House That Hank Built
Fansided

The Atlanta Braves’ Ft. Bragg Game, Part 2: From Brainchild to Ballpark

By Alan Carpenter

Photo provided via the 82nd Airborne Division, Ft. Bragg, NC and is used by permission.
Photo provided via the 82nd Airborne Division, Ft. Bragg, NC and is used by permission. /
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Photo provided via the 82nd Airborne Divison, Ft. Bragg, NC and is used by permission.
Photo provided via the 82nd Airborne Division, Ft. Bragg, NC and is used by permission. /

So You Wanna Build a Ballpark?

If so, you’re gonna need a lot of supplies.  Here’s a few examples:

More from Tomahawk Take

  • A minimum of 3 acres of land

    • Land-clearing and grading equipment

    100,000 square feet of 419 Bermuda Turfgrass Sod from Charlotte, North Carolina (Carolina Green)

    8,000 tons of drainage gravel and USGA sand from Fayetteville, North Carolina (Bulk Aggregate).  Note that 30 tons is the maximum payload for a single semi-truck/trailer combination.  A dump truck carries up to perhaps 14 tons.

    400 tons of warning track mix (Bulldog Fields, Virginia)

    250 tons of infield clay (Duraedge, Pennsylvania)

    Fencing from Seegars® Fence Company of Raleigh, North Carolina

    Wall padding, foul poles, backstop net and batting tunnels from PROmats of Salisbury, North Carolina

    But that’s just the materials… specialized ones at that.  Now you need somebody with a clue about how exactly to install them properly.  That’s actually an interesting problem.

    You have 30 experts in the field – each working for major league teams (no, I’m not going to discount the 2 artificial turf teams!).  And since the season is underway, all 30 of them are busy.

    MLB/MLBPA hired Murray Cook of Brightview for this task.  Cook and his team were responsible for turning a woodsy, golf course-like area of trees, clay and slopes into a ballpark.  It wasn’t his first rodeo:  MLB has used him for several projects – around the world, even.

    As of last Saturday, there were still a small army of contractors scuttling about the site – around 60 people – all making sure that every last detail was covered; every task getting completed before declaring victory today.

    Here’s what it already looked like – 10 days ago:

    I think you can see that they did a remarkable job.

    Next: But That's Not All

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