The changes in the 2018 Slammers will be all over the field.
Literally.
When the Slammers return from a season-opening road series that starts Thursday against Florence, they’re set to play on a new artificial turf surface in their home opener at 7:05 p.m. Tuesday at Joliet Route 66 Stadium.
No more grass and dirt at the former Slammers Stadium.
All-star third baseman Danny Zardon, back for his second season with Joliet’s Frontier League team, likes the new work place.
“I think they did a phenomenal job with it,” Zardon said. “I think it’s pretty cool how they’ve incorporated a green bead in there. I really like it.”
Slammers manager Jeff Isom had a similar description of the revamped field.
“It’s quite an upgrade over what we had,” he said. “I’m a natural-grass-type guy. I love the dirt, but it just makes so much more sense getting this. We don’t have to worry about a tarp. We don’t have to worry about rain as much.
“It drains three inches of water in an hour. We’re the 10th team in our league to have turf out of the 12 teams. What we’ve seen is if there’s rain and it stops, we’re playing within 20 minutes. From that aspect, it’s great.”
Slammers general manager Heather Mills said it cost the city $1.5 million to install the FieldTurf.
The new surface was completed April 26. A few high school teams and St. Francis have used the field, as well as the Slammers for exhibition games.
“I’m really excited not to have to worry about rain or a tarp anymore,” Mills said. “It’s turf, with sand and rubber in it. Below that is a rock base, and underneath some of that crushed gravel is a flat drainage system that’s all over the field.”
The Slammers had to postpone a few games last year, including one on Friday night with a good crowd when it rained and the grass and dirt didn’t drain quickly enough.
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“That’s going to be really big,” Mills said. “Unless it’s thunderstorming with no stop in sight, we’ll be able to play.”
Windy City manager Ron Biga knows about that benefit. The ThunderBolts have had an artificial surface for three seasons at Standard Bank Stadium.
“Rain really isn’t a factor unless it’s absolutely pouring at the start of the game,” Biga said. “The money it saves from the water, the materials. There’s so many benefits. It’s fantastic.”
Isom and Zardon said the new surface will slow down ground balls in the infield.
“This is on a sand base and they fill it with sand and rubber tires,” Isom said. “It kills the ball. You’ll see a lot of infield hits this season just because it plays so slow.
“You’re not going to have bad hops now, so infielders are getting to more balls. They’re making more plays.”
Zardon sees it the same way.
“You’re definitely going to get to more balls down the line,” he said. “The ball is not going to have as much skip. You’ll have more reaction time.”
Infielder Ridge Hoopii-Haslam expects the new surface to reduce bad hops.
“No ground ball is the same,” he said. “It could hit clumps of rubber and it could do different stuff, but it’s a truer hop than (off) grass and dirt.”
The Slammers should be able to get a handle on the ground ball hops this month with 12 of their 18 games this month on the new surface. The first two home series are back-to-back against Evansville and Windy City.
Tim Tierney is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.