Interview with Dave Mellor, Director of Grounds at Fenway Park

 

I started here in the 2001 season. I grew up a Red Sox fanatic. Previously I worked for the Milwaukee Brewers for 16 years, from 1985. I also interned with the Angels and the Giants. The Green Bay Packers played half their home games in Milwaukee, so I also worked Packers games for eight years, too.

Safety and playability is our first priority. Certainly, if we have a big event, a concert, that could cause extra work for us to repair — if it’s a major sod job or something — we’ll certainly keep the umpire in the loop. We’ll say, “Hey, if you notice something, let us know.” But we wouldn’t let a team go out there if we thought it might be in unsafe condition.

Most concerts are on the field five to seven days, and the length of time combined with the weather dictate a lot of how much wear and stress the grass gets. If it’s hot and wet, there’s potential for more stress on the grass. The Rolling Stones concert in 2005 was actually out there 13 days. We- re-sodded 40,000 square feet of the outfield. We did everything we could. We had guys on their hands and knees smoothing everything out. Just like we talk to the players — “Hey, there’s new sod out there. If you need anything, let us know. If you notice anything, let us know.” I think that communication both ways is important.

We hope for the best, but we plan for the worst. So we always have sod on call. Based on the size of the stage, what we think we might need. We have contractors on call for aerating and top dressing and sod if we need it. The sixth day of that concert, a roadie said to me, “Dude, do you smell rotting pumpkins?” And I said, “Yeah, I think that’s the grass” because it had been really wet and hot. We had 30 hours from the time the stage came off to replace 40,000 square feet.

Most of my contact with umpires is weather-related. But my office is next door to the umpire’s room, so I try to stop by and see them even if it’s a dry homestand just to say hi and welcome them, let them know if they need anything to let me know. A lot of times, they’ll stop in themselves. The relationship with the umpires is so important. A lot of them are good friends. I want them to know that they can trust me, that. I’m going to give them the accurate forecast and I’m going to be honest with them about how much water the field can take. That working relationship is so important.

If it looks like weather is going to be an issue, I talk with the crew chief. It’s important that the umpires are in the loop with the percentage chance of rain, the timing of the rain, the duration, how heavy it could be, if there’s wind involved — which can certainly affect the tarp, if there’s lightning, which can certainly affect player safety but also the people in the stands. It’s all-inclusive. Before the game, they may talk to the weather forecasters themselves. They have their own weather service but we share ours with them, too, if they want to see that everybody’s on the same page. We want to be very open with our forecast. We wouldn’t want them ever to think that they weren’t getting the full picture.

The technology has improved so much. For a long time you didn’t have radar at all. When I started 31 years ago, you watched the news in the morning and if they said there was a chance of rain this morning and you saw a black cloud roll in — which could just be a normal dark cloud with the sun behind it — everybody was on edge. “Oh, my gosh, it might rain.” The boss would say, “Hey, get ready.” There was a time in Milwaukee where groundskeepers would call the local airport for a forecast. In the late 80s and early 90s, private weather service contractors went to Congress and said you shouldn’t be able to call the airport unless you’re a pilot. So sports teams started doing private deals. We actually have two weather services, Telvent Weather, which is part of DTN, and Fox 25, which is here in Boston. Sometimes they have similar forecasts and sometimes they interpret things different, too. We provide all that information to the umpires so they can make the best decisions. The umpires have a separate service that they use, Accuweather.

Certainly now with the technology that we have with all the different weather apps, combined with the weather service that we can talk to, it’s incredible. We can look at radar, but to have the weather service meteorologist be able to look at it and decipher how the winds are affecting it and the pressure and the temperature and the sea breeze and the ocean really is important, all of that. Weather changes so much. Boston has to be some of the most challenging to predict. The ocean’s involved. The Worcester hills. Forecasts can change so rapidly.

If there’s a potential weather situation, before the game, the umpires get on the phone, but after it starts they just go off of whatever information we provide them. During the game I try to be down the bottom of the runway so it’s close proximity. If the weather’s good, I can be in my office and then just go across the hall, come through that runway, see them, and then end up in our drying agent supply in a storage area over there and also down by Canvas Alley where there is literally tons of it. Then I’ll go out every three outs and will take my phone with radar on it and show the umpire what’s happening and what the weather service sees with that rain or arrival time, how heavy it could be, the duration, if there’s wind, like I said. If it’s a long inning, we try to give them the most up-to-date forecast that you can. With one out, I’ll call, but if it’s a long inning, I may call two or three times during an inning.

We do the tarp when the umpire wants it, just like we do drying agent when the umpire they want it. If a player says, “Hey, we want drying agent” or “Why don’t you put the tarp on?” that’s not our decision. It’s up to the crew chief. So we work very closely with them. They are great to work with, because they respect what we know about our field — if the field can take more rain, what the crew can do. I’m very proud of how hard the crew works. They will sprint with 50-pound bags of drying agent, calcined clay that soaks up water for us on a wet day and holds water on a hot day. Guys have taken out five tons of Turface during a game, in a nine-inning game over three hours. There’s 40 bags in a ton. That doubleheader a couple of years ago, 2011 at the end of August there was a doubleheader with tropical weather. The guys actually did 10 tons. Five tons per game. That communication with the umpires is huge.

It’s always through the umpires. I’ll usually work with the crew out of the dugout for home plate or the mound and Jason [Griffith, Assistant Director of Grounds] runs the Alley [Canvas Alley] and will do the skin, and he’ll work with the umpires on the skin, where they want it.

My hat’s off to the umpires. They are great to work with and the communication and respect that they have for what our guys can do is outstanding and greatly appreciated. It really makes a difference in how smooth things operate.

BILL NOWLIN, known to none as “The Old Arbiter” since he has never worked a game behind the plate, still favors the balloon chest protector for its nostalgic aesthetics. Aside from a dozen years as a college professor, his primary life’s work was as a co-founder of Rounder Records (it got him inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame). He’s written or edited more than 50 books, mostly on baseball, and has been on the Board of Directors of SABR since the magic Red Sox year of 2004.