What is this garbage on the baseball field?

[CadaverDawg]

https://mobile.twitter.com/GeneSwindoll/status/384766335776849921

For the love of God, please tell me we aren't going to have fake dirt on the baselines and real dirt on the rest of the infield. That looks like pure shit.

[MSUDawg4Life]

Wow.

[Political Hack]

they can't be finished with that.

[Todd4State]

I was OK with the grass and the dirt in foul territory being fake- but I don't understand why they would make the baselines fake?

[Will James]

Atta boy Strickland you dope

[Todd4State]

they can't be finished with that.

They'll put the Mississippi State logos behind home plate and things like that. But it's supposed to be ready when we start scrimmages on October 11.

[engie]

I'm pissed about it. Been saying my piece on SPS.

I was ALL for the foul territory being replaced with an artificial surface. But they should have left the infield dirt alone. It is a total cluster17 now...

[Todd4State]

That's going to change how balls play when they are bunted down the lines or little dribblers hit down the lines on the fake part. That's my biggest issue with it.

[Political Hack]

we're going to slowly fake it out until the whole thing is fake. we couldn't afford a full fake, so we went with a foul line fake. It's only a half fake, but it's our fake.

[CadaverDawg]

That's going to change how balls play when they are bunted down the lines or little dribblers hit down the lines on the fake part. That's my biggest issue with it.

Not to mention it being damn near impossible to make it a seamless transition. We already have Mingione keeping runs from scoring from 2nd on a base hit...now we'll have guys tripping over the dirt

[Thick]

That looks like doo doo!!

[Political Hack]

maybe Cohen wants faster foul lines??? Doesn't make sense to me, but there's got to be some reasonable explanation to why we'd do something so stupid.

[messageboardsuperhero]

That looks like dogshit. I was totally fine with it until I saw the artificial dirt down the lines.

I hope to God this isn't finished, because if it is, Stricklin is a total idiot. It was a good idea but with terrible, half ass implementation.

[Todd4State]

maybe Cohen wants faster foul lines??? Doesn't make sense to me, but there's got to be some reasonable explanation to why we'd do something so stupid.

The more likely explanation is Scott doesn't want to have to pay for baseline chalk.

[trob115]

Cohen wanted the stuff, so he got it.

[Todd4State]

Cohen wanted the stuff, so he got it.

On the basepaths?

[preachermatt83]

grotesque

[State82]

It does look horrendous. However, you have to think that if Cohen doesn't like it, something will be done to rectify the situation. And if he does like it, well, I guess we will have to live with it.

[nemsdawg]

If it is being placed on the field then that is the way Cohen wanted it without a doubt. That is a very difficult area to keep looking decent when you do as much small ball, practice, etc on the field. You better bet he likes something about the surface for it to be installed. Maintenance is a factor but playability when damp or we is another. That's the toughest area to keep firm when it's damp. I have no idea. Just throwing that out there.

[state66]

only thing I can think of is our injury history with hip pointers. Cohen said in interview about the turf eliminating some hip pointer injuries so I guess Cohen felt since were doing foul territory in artificial grass incorporate the base paths as well to help with hip pointer but other than that no clue wasnt expecting foul lines either. Hope we change the color of dirt were using to make the transition from artificial to real better looking because that picture on twitter looked terrible with the color difference.

[Drugdog]

I bet JSU will love it.

[Bo Darville]

There is more to this story than what you are seeing, so don't jump to erroneous conclusions. Like screaming to play Trey Porter when he was having eyesight issues. Of course message boards are all about jumping to erroneous conclusions.

[FISHDAWG]

agreed ... would it give us a better home field advantage since we would be used to it ?

[smootness]

There is more to this story than what you are seeing, so don't jump to erroneous conclusions.

There are no erroneous conclusions here. The field looks like crap, that is a fact.

I understand why Cohen wants turf in the basepaths, but it doesn't change the fact that it looks crappy and makes us look cheap.

[Bo Darville]

There are no erroneous conclusions here. The field looks like crap, that is a fact.

I understand why Cohen wants turf in the basepaths, but it doesn't change the fact that it looks crappy and makes us look cheap.

Fair enough and I don't necessarily disagree. I'm just saying that there are reasons for doing things that not everyone on here is privy to.

[maroonmania]

There are no erroneous conclusions here. The field looks like crap, that is a fact.

I understand why Cohen wants turf in the basepaths, but it doesn't change the fact that it looks crappy and makes us look cheap.

Well heck, if we are really going to do this (and granted having part of the basepaths dirt and part artificial seems ridiculous) can we at least get the coloring on the artificial stuff to match the color of the dirt? Is that too much to ask? Hopefully they just haven't gotten to that yet.

