Tuesday, April 03, 2001
Infielders advised to wear body armor
New grass makes for sizzling shots, bad hops
Before the Cincinnati Reds return to Cinergy Field to resume their season, they may want to requisition some goalie masks.
The new grass looks grand at the old ballpark, but it plays gruesomely. It has made the routine ground ball an oxymoron and the hard hopper a health hazard. It exerted a profound influence on Monday's 10-4 Opening Day victory by the visiting Atlanta Braves and caused Reds infielders to carry themselves like men who had just negotiated a mine field.
“It's scary,” third baseman Aaron Boone said. “It takes you out of how you play. It needs to get better.”
Eventually, it will. New grass needs time to grow and thicken before it can be counted on to slow speeding bullets. The pertinent question posed by Monday's game was whether the Reds can avoid shell shock in the interim.
Dry means quick
“Once the grass grows, it won't be as treacherous,” said Reds coach Bill Doran. “Right now, it's treacherous. As it is right now, it's playing quicker than (artificial) turf.”
As the field dried during Monday's game, it played progressively quicker. By the eighth inning, the surface was so firm Boone noticed his spikes weren't breaking
the soil. With the Reds trailing 5-4, the Braves broke open the game thanks to a ground ball that initially appeared unthreatening.
Brian Jordan led off the inning with a single to center field off Reds reliever Scott Sullivan. Atlanta catcher Javy Lopez then followed with a ground ball toward shortstop that appeared to have double-play possibilities until it ricocheted improbably past Barry Larkin.
“That ground ball,” plate umpire Jim Joyce said, “darn near took his head off.”
Larkin was charged with an error on the play and the Braves subsequently stormed to a four-run rally. Sullivan, who has led the major leagues in relief innings three years in a row, was knocked out of his first 2001 appearance after 1/3 of an inning with an earned-run average of 81.00. The Reds' consolation was that Larkin retained his teeth.
“I got a bad hop, but that's baseball,” Larkin said. “It's part of the game.”
Jittery infield
AstroTurf is an aesthetic affront, physically debilitating and not conducive to cows, but it usually produces a predictable bounce. The dirt carom can be more capricious. As Cinergy's dirt hardened Monday, fielders naturally grew nervous.
“The ball hit to Larkin — you've got no chance at it and you can almost see that hop coming,” Boone said. “You start (thinking about) getting yourself a good hop instead of trusting the field.”
“It plays really fast,” said first baseman Sean Casey. “Hopefully, they can get it a little bit softer.”
Doran, a distinguished second baseman during his playing career, says an infielder can not afford to turn cautious under less than ideal conditions; that he must attack rather than retreat.
“Your normal instinct is to stay back because you don't know what it's going to do,” he said. “But you have to be more aggressive because it's basically all or nothing. You just battle the field until it gets better.”
Reds groundskeeper Doug Gallant is confident he can fix the field to conform to the players' preferences, and if he can't it won't be on account of effort. The Reds' grounds crew worked virtually all night Sunday to prepare the field for Opening Day. Two hours after Monday's game, Gallant was still prowling the field, adjusting the sprinklers.
“I wouldn't say it's a dangerous infield,” Sullivan said. “One game can't justify that harsh a quote.”
One game can justify some precautions, however. Infielders are advised to increase their insurance coverage.
E-mail tsullivan@enquirer.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/sullivan.
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SULLIVAN: Infielders advised to wear body armor
