RealGM

The turf came free of charge and it got good reviews from the Toronto Blue Jays last year.

So perhaps the kinks will soon be ironed out. After the first three games of the new season in the Rogers Centre, Jays players and coaches were muttering about the condition of the year-old AstroTurf.

After Friday night’s opener, first baseman Adam Lind said the area he patrols is full of “valleys and mountains on a miniature scale.” A returning coach, who requested anonymity, said the condition of the turf is “the worst I’ve ever seen it.”

The turf, which was installed after a motocross event last week, comes in long rolls. In some areas, the seams are not tightly closed and the surface contains soft and hard spots, the complainants said.

Club president Paul Beeston, who also serves as chief operating officer for the Rogers Centre, said he was surprised when a reporter told him of the complaints.

“We’ll look right into it,” he said. “We want it to be right.”

Beeston also confirmed that the Jays didn’t have to pay for the baseball turf. It came free as part of a promotion the AstroTurf company arranged with Major League Baseball last year.

The Tampa Bay Rays, who play under a dome at Tropicana Field, also received free turf this season under the same deal. FieldTurf, which supplied the previous synthetic surface for both the Jays and Rays, refused the MLB licensing offer that AstroTurf accepted, the St. Petersburg Times reported in February.

The Rogers Centre is one of two remaining venues in Major League Baseball using artificial turf (the other one is Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida).

Even though the retractable roof would technically permit the use of natural grass, the stadium has always used artificial turf.

WpgPage wrote:Due to the design of the field area it is impossible to install real grass at RC without major renos. Also doing such would prevent Rogers from renting it out to events like the auto show, or UFC which is a good way to make money of an idle building during the off season.

Lateral Quicks wrote:
My biggest problem w/ the stadium is the overabundance of visible concrete. Seeing concrete facades everywhere is quite ugly, especially when the stadium is empty.

Lateral Quicks wrote:Rogers Centre actually turns into quite a nice park when a good chunk of the blue seats are put to use. When only 15K show up though, it's not a great atmosphere.

My biggest problem w/ the stadium is the overabundance of visible concrete. Seeing concrete facades everywhere is quite ugly, especially when the stadium is empty.

I doubt very much we get another park for at least another two decades. SkyDome was only completed in 1989, and despite its weaknesses it more or less gets the job done, the current turf issue notwithstanding. With the newfangled turf, concerns of adverse physical effects are largely muted.

For the next park I'd hope for an open air stadium with natural grass and a tent-like retractable roof... the type I believe Seattle and Minnesota now have...

YogiStewart wrote:

Lateral Quicks wrote:
My biggest problem w/ the stadium is the overabundance of visible concrete. Seeing concrete facades everywhere is quite ugly, especially when the stadium is empty.

never understood that. the concrete is hideous.
paint it.
plant vines to grow along it.
put banners. anything.
its the concrete that ruins it.

hyper316 wrote:i always cringe when ppl bring up the notion of building a new stadium. the rogers centre is fine, they spent 930 million dollars on it. they are not going to build another one, especially using public money. the city needs every dollar to build the newly proposed ttc lines which will cost +8 billion dollars public money.

Lateral Quicks wrote:

hyper316 wrote:i always cringe when ppl bring up the notion of building a new stadium. the rogers centre is fine, they spent 930 million dollars on it. they are not going to build another one, especially using public money. the city needs every dollar to build the newly proposed ttc lines which will cost +8 billion dollars public money.

I agree with you there. In most cases I don't like seeing tax money going to build new stadiums for major league teams, especially given the other needs of the city with regard to transit, housing, etc.

Adam Lind declared the Rogers Centre turf “a lot better” after stadium crews rolled it and tightened the seams on Tuesday before the Toronto Blue Jays opened a series against the Oakland A’s.

Both Lind, the Jays’ first baseman, and Justin Morneau, his Minnesota Twins counterpart, complained about the condition of the Astroturf during their season-opening series last weekend.

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire and several other Blue Jays also expressed concern about the turf, which had been re-installed after a motocross event last week.

After twisting his ankle in the turf on opening night, speedy centre-fielder Rajai Davis missed the next two games. He was back in the lineup Tuesday night.

Davis, who came to Toronto from Oakland in an off-season trade, did not blame his injury directly on the turf conditions, stressing that he needs time to adjust to baserunning on an artificial surface rather than dirt.

He injured the ankle while eluding a first-inning rundown between first and second base. Moments later, he and Yunel Escobar pulled off a double steal.

“I like to cut. I like to stop and go. That’s something I have to be conscious of and if I have to do that, just break it down a little bit more than I would normally on dirt,” Davis said.

Manager John Farrell said the Jays are not concerned about the turf, which is in its second season at the Rogers Centre. It comes in long rolls and is taken up to accommodate concerts and other one-off events.

Kapono wrote:I wish we had a real ballpark

evilRyu wrote:Man it pisses me off that our own players have to adjust from their strength (in this case Rajai) just to compensate for the crap turf