Surface Conditions of Highly Maintained Baseball Fields in the Northeastern United States: Part 1, Non‐Turfed Basepaths

Quantitative information about the playing surface quality of highly maintained non-turfed basepaths is minimal. Playing surface quality has many components including surface hardness and pace. Hardness is the degree to which forces are attenuated upon impact with a surface. Pace is a measure of the relative velocity at which a ball travels after impacting a surface. A survey was conducted in 2005 to document the hardness and pace of non-turfed baseball field basepaths in the northeastern United States. Non-turfed basepaths measured very high in surface hardness, often exceeding maximum safety levels set by the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission. Other basepath characteristics such as soil texture, soil moisture, concentration of calcined clay conditioner, and scarification depth were documented and compared to surface hardness and pace.

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