Petco Park has turned into a flooded duck pond
It’s that time of year when grounds crews all over baseball are starting to spruce up their stadiums. After a rough winter, it’s time to level out the dirt and lay down green, vibrant grass that will take root in time for the season to start.
But sometimes things don’t go as planned.
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The San Diego Padres grounds crew experienced several of those unplanned moments on Monday when Petco Park flooded and turned into a swimming pond for ducks.
Good thing @Padres are in Arizona for #Springtraining — Petco Park flooded today https://t.co/YxeVwo8kqA pic.twitter.com/EhsVhA2CQb
— FOX 5 San Diego (@fox5sandiego) February 28, 2017
Why don’t we back up. On Monday, the Padres grounds crew was doing their work, getting the field ready for a new layer of sod. The playing surface was completely bare, which is a weird thing to see. It’s like seeing someone with hair pull off their wig and you see them completely bald for the very first time.
Petco Park is ready for sod. @BarkshireLaser doing it right. pic.twitter.com/hk0EZXfagr
— Rob Scribner (@RobScrib5150) February 26, 2017
Incidentally, Fox 5 San Diego reported that the field was bare because Monster Jam had taken place at Petco recently. And if imagining monster trucks cavorting around a baseball field doesn’t bring you joy, nothing will. But Petco was bald, and it needed some hair. And they started to add it in the form of sod. The field was on its way to looking like it should.
Laying down the first bit of sod before the rain starts ???????? pic.twitter.com/jTHxaXUEiC
— Petco Park (@PetcoPark) February 27, 2017
But as you can see from the tweet, they already knew there was rain coming, and probably wouldn’t be able to finish the job that day. Normally, that would be fine. But this rain was especially hard, and the Petco Park drainage system couldn’t take it.
Rain delay @PetcoPark,don't get to say that often in SoCal! Amendments tilled in, graded, and sod underway! #rains @Padres @SimplotPartners pic.twitter.com/PrAS8kMbt0
— Paul Wizikowski (@PaulWizikowski) February 27, 2017
You can see in the tweeted picture that there’s standing water all over the outfield, and while it doesn’t look too deep, it’s definitely deeper than it should be, especially since there should be no standing water in the outfield. But you can also see the sod the crew laid down, and it’s pretty much untouched by the new Petco pond.
Despite how not good all that water looks, there was no damage reported, and the rest of the sod will be laid down as planned. Hopefully those ducks don’t make themselves at home too much, or the outfielders that come to play during the World Baseball Classic will have some new feathered friends.
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Liz Roscher is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on twitter! Follow @lizroscher