Results tagged ‘ World Baseball Classic ’
“United at the Seams – Divided by Country!” Congrats to the 2013 WBC Groundcrews
With Rounds 1 and 2 coming to a close there have been some great stories and awesome competition during the first 2 weeks of the WBC. The Games in PR were packed as were the game sin Japan. Country pride says a lot for each of the teams competing. I love the ground crew T-Shirts in Taichung. “United at the seams divided by country.” In our case its more united by the rake… nevertheless a pretty cool T-shirt. The fields have played well all the way around so far. Some really hard work by each of the crews and the local staffs in each country. Looking forward to seeing some photos from our US ballparks that hosted some of the first round action.
Chad Olsen has been overseeing our Japan fields, Kevin Moses, Joe and Darrell in Taichung and Chad K., Dennis and myself in San Juan along with some help from Eric, and Anthony. Our groundcrew in San Jaun had the tarp down to a mere 1:30 seconds. With rains threatening almost everyday we were able to get everything in with only a slight delay on opening night. Tough to do when NOAA‘s satellite services were down for a few days but they were so pumped to to a great job it made it easy.
A big thank you goes out to Deborah Martorell Meteorologist at WAPA. She really helped us out with some accurate info until the NOAA satellite radar came back up. Onto round two in Miami and the final in SF. Good luck guys!
2013 WBC International Ballparks
Plans are well underway for the World Baseball Classic in all of the ballparks around the world. Its hard to believe that the event starts in about 3 weeks! As for the international venues, in the first round we have Hiram Bithorn in San Juan Puerto Rico, Fukuoka Dome- Japan , Intercontinental Stadium- Taichung Taiwan and Tokyo Dome in the 2nd round.
Hiram Bithorn Stadium – The old park built in 1962 is seeing some upgrades to the field, batting tunnels, padding, basically a little facelift. Hiram Bithorn has seen 2 previous rounds of the WBC action and the teams competing at this latin themed ballpark will create some real excitement for the fans! Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Spain. each club loaded with big leaguers. It will seat about 20,000 and is an open air synthetic turf field. Same dimensions of 325 down the lines and 400 to center.
Fukuoka Dome – Also known as Fukuoka Yahoo. We last played here during the 2006 All Star Tour. An all synthetic turf field with great site lines. Not a lot of improvements but they will see a few upgrades to the mounds and homeplate. It seats about 38,000 and was Japan’s first re-tractable roof stadium. With dimensions of 328 down the line and 400 to center its a big park with quick turf. The teams competing here are Japan, Cuba, China and Brazil. 
Intercontinental stadium – We just played the 2012 All-Star tour in this venue as well as several Baseball World Cups over the years. An all grass playing surface that is undergoing some improvements to the outfield and infield for the tournament. Our guys, Kevin Moses and Joe Skrabek are currently there assisting the local governments with the improvements. With distances of 325 down the lines and 400 to center field we witnessed some great baseball here for the 2012 All Star Tour. The fans in Taiwan are second to none when it comes to supporting baseball. Exhibition games are being played in Dio-Liu stadium which is about an hour outside of Taichung. Teams competing here include Korea, Taipei, Nederlands and Australia. 
Tokyo Dome – MLB’s season opener took place here in 2012. A very long history with MLB and Yomuri. A great partner in developing developing the game in Asia. They will see the basic improvements to the mound and home plate areas. A great ground crew headed up by Tamba and Hokike. Good luck to all the teams and federations. Its going to be a great tournament.
2012 World Baseball Classic Qualifier Venues & Fields
Based on all the comments from folks in Taiwan and Panama the ground crews have done a wonderful job with the renovations and field maintenance operations of Rod Carew Stadium, Panama and New Taipei City Stadium, Taipei. In Taiwan they renovated all the mounds added 50 tons of clay to the infield and overseeded.. At Rod Carew a totally new field was constructed as the old one had become slow to drain. The Zoysia turf at Rod Carew is only 3 weeks old. But holding up ok.
Great job to the guys in both sites.
New Taipei City Stadium prepares for 2012 WBC qualifier
New Taipei City stadium also known as Xinzhuang stadium is preparing for the WBC qualifier. New pitching mounds and bullpens along with new grass and a renovated infield surface will provide an improved playing surface. The ballpark is familiar to big events it has recently Hosted the MLB All Star Tour and past World Baseball Cup tournaments. A smaller ballpark that seats about 12500 the venue will also feature some updates in the locker rooms and batting tunnels. Don’t forget to check out the games later this month. They begin November 15th. New Zealand, Taiwan, Thailand and the Philippines. www.worldbaseballclassic.com
Canada wins 1st WBC game against Great Britain
All in total the field and venue held up well in front of 4000 people. Canada moved up a notch with a win over GB 11-1 that was ended in the 7th due to the 10 run rule. Compliments to great ground crew from Germany along with Dan and Kevin. After 9 two hour practices these guys really did a great job holding the field together.
WBC Workouts for Great Britain & Canada
A great first day for the two clubs at the renovated ball park in Regensburg for the World Baseball Classic. Field held up great as did the weather. GB’s Sam Dempster was excited to see the field and the upgrades. Canada’s Ernie Whitt and Greg Hamilton also had some great things to say about Armin Wolfe Arena grounds. Always good to get the first day over. Martin Brunner and his groundcrew did a great job managing the practices. With 8 practices and only 6 games it sounds a bit upside down but that’s baseball.
GB’s squad actually met yesterday for the first time with the pros that joined them. i think with the influx of pro guys for Czech, Germany and GB this will be an interesting tournament. By the way… Thanks to Dan Bonanno and Kevin for painting some awesome logos! You guys rock!
WBC Qualifier sites preparing for games
Rod Carew Stadium in Panama continues to make progress. Fields and facilities are being upgraded with some major and minor improvements to host the World Baseball Classic. Regensburg received a new infield and Taiwan will be seeing some new mounds and home plates as well as turf upgrades. Even the training sites are planning improvements in Managua, Santiago, Cartagena . These improvements include field clinics and training for the local staffs which establishes a higher field of play surface for the clubs to train there athletes. Its not a surprise that “better fields make better players”.
Estadio Rod Carew to replace field for 2012 WBC
After 12 years it looks like Rod Carew stadium in Panama will get a new field. After working with a great crew and staff on this field for many years, Pandeportes and the LOC committee is replacing the field before the 2012 World Baseball Classic qualifier in November.
The WBC is considerd the new Baseball World Cup. The last World Cup was held here 2 years ago. During the last world cup at Rod Carew, we had several rain outs due to pour drainage of the outfield and infield turf areas. The USA vs.Canada Bronze medal game was cancelled and we almost had to cancel the final. With the rainy season ( Oct-Nov) typically dropping an average of 12 to 15 inches of rain each month, a new field with an updated drainage system was badly needed. The old system served its purpose over the years. In fact back in 2003 during the Olympic Qualifier we had similar rains fall but the field was only a few years old and handled the water pretty well.
The work plan is to remove a couple feet of material which includes about 6inches of thatch of 12 year old Bermuda along with a series of geo clothe fabrics. We will be adding a new drainage system, irrigation system, 10″inches of sand for the grass, and the new sod will be zoysia Turfgrass. We used zoysia on the new fields in Aguadulce and Santiago when they were renovated in 2010 for the World Cup. They have performed very well. Along with the new field there will upgrades to the stadium drainage and locker rooms. Thanks again to Gil, Guy, Lenny, Ruben and Lauren for making this happen!
MC
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