Tokyo Dome-New Mounds for 2008 MLB Opener

Preparing for the 2008 MLB Opener between the Red Sox and the A’s has been pretty interesting.  Folks at the dome have got this gig down pat, and they love their toys!  Each time we show up for an MLB event they always amaze me as to how they approach the projects.   Always with detail and concern…  Its a good group and considering the field is synthetic turf our job is a bit easier than Beijing.  The push is that we have have to totally rebuild the mounds and home plate in 48 hours.  This sounds like a lot of time but the  clay bricks are cumbersome.  Bagged clay would be better to use.  They have a ton of equipment but local supplies are limited.  When Dan Cunningham and I came over back in 2004 to help set up for the Yankees / Devil rays series , he had tried to ship over some soil amendments…well it never made it and each year there after I have asked if it made it through customs yet!   We were able to get tons of product through   customs in Beijing, but Japan is currently batting .000 for materials from the states.

It should be a fun series. All 6 games ( four exhibition and 2 regular season) are sold out/  I even think the pre-event B.P. is filling up the park.   They Love there baseball in Japan!!! 

We noticed something cool today.  They remove there logos from the field turf product with a floor scrubber.  This thing strips the paint right off the field turf and it looks great.   As we were replacing the clay around homeplate we also noticed a piece of concrete about 5 inches below the clay directly behind homeplate.  We were not concerned about the depth  of the concrete as its about 6 inches below the surface of the clay, just curious.  we soon found out that the concrete  was the sleeve for the goal post at the NFL football games.