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The Rangers spring training center includes Charlotte County Stadium, five practice fields and one practice infield. Port Charlotte: A Star For The Texas Re inter is more than just cold and Year Award in the professional category. zum, who had worked with him on the dreary for many stadium grounds At the age of 29, his recent work for the Cleveland crew for two years, accepted the W crewmembers across the country. Texas Rangers at its training center in Port head groundskeeper position at the Califor- It's a time that really tests their mettle. Charlotte, FL, beat out entries from all major nia Angels' training facility in Casa Grande, Six years ago, Tom Burns was laid off and minor league organizations in the AZ.. Razum told Sarge Andersen, camp coor- between the football and baseball seasons country. dinator for the Angels, about Burns. After at Municipal Stadium in Cleveland, OH. Burns made quite a few stops along the the Browns ended their '82 season in De- From January until March, he'd go crazy road from Cleveland to Port Charlotte. As cember, Burns drove out to Arizona to spend trying to keep busy. He had resigned his hard as he worked in Cleveland, he could the winter months helping Razum out at Ca- well-paid job at Ford Motor Company's en- not beat the seniority system. He wanted sa Grande. gine casting plant in Cleveland to take the more experience and responsibility, but the The Angels practiced at Casa Grande but job at the stadium so he could work out- system was holding him back. For two more moved to Palm Springs, CA, for preseason doors and see professional sports up close. years he returned to the stadium crew in exhibition games. Andersen needed a For three years he had worked diligent- the spring. "I figured the best way to be- groundskeeper in Palm Springs to get the ly under Marshall Bossard, head ground- come a head groundskeeper was to learn stadium ready. Burns was both surprised skeeper for Stadium Corp., which leased from one of the best and to work hard at and grateful when Andersen offered him the the stadium from the city. Since he had it," Burns recalls. "I realize today that starting job. He accepted without hesitation and little seniority, Burns was assigned many at the professional level is a tremendous moved to the desert resort city for the last of the tasks the older members of the crew advantage. It teaches you what the coaches six weeks of his winter break. chose not to do. But that didn't bother him. and players want and how professional He was greeted by a dormant ber- He loved working outdoors and in a major groundskeepers make sure they get it. And, mudagrass stadium field and one practice city stadium. He absorbed everything Bos- Cleveland is one of the toughest places to , infield. His experience with the quick-coupler sard told him. do that. Right field doesn't even thaw out irrigation stadium in Cleveland was put to His determination paid off. He is the win- until April." the test right away with the automatic sys- ner of the 1988 Baseball Diamond of the Burns got his first break when Mark Ra- tem in Palm Springs. He only had a few 12 sportsTURF niques so they were mechanized,"explains Clifford at Cubs Park in Mesa, and gave him Burns. "Where Marshall would pull nail drags virtually complete authority over construc- byhand, Jim would pull them with an ATC tion of the fields. "His faith in me was amaz- and get the same results, but faster. He ing," says Burns today. "There was no way worked with Marshall (who was still a con- I was going to let him down. With that kind sultant) on each change to get his opinion." of responsibility, you either learn right away Andersen had told Burns that the Angels or it will eat you alive." were going to build a new training center With only two months to complete the job, in Mesa that coming winter. Burns had con- Burns got right to work surveying three full sidered the possibility of helping Razum out diamonds and one infield. By borrowing on the project or possibly returning to Palm large equipment from Clifford, he graded Springs. When Andersen called that sum- the outfields and planted ryegrass so he mer, he asked Burns if he would like to su- could concentrate most of his effort on the pervise construction of the fields at Gene infields. Burns quickly saw the advantage Autry Park in Mesa and then stay on as head of automatic irrigation as the ryegrass was groundskeeper-twelve months a year! getting established. He watered and ferti- "Thanks to Sarge and Mark I went from lized carefully and applied fungicides to a laborer to a head