LANSING, Mich. — When you show up to a Lansing Lugnuts game, Jackson Field is always in perfect condition with a freshly cut outfield, graded infield and pristine chalk lines up and down the first and third base lines. Getting to that point takes hours each and every day.
Lugnuts Head Groundskeeper Joe Traunter is there every morning. He gets to the field around 9 a.m. on game days to start mowing the grass.
"When we mow, the grass will get laid one direction, and depending on the way the sun hits it, that's what gives it the pattern. That's probably one of the questions I get is 'how you get the stripes on the grass,'" Traunter said.
After mowing, Traunter spends most of his time getting the mound and batter's box ready to go.
"The majority of my time is spent on getting the clay," Traunter said.
The teams will come out for batting practice, which gives Joe and his team about an hour to get the field ready for the game.
"Seeing it all come together is pretty satisfying knowing what it looked like right now and then come 7 o'clock how different it looks," Traunter said.
Once the game is over, it's a wash, rinse and repeat cycle to get Jackson Field ready to go for the next night.
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