With nearly half of the baseball season in the books, I am
almost certain this will end up the most challenging year of my short
career.  The weather never seems to
cooperate whether the team is in town or on the road.  Days when I expect sunshine and heat, we get
two thunderstorms and a canceled baseball game. 
Days when I need the rain, I get 98 degrees without a cloud in the
sky.  I never thought I would be happy
again, and then my life forever changed on June 12, 2010.

The stage was set for one of the most anticipated rematches
in socc….futbol history.  England has
been waiting since 1950 to get back at the US for one of the most unlikely
upsets the world has ever seen.  Both
countries have sent their best athle…futbol players to South Africa in hopes of
bringing home the title of world’s best kickba…futbol team.  The soccer pitch looked beautiful with a 3
way blend of Kikuyu (which was dormant… obviously), Kentucky Bluegrass, and
Perennial Ryegrass.  The goals were set,
and looked to be the size of a trailer on an 18 wheeler.  The crowd was going wild blowing those little
plastic horns, and I was on the edge of my seat.  The game started and before I even got
settled down from all of the excitement, England had scored the first goal of
the match.  Things were not looking good
for the Americans, and my spirit was crushed…or so I thought.  Just before the 45^th minute, Clint
Dempsey unleashed a blistering 17 MPH shot that proved to be too hot to handle
for England’s goalkeeper.  I felt for
sure that the Americans were going to take the momentum and run away with the
match in the second half.  After they
kicked the ball around for about half of an hour, Jozy Altidore looked to take
the lead.  He was kicking the ball ahead
of the England defenders, and then someone came and kicked the ball away from
him.  I was so excited I couldn’t
breathe, and then I was struck with the realization that the game would
probably go into overtime or penalty kicks. 
Thankfully though, as the rules would have it, the game ended in a 1-1
tie.  The match sent shockwaves through
America, and the Nashville Sounds grounds crew was not immune.  We were so happy that we didn’t get any work
done on the field that day. 

America would go on to play international powers Slovenia
and Algeria to finish out pool play. 
Slovenia was tough, but we kicked the ball into the 24 FT. WIDE goal twice to
force a draw.  Algeria, also a major
player in the olive oil industry, could not stop us as we roared into the
knockout round with a goal in the 91^st minute.  Ghana is going to need a lot of luck to stop
us on the pitch in the upcoming match; I just hope that game is as exciting as
the other three.  I never knew that
soccer would be the sport that saved this baseball season for me, but I’m so
glad that it has.

*Zero cups of coffee were drunk during these matches due to
the non-stop action of soc…futbol.  I was
unable to find the time to make a pot.

Click here to listen to Sounds Play-By-Play Broadcaster Stu Paul interview Head Groundskeeper Thomas Trotter

This is the question I receive immediately after I tell someone that I am a groundskeeper.  Well, the stripes come from the rollers on the bottom of my mower.  The rollers will lay the grass blade down flat and the sunlight will reflect off of the blade and create either a light green or dark green stripe.  Different types of grass are better for striping than others.  Perennial ryegrass, which is covering Greer Stadium right now, is known as a very dark green grass.  It is probably the best grass as far as mowing stripes go.  When we start to get into the warmer months, the bermudagrass begins to take over the ryegrass.  It does not stripe very well, but it provides a superior playing surface compared to all other grass types.  

Since we have started mowing the grass again, my mowing stripes have been harshly judged by some staff members.  Actually it was just Elliott Sweitzer, Stadium Operations Coordinator.  He only does it jokingly (maybe?), but that got me thinking about when I first started mowing.  Believe it or not, mowing a straight line for almost 2 hours is very difficult.  I’ve been doing it for 10 years now between golf courses and baseball fields, and I would not consider myself very good at it.  So, that’s why I would love for some other staff members to come take a shot at mowing the field on the weekends.  I welcome all challengers and pictures will be taken afterward.   You get to choose between the big tri-plex mower or the walk behind mower.  Of course a video will have to be shot if you choose the walk behind (very embarrassing the first time you operate one of these).

A quick coffee update.  I haven’t been training as much as I should be right now.  I have used all of my Sweet-N-Low packets and have not got a chance to take anymore of them from restaurant tables (I know I’m not proud of taking them from Las Palmas but they’re free…kind of).  I look to get back into coffee drinking mode during the rainy days this week.  Hopefully I can catch up to where I should be.

cof·fee – noun – 1.  Any of various tropical African shrubs or tree of the genus Coffea,  especially C. arabica, widely cultivated in the tropics for their seeds that are dried, roasted, and ground to prepare a stimulating aromatic drink.  2.  The preferred drink of Thomas Trotter, groundskeeper for the Nashville Sounds. 

I like to begin every day with a minimum of two cups of freshly brewed coffee.  This allows me to get my mind right before I get into my grounds-keeping tasks for the day.  I usually need another cup just before I take my lunch, it just feels right.  To prepare myself for the mid-afternoon slump, I usually get another pot brewing around 2:00 PM.  I probably drink about 2 or 3 cups from then until 5:00 PM.  That usually finishes up my day of coffee drinking unless we have a home game.  I can easily knock back a dozen cups a day when the team is in town.  

This makes me wonder how much coffee I actually drink over the span of one baseball season. That’s why I’ve decided to keep track of my cup total this year.  I will monitor my progress by counting the number of Sweet-N-Low containers I go through.  I have set a reasonable goal at 1000 cups, and my journey will begin when the Nashville Sounds return to Greer Stadium for their first workout of the year.  

A few coffee Did-You-Knows

- October 1st is the official coffee day in Japan 

- April 16th will be official coffee day at Greer Stadium 

- 27% of American coffee drinkers add a sweetener to their drink 

- Caffeine is more lethal than glyphosate, the active ingredient in Round-Up