hours, ....

The outfield too?

 

[Northball]

...I have given up blood, sweat, tears and bile for the game of softball....

Bile does not get you the softball equivalent of a purple heart. Your socks could get you an appearance in a Clorox bleach commercial.

 

[uncdrew]

Was on one of those fields last summer. Could not see DD’s knees in left field sitting in the first bleacher seats on the first base side of home. That was lip, plus landfill wave, though.

When you build a softball field on an ancient native american burial site...

 

[uncdrew]

We played on a field where the pitchers were landing in a hole about 8 inches deep. Both our pitchers got injuries and we told them to just move so far over on the pitchers plate that you could try to land flat. We told them we didn't care about their performance, just their health. We complained politely to the Tournament Director and then contacted the field management.

As a pitcher parent, I am still debating if I'll simply tell them my DD can't pitch if the conditions are so bad.

 

[Rick M]

We had the buildings & grounds guy from a huge nearby school district (20+ fields) come to our rec league once to give coaches a primer on field maintenance. He said doing the circles outward from the pitching rubber was the most common way of dragging, but also the worst. It basically deposits all the dirt around the outside edge, creating the dreaded lip.

He recommended a figure eight pattern. Stole these from groundskeeperu.com:

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[uncdrew]

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I'm willing to give it a go. So you do figure 8s and then slowly rotate one direction? Seems that would take longer to hit every spot. And what patterns does it leave on the field (just curious).