Posted on 04/21/2005 9:35:07 PM PDT by Coleus
For something so vital to the game of baseball, dirt sure does get a bad rap.
Players spend far more time on the dirt in the batter's box, pitcher's mound and infield than they do on grass, but no one ever recalls their first visit to Yankee Stadium with a teary-eyed description of the base paths.
And they didn't call the Kevin Costner movie "Dirt of Dreams."
Yet to hear a Warren County farmer explain it, making the perfect baseball dirt is an art.
Meet Jim Kelsey of Independence Township, the DaVinci of Dirt.
He supplies the reddish/orange clay that Mike Piazza knocks from his spikes and Derek Jeter wears on his shirt when he steals second base. He supplies the pitcher's mound mix that Pedro Martinez will land on this season at Shea Stadiumafter firing a fastball and the firm warning track surface from which outfielder Hideki Matsui leaps to rob a batter of a home run.
In fact,Kelsey's Partac Peat Corp. supplies dirtand other productsto all 30Major League Baseball teams, more than 150 minor league teams, more than 700 colleges and thousands of towns and schools worldwide. Sowhen he watches a baseball game on TV, it should be no surprisethat Kelsey views it a little differently than most people.
"I'm always looking at the earth to see how it is performing," he said.
Standing in front of a geyser of dirt being screened for oversize particles on its way to a gigantic Hershey's Kiss-shaped pile last week, Kelsey is serious about his soil.
"You want a firm surface that doesn't track, and a soft surface for sliding that drains well and doesn't separate," the lanky 57-year-old farmer said.
Too much silt in the mix and you get a dusty, hard layer that drains poorly and would leave
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
As a baseball nut, I appreciate this story...thanks for posting!
Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud
I heard of this before, but I always thought the stuff was just known as "Rancocas Mud"?
New Jersey produces the best eggplant and tomatoes in the United States.
Doit!
Ditto to that.
New Jersey produces the best eggplant and tomatoes in the United States. >>>
We sure do!
and now we can add baseball dirt.
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