[dickiedawg]

Well heck, if we are really going to do this (and granted having part of the basepaths dirt and part artificial seems ridiculous) can we at least get the coloring on the artificial stuff to match the color of the dirt? Is that too much to ask? Hopefully they just haven't gotten to that yet.

The basepaths look like they'll match when the dirt is wet and the color is a lot darker. Everyone is all up in arms about this, and it just does not seem like a legitimate gripe to me.

ETA: Then again, what do I know? I actually enjoyed my hot dog at DWS last week.

[maroonmania]

The basepaths look like they'll match when the dirt is wet and the color is a lot darker. Everyone is all up in arms about this, and it just does not seem like a legitimate gripe to me.

ETA: Then again, what do I know? I actually enjoyed my hot dog at DWS last week.

Should match when the dirt is DRY which is what it would be 90% of the time during a game. Point is though the basepaths should be made of the same stuff from home all the way back to home. Either leave them dirt or put the artificial crap all the way around like Vandy did.

[engie]

What I don't understand is -- if you are bound and determined to have 100% of foul territory to be field turf, for whatever reason, why not just make it all grass down the first/3rd baselines? That's common on baseball fields anyway.

I got clarification this morning from someone close to the program. Cohen thinks this gives us a speed/small ball advantage that can be exploited down the lines. He was convinced this needed to happen after our trip to Vanderbilt. Not saying I agree(I don't) -- but that's his thinking.

[maroonmania]

Then why not put it in around the entire basepath area rather than just up the lines?

[engie]

Then why not put it in around the entire basepath area rather than just up the lines?

It's a basic rule of baseball to "always" run outside the baseline...

the transition at the foul line could easily keep well-placed bunts fair that would have rolled foul before...

[Will James]

Cohen thinks this gives us a speed/small ball advantage.

Oh shit......

[messageboardsuperhero]

What I don't understand is -- if you are bound and determined to have 100% of foul territory to be field turf, for whatever reason, why not just make it all grass down the first/3rd baselines? That's common on baseball fields anyway.

I agree with you if this is what you mean by all grass down the lines in foul territory: http://www.rockvalleycollege.edu/Athletics/Baseball/images/04-RVC-Baseball-Field-View-from-Pressbox.JPG

I could live with something like this if Cohen wants to put the artificial turf down in foul territory. That way, we get our advantage of running on the artificial turf in foul ground to first base, but there is no fake dirt. That's the main problem for me. The fake neon red dirt sitting next to the real dirt looks absolutely awful. If the turf was just the same color of the grass, it wouldn't be so bad.

[CadaverDawg]

Oh shit......

Haha

[engie]

I agree with you if this is what you mean by all grass down the lines in foul territory: http://www.rockvalleycollege.edu/Athletics/Baseball/images/04-RVC-Baseball-Field-View-from-Pressbox.JPG

I could live with something like this if Cohen wants to put the artificial turf down in foul territory. That way, we get our advantage of running on the artificial turf in foul ground to first base, but there is no fake dirt. That's the main problem for me. The fake neon red dirt sitting next to the real dirt looks absolutely awful. If the turf was just the same color of the grass, it wouldn't be so bad.

Yes -- that's exactly what I mean... Just do away with the dirt baselines altogether.

[ckDOG]

Certainly there's a darker shade of dirt (when dry) option to get it to match nicely, right?

Are there many places that have such a quick transition from dirt to artificial turf? My biggest worry would be knee injuries from an awkward transition at 3rd from the dirt to the turf.

[engie]

Certainly there's a darker shade of dirt (when dry) option to get it to match nicely, right?

Are there many places that have such a quick transition from dirt to artificial turf? My biggest worry would be knee injuries from an awkward transition at 3rd from the dirt to the turf.

Will do alot more preventing than causing IMO...

The slickness around 3rd -- especially with a late stop sign, etc -- has hurt a bunch of legs in it's day. This should generally give us much better traction over there...

[maroonmania]

Certainly there's a darker shade of dirt (when dry) option to get it to match nicely, right?

Are there many places that have such a quick transition from dirt to artificial turf? My biggest worry would be knee injuries from an awkward transition at 3rd from the dirt to the turf.

I would assume you could tint or spray paint the artificial surface to match whatever you need. We definitely need to get something that much more closely matches the dirt that is already on the infield. Hopefully its just not something they've gotten around to yet. Can't believe we would throw something out on our field that sticks out like a sore thumb and from what we've seen the 1st and 3rd baselines currently do that.