groundskeeper!" Burns guard against seedling diseases. recalls. He discovered that you learn a lot He excavated the skinned areas to a when you immerse yourself in a construc- depth of six inches and started sifting the tion project. Between drainage, irrigation, Arizona clay. Conditioning the base path soil conditioning, seeding and setting fields soil was something Bossard had drilled into up for the first time, you quickly learn why him at Cleveland. "We spent weeks on the you do all the things you do to maintain a tons of infield dirt getting it just right," he baseball field. recalls. He built nail drags, float boards and When Burns arrived in Mesa in Novem- rollers like those Bossard had designed and ber, he was greeted with 27 acres of bare worked and watered the skinned areas to ground that had been cleared from a huge perfection. As the base paths, mounds and citrus orchard. The foundation for the club- batter's boxes took shape, he seeded the house and most of the irrigation was in- infields with ryegrass. stalled, but that was it. Andersen handed With Andersen's support, he obtained a Burns a set of plans, introduced him to Ralph continued on page 14 Owner Eddy Chiles wanted to consolidate his spring training and minor league gers facilities in Florida. weeks to overseed the fields with ryegrass and get the skinned areas back in shape. Burns immersed himself in the task. Using many of the techniques taught to him by Marshall Bossard, he was both laborer and groundskeeper. When the Angels arrived to play their first exhibition game, they were impressed with the quality of the infield and the pattern in the turf Burns had created by mowing. Andersen liked what he saw, but Burns was expected back in Cleveland by the end of March. The 1983 baseball season was Marshall Bossard's last as head groundskeeper. Jim Anglea, groundskeeper of the Nashville Sounds, had been hired to take over for baseball at Cleveland Stadium. The southerner with a masters degree in edu- cation, was more familiar with bermudagrass than Kentucky bluegrass and ryegrass. Burns' brief experience in Arizona had peaked his interest in warm-season turf- grasses. Anglea and Burns developed a mutual respect for each other. "Jim adapted some of Marshall's equipment and tech- Burns keeps the mound and batter's box covered most of the time. March, 1988 13 Port Charlotte could concentrate his efforts on the improve- again. Anglea would stay in Arlington and continued from page 13 ments. He wanted someone versed in both make periodic trips to the site during con- Jacobsen HF-5 five-gang fairway mower, bermudagrass and ryegrass and who was struction. Burns had three months to build and a walk-behind greensmower to start familiar with his methods of infield prepa- a stadium field and five practice fields. Once mowing a pattern into the fields. Burns asked ration. Burns felt he had learned a lot from again it was sink or swim. He too, needed the construction crews working on the club- Anglea in Cleveland and could learn more. a good assistant and found one in Al Hicks. house and parking lot to keep all heavy In two years, the pair turned the baseball- Hicks had trained under George Toma at equipment off the fields. He lightly rolled only stadium into one of the best in the the Kansas City Royals spring training fa- the fields to eliminate bad hops. He still League. With the renovation work accom- cility in Ft. Myers, FL. wasn't satisfied as the Angels arrived at plished, the work load at the stadium be- This time Burns was working with coarse Gene Autry Park. After camp that spring, came routine and very slow during the off- sand instead of clay. Drain tile, wrapped he regraded the fields and seeded with com- season. The Rangers, however, had a new in filter fabric, had been installed in four- mon bermudagrass. assignment in mind for the pair. foot-deep trenches, 34 feet apart, on each For three years, Burns lived at the site Owner Eddy Chiles wanted to consolidate field on a line from home plate to second building a reputation among the coaches his spring training and minor league facili- base. The tile fed into lift stations where and players as a detail-oriented ground- ties in Florida. In addition to the Texas pumps raise the water into five irrigation skeeper who worked as hard or harder than Rangers, he had four minor league teams reservoirs for recycling. "The system can his crew. After the 1984 football season, Jim playing in two locations, Plant City and Pom- handle more than three inches of rain an Anglea was hired by the Texas Rangers as pano.

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