The scene was surreal as Dan Moeller watched the claw of a machine grab large pieces of turf that were dumped into a container and hauled away after only one season of ground balls, diving fielders and sliding baserunners.
“It was a very weird feeling because it was brand new turf that year,” said Moeller, who has been employed by the Rays since 1997, one year before the club’s maiden season, and has been in charge of the grounds crew since 2001. “There was this big piece of equipment that ripped up the turf, shook it to get some of the backfill out, and dropped it into a container to be hauled away.”
Another strange feeling for Moeller was the need for sunglasses inside what Hurricane Milton rendered an open-air Tropicana Field thanks to the storm’s devastation. The venue’s interior was exposed to the elements for more than a year before the 24th and final roof panel was installed last November.
Not only did a playing surface installed prior to the 2024 season receive quite a dousing from what remained of Milton’s wrath after the roof was torn off the evening of October 9, 2024 – nearby Albert Whitted Airport reported a top wind gust of 101 mph and close to 19 inches of rain during a 24-hour period — but rainfall over the next 13 months provided quite a beating as well to a field without drainage.
“There were times over the summer when the drains were clogged,” Moeller recalled, referring to drainage in the tunnels leading to the dugouts. “I was (at the Trop) one day during the summer when we got about three inches of rain. Water was flowing out over the field, and you could almost not even see the mound there was so much water in here.”
Speaking of the mound, that was another concern in a facility with a playing surface below street level. Tropicana Field, which hosted college football bowl games, has resumed holding graduations and other events. The mound, 10 inches at its peak, has to be lowered beneath the playing surface to accommodate non-baseball activities. A motor beneath the surface powers a chain that raises and lowers the mound. Not surprisingly, the motor’s housing compartment was flooded.
“We were concerned about the motor being under water like that,” said Moeller. “They had to get a forklift in here to pull it out and it had to be rebuilt.”
Since work on the roof was still months away, the motor could not be installed. After all, heavy rain could result in the same problem all over again.
“That was a whole process to go through, which could not be completed until the roof was put on,” said Moeller.
Truckloads of infield clay arrive at Trop
The surface of a concrete floor was about all that remained visible until roofing was in place and a new field installed. When that time arrived, 300 tons of clay mined in Grove City, Pa., about 60 miles north of Pittsburgh, was transported to a facility in Vero Beach, on Florida’s east coast, where the clay was prepared with the desired consistency of sand and silt before being trucked across the state to St. Pete.
The clay is the same consistency Moeller and his crew tended to last season at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa where the Rays played their home games while the Trop was undergoing repairs. The top two inches of clay at Steinbrenner was changed out while the clay at the Trop was replaced in its entirety, six to seven inches down to the concrete floor. (In a true team effort, the Rays took care of the clay at Steinbrenner while the Yankees maintained the grass.)
Infield surfaces have a top dressing that enhances playability and drainage. The top dressing can differ from venue to venue, especially outdoors versus indoors. Moeller pointed out that a coarser material, or calcined mix, is better suited for outdoors because of its absorbent nature in dealing with rain, moisture and humidity. Such elements are not a concern indoors, where a finer material, or a vitrified top dressing, is used.
“I don’t know how well it works outside because it is so fine and it might blow away or wash away easily,” he said of the vitrified mix. “Of course, we don’t have to worry about that (at Tropicana Field). Being a finer material, the players really like it especially when they slide. It doesn’t tear them up like the coarser material. Most outdoor facilities, like at Steinbrenner, have to use the coarser (water absorbent) material.”
The field in its entirety was installed and ready to be tested in late February while the team was training 85 miles south in Port Charlotte. Moeller noted that it takes a little time for an infield to “settle in and harden” and that it played “better and better” during the Rays’ first 20-plus home games.
“I was extremely impressed because I think it played very true to what an infield would play like,” shortstop Taylor Walls said of the first time he took ground balls on the new surface. “Initially, it played fast, which I thought was very similar to how it played before. That was something I felt transferred right over.”
New turf provides truer hops
The turf that Moeller witnessed being torn up and hauled away was installed prior to the 2024 season and had a backfill of coconut husks and cork. The turf currently at the Trop has a mix of coconut husks with sand and cork, the pieces of which are a little bigger than previous. Moeller noted tests performed by turf manufacturers have yielded truer hops with larger pieces of cork.
As was the case before, the turf at the Trop is a product of Shawgrass. Shawgrass is part of Georgia-based Shaw Industries Group, which is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway. Walls also provides positive reviews of the turf, which was music to Moeller’s ears. The last thing an infielder, and certainly a pitcher, wants is for a ball to pick up speed and shoot through a hole.
“I can’t imagine there is a better turf out there that will play as true as this one has,” said Walls, who debuted with Tampa Bay in 2021.
The turf also feels different than what is used at other indoor venues, or those with retractable roofs.
“You definitely feel a difference (with the new Trop turf) versus, like, Toronto where it is rubber,” said Walls. “The rubbery substance tends to feel more beachy. With the pressure you put into the turf, you feel like it starts to give a lot, like a trampoline (effect).”
That may not be a good thing for a player’s wellbeing.
“I think that has more of a lingering effect on the joints and the body in general,” said Walls. “I feel you have to do so much more to stabilize normal motions, whether it is running and walking, because of the instability of the (turf).”
Great outdoors still needs attention
It is not as though Moeller and his crew are entirely working indoors. The Tropicana Field site consists of 85 acres that need to be maintained, a chore that currently includes removing laurel oaks that are meeting their demise and a handful of bug-infested palm trees that need to be replaced.
“The difference now is that we have air conditioning inside,” Moeller quipped, noting a crew of four took care of the grounds last year while the rest of the staff was at Steinbrenner.
Though work continues to be handled outside the Trop, a workload with increasing demands with the summer months upon us, the Rays’ grounds crew takes care of a field inside without having to change clothes multiple times per day while toiling in unrelenting heat and humidity. Nor does Moeller have to confer with the umpires’ crew chief over lightning in the area or forecasted rain that might halt play in the middle innings. (For the record, the Rays did not have a singled rainout at Steinbrenner.)
“That was not fun last year,” said the 62-year-old. “We made it work. The Yankees’ grounds crew was great to work with. We had a good little system going and it worked. However, if I had to deal with that every day, I might consider retiring sooner.”
