There’s no one right answer to the question of how much to cover of your current baseball field. Some fields perform best when covered heavily throughout the playing season, while others only need a few small covers to protect areas prone to water collection and damage. Field design and placement, soil conditions, and local weather and climate patterns all largely determine the need for covers. A raised field that drains quickly may only need covers for the mounds, while a low-lying field with slow draining soil will likely benefit from a full infield cover. Here are more tips on how to decide which types of baseball field covers are right for your facility.
The Importance of Overlap
For short-term covers, only applied to skinned areas ahead of oncoming rain, it’s essential to overlap the total area by 1 to 2 feet on each side. The amount of cover that overlaps onto the turf shouldn’t damage the lip of the field as long as the cover is only applied for short periods. This amount of overlap onto the turf is necessary to keep water from simply running under the edge of the cover during rain. If you’re ordering full infield covers that will stay on for long periods of time, make sure they’re designed to run right to the edge of the turf and stop. Leaving cover materials over turf on warm or hot days can burn it, leaving the edges of the infield indistinct and unattractive. Avoid overlap for long-term covers and ensure you’re leaving enough of it for short-term rain protection.
Covering Soil vs Turf
In general, baseball field covers are designed to protect the skinned parts of a field and not the turf. The main exception to this is full field covers designed to stop winter frost damage from affecting grass. In most cases, it’s the bare soil that needs the most protection and care, at least during the active playing season. Both short-term and long-term covers are used to keep the surface from getting too wet or too dry. Since most field managers spend a lot of money on special conditioners, additives, and topping materials to create a safe and enjoyable playing experience, it makes sense to focus covering efforts on these areas. You won’t have to worry about accidentally damaging turf with overheating or the greenhouse effect when limiting covers to the skinned parts of the field.
Total Field Protection
Most baseball covers sold as total field protection only cover the infield area. If you feel the need to protect the outfield from unauthorized access or frost damage in the winter, you’ll likely need to use a few separate covers to make it feasible to spread the material by hand. The largest single sheet baseball field covers top out at 170 feet by 170 feet, which is enough to cover the entire infield of a Major League Baseball field. Little League and high school fields may need slightly smaller covers to completely enclose the infield, but the overlap can be useful for keeping water away. These covers are extremely heavy and will require some kind of equipment to move when they’re folded or rolled. Expect to have a crew of 12 or more on hand to spread out a full-sized field cover, even if you plan to do it slowly rather than in a hurry as a storm arrives. Since most full covers overlap the turf by anywhere from a few feet to the majority of the grass, these materials are only used for short periods.
Skin Tarps
Skin tarps tend to cover the entire skinned part of the infield. Some are left in place for long periods and only removed for play, while others are designed specifically for use right before and after games. They’re usually too large and unwieldy to spread out in a single sheet for a rain delay, but they’re used to maintain correct moisture levels over longer periods of time. Most skin tarp systems combine multiple cover sections so they’re easier to assume and more securely staked than single sheets. Since they’re carefully sized and shaped to only cover the bare soil in the skinned parts of the field, it’s possible to leave these covers on as long as you like without damage to the turf. In wet climates, extensive skin tarp systems are often the only way to keep the soil stable enough to play on a regular schedule.
Area Covers
The majority of baseball field covers are area-specific covers designed to keep sensitive areas protected right before a storm. Area covers can range from covering nearly the entire infield to just the mounds, bases, or specific lanes. The pitcher’s mound, in particular, deserves an area cover since it’s often the single most sensitive part of the entire field. Don’t forget about an area cover for the home plate area too, especially since this area receives a lot of compaction and tends to gather water during a storm. Area covers can still weigh a few hundred pounds each, so plan to have at least a crew of 3 to 5 helpers for deploying and removing these covers. They’re mostly used for short-term protection against rain delays, but many other area covers are designed for germination or frost heave control instead.
Sideline Field Covers
Sideline covers for baseball fields often include bullpen, warning track, and sideline traffic areas. Allowing these spots to get wet during a sudden rainstorm or overnight can result in sloppy conditions, clogged cleats, and unhappy players. Even if these areas aren’t quite as vital to play as the rest of the infield skinned areas, they’re still a safety hazard if players can slip and fall.
Almost every baseball field will need a mix of all of these covers in different seasons and conditions. Unless you’re in a very dry area with little to risk of wind, you’ll need both large and small field covers to accommodate a wide range of potential flooding. Winter protection from frost and soil heaving will also require more extensive covers than summer rain protection. Whatever you need for your particular baseball field, you’ll find it here at BTL Liners.
