TTA Award W inners
Hats Off to TTA’s 2013
Professional Sports Field of the Year
AT&T Field, Home of the Chattanooga Lookouts By Liz Nutter, Managing Editor, Leading Edge Communications (publisher of Tennessee Turfgrass)
One
of the oldest minorleague baseball teams in the South (established in 1885), the Chattanooga Lookouts have been the double-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers since 2009. The team is one of ten in the Southern League, which also includes the Jackson Generals (Jackson, TN) and the Tennessee Smokies (Kodak, TN). At the recent TTA Conference and Tradeshow, the Lookouts’ home base, AT&T Field, was awarded the TTA’s 2013 Professional Sports Field of the Year.
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Perched atop Hawk Hill overlooking the Tennessee River, in downtown Chattanooga, AT&T Field was constructed in 1999–2000. TifSport bermudagrass covers the infield, with Tifway 419 in the outfield. “TifSport seems to play a bit smoother and faster, whereas 419 is a bit thicker so it can handle the traffic from the outfielders,” says head groundskeeper Brandon Moore. Originally from Nashville, Moore earned his degree in turfgrass management in 2012 from Tennessee Tech Uni-
TENNESSEE TURFGRASS April/May 2014 Email TTA at: tnturfgrassassn@aol.com
versity in Cookeville, TN. While there, he served for four seasons as manager of the school’s baseball team, performing maintenance on the Golden Eagles’ home field and traveling with the team to away games. “I was in charge of both the grass and the infield,” Moore comments. “Traveling with the team gave me insight into the quality of fields around the region, as well as the types of field conditions that impact a team’s performance.” While still in school, Moore worked for the Lookouts in the summers of 2011 and 2012. In fact, in 2012, he was an assistant on the team when AT&T Field was named the Southern League Field of the Year. After interning with the Boston Red Sox during the 2013 season, Moore returned to the Lookouts when the team’s then head groundskeeper, Joe Fitzgerald, was named superintendent of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ spring training facility in Arizona. To get the field ready for the season, Moore conducts most of the turf preparation the previous fall. “In September, we aerate, topdress and apply a slow-release fertilizer,” Moore says. “Then, in early spring, we apply a quick-release fertilizer to boost green-up. We don’t overseed, so we often paint the field in spring for the early games, if the bermudagrass has not come out of dormancy.”