When you’re already dealing with a tightly stretched athletic team and field maintenance budget, it’s not easy to justify the purchase of specialty covers. Yet, using the right baseball field cover from BTL Liners could save you thousands of dollars per year on turf and soil maintenance and repairs. Then, add in the costs of rescheduling rained out or delayed games and it’s easier to see why field covers are well worth the investment. Understanding the full collection of potential benefits from baseball field covers will help you win over reluctant managers or club organizers.
Rain Delays and Scheduling Issues
Preventing rain delays and the resulting need to reschedule entire games, can make baseball field covers worth their price alone. Baseball fields are particularly prone to rain damage, when compared to other fields, due to the amount of exposed and carefully groomed soil. High quality clay granules are used to top these areas for proper grip and response, but mud quickly forms when water is allowed to pour directly onto the bare areas. Field covers for turf aren’t used for this purpose during a game, but they may help keep the entire field dry before a game so it does not need to be rescheduled. Using field covers during other challenging times can also preserve ground conditions so there’s no other reason to reschedule.
Frost Damage
Using covers, over both turf and soil, in the winter plays an entirely different role than tarps rolled out during active play. Winter baseball field covers are designed to protect the turf from frost. There’s also a secondary benefit of preventing frost heave that can scatter clay soil treatments and leave the surface furrowed and damaged. Winter covers help keep the surface of the turf and soil just a few degrees warmer than normal, reducing frost heave and damage to grass roots. In very cold climates, with a lot of water in the soil, adding coils of heating cable can add to the effect without damaging the turf. Consider the weight of accumulated snow and ice over the winter. Heavy covers can crimp or smother grass, so you may need to periodically sweep or blow the surface of covered fields to keep them light enough.
Long Term Moisture Control
Impermeable baseball field covers can control the addition and loss of moisture in skinned parts of the field during more than just the playing season. It’s also a powerful tool to use between games and during the off-season so the soil doesn’t dry out, harden, and blow away. Uncovered soil can also become lost to splashing and runoff that leads to erosion during the off-season. Soil remains soft, workable, and easy to maintain when it’s kept slightly damp but far from soaked. Evaporation resistant tarps help keep valuable moisture in the soil so it’s ready to use during dry and hot conditions with minimal sprinkler use.
Prevention of Wind and Rain Scouring
Speaking of soil loss, it’s common on uncovered fields when either or wind and rain is an issue. Scouring occurs any time the wind or rain has a chance to break particles away from the soil surface and carry them a short distance. Scoured fields don’t just lose valuable soil and look bad, they’re also too slick and prone to mud development for standard play. Scoured areas tend to become puddles or ankle-twisting holes over time and can even occur over just a few weeks during particularly challenging periods of weather. Covers protect fragile, exposed soil surfaces so that seasonal storms don’t leave the field into poor repair.
Maintain Steady Growth
In milder climates, where winter slows but doesn’t stop most athletic turf grasses from growing, covers can provide enough warmth to keep roots spreading all year round. Putting down dark colored or black covers in the spring can break dormancy on turf early and get it growing well ahead of the spring season. Since baseball season begins early in the year compared to other sports, it’s often challenging to get new root growth established before the turf is stressed by spring training. Careful application of covers on warm, but not-too-warm, days can encourage rapid growth and break dormancy a few weeks earlier than nature normally would. Just make sure risks of late frosts won’t potentially damage the turf and set back any attempts at early greening.
Pest and Visitor Control
From painful biting fire ants to grubs that eat away the roots, baseball fields are attractive to many different pests. Gophers and other small mammals are also known for causing turf damage or even digging nearly invisible holes that can sprain a player’s ankle. Secured covers can prevent or reduce pest damage when used at the right times during the year. Animals like gophers tend to burrow in the spring and fall, so overnight tarping when temperatures are low can discourage them. Late summer and fall tarping often disrupts the egg laying cycle to keep grubs from reaching the roots of sensitive turf. Keeping skinned areas covered with the right material also ensures that human visitors don’t cause damage just by taking a stroll either.
Speedy Seed Germination
When it’s necessary to establish a new field from scratch, or overseed a worn looking patch, using a cover can also speed up germination. Light blocking covers still help provide the slight boost of warmth and stable levels of moisture that seeds need more than anything else to sprout. If you need to leave the cover in place for longer periods, to keep the delicate new seedlings from being disturbed by heavy rain, consider a mesh material that allows light to penetrate. Just make sure to remove any covers before there’s more than a half inch of blade growth since it could become crimped, smothered, or woven into a mesh material.
Consistent Team Branding
In addition to all the practical benefits and uses of a baseball field cover, they’re also valuable for adding to the consistent branding of the home team. Whether you’re managing the field for a small high school or a major league team, putting the team’s name and logo on the covers is worth an additional small fee. This is especially true for long-term winter covers, especially if the fields are visible from any major traffic sources.
Don’t let the high prices and low quality of some baseball field covers discourage you from giving other options a try. BTL Liners has the high quality materials you need to protect your turf and soil alike. Whether you’re planning for a full field cover or just need material to cover skinned and bare areas, we can help.
