How to drag the field?

[Cannonball]

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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This is what I do. However, I have the girls get our rakes and pull the dirt/dredge back from the grass all around the diamond. When you do this pattern, keep in mind that you have to watch the pitching rubber. We have the big block rubber so we don't have a problem. If you have the pitching rubber that is held in place by pegs, you might be redoing the rubber.

Right now, we have a new grounds person who jumped onto our diamond and must have gone as fast as he could throwing the dirt from the diamond onto the grass. It is a huge mess. For anyone doing the diamond, keep in mind that slower is better. Your tires can cut groves into the ground that will make groundballs jump and those areas will hold water when it rains.

 

[dmcwhinnie]

I understand that if you work on the field before the game you would like it to look good at the start of the game, but it seems to me that the players need to get used to the field that they are going to play on, especially if they are the visiting team. Think about basketball, football, soccer, hockey players all use the surface that they are going to play on to warm up on. Now, depending on the level of play sometimes they will do the field or the ice after that. That is impossible in a high school situation. when I coached high school baseball we warmed up in the outfield grass and then we took infield/outfield on the field. You only get about 10 minutes so I don't know how much damage you're going to do.

 

[uncdrew]

I did drag using the figure 8 method. I'm converted - I like it.

So it was way more fun than spiral, and you really get to be less structured. And I do feel it kept the dirt evenly spread across the entire infield.

 

[Northball]

Does anyone do or anyone seen HS warm-ups on the infield, then the infield get a quick dragging before the game starts?

 

[Towny9]

Does anyone do or anyone seen HS warm-ups on the infield, then the infield get a quick dragging before the game starts?

This is standard practice in baseball, but I don’t see it nearly as much in softball.

 

[Lemond]

Can’t recall if it is NFHS or only CIF, but we are not allowed to practice on the infield pre-game.

 

[Dabears17]

Can’t recall if it is NFHS or only CIF, but we are not allowed to practice on the infield pre-game.

Not sure if it is by rule, or just to prevent infields from getting torn up put most high schools and tournaments around make you take grounders in foul territory.

 

[Lemond]

Not sure if it is by rule, or just to prevent infields from getting torn up put most high schools and tournaments around make you take grounders in foul territory.

Same

 

[Northball]

Interesting. Every HS game I've attended starts with a groomed field. Teams take I/O at their positions on the field, no further grooming, then the game starts. I'd like to have a light field grooming before start of game, but that would require more volunteers, which is like pulling teeth.

 

[Cougars]

Interesting. Every HS game I've attended starts with a groomed field. Teams take I/O at their positions on the field, no further grooming, then the game starts. I'd like to have a light field grooming before start of game, but that would require more volunteers, which is like pulling teeth.

That's how all of our high school games are too. The home team takes the field first (typically further along in overall warmup because they get to field before the visiting team), then the visiting takes the field, plate meeting, play ball.