Cinergy is all-grass at last

Workers should finish installing sod at Cinergy Field today.
(AP photo)
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If spring is a mood as much as a season, then judging by recent events, it's just around the corner. All it needs is a little imagination ... and a dose of fertilizer.

On Tuesday — the same day Reds pitchers and catchers reported to spring training — two semi-trucks full of bluegrass in 40-foot-long by 40-inch-wide rolls arrived at Cinergy Field.

“Sure, I'm happy,” said a beaming Doug Gallant, the Reds' head groundskeeper.

“We've been anxious to get the field in. The next thing will be getting it green. It's always something.”

The outfield sod was shipped in from a farm in Brookville, Ind. A crew from the Motz Group, a local company specializing in stadium fields, immediately began installing it, and should have the job mostly completed today.

The infield grass has been growing under cover.
(Michael E. Keating photo)
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The infield grass, which has been rooting and growing and greening up nicely beneath a thermal blanket since last fall, looks almost ready for Opening Day.

The firm had hoped to have most of the outfield grass installed in December, but winter weather prevented that.

The outfield sod is still a shade of bronze, with only a few flecks of green. It needs some fertilizer and its own thermal blanket to begin growing. Within a couple of weeks, it, too, should be green.

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“I can get it pretty, but what we want to do is play baseball on it,” Mr. Gallant said.

The crew soon will treat the sod with a layer of sand to protect the grass crowns and hold the sod in place to help it root.

The grass replaces artificial turf, which had been used for the previous 31 seasons at Cinergy Field.

Perhaps equally striking to baseball lovers will be the new, 30-foot-high center-field wall that is only 393 feet from home plate. The frame of the wall has been built but isn't fully covered by wood.

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