Eck Stadium begins upgrade for field

By Paul Suellentrop
The Wichita Eagle

Wichita State baseball coach Gene Stephenson has words of comfort for the traditionalists who wants baseball played on grass.

Grass is on its way out at Eck Stadium. Stephenson believes players and fans won't see much of a difference with AstroTurf GameDay Grass.

"You run your hand over this stuff, you will think it's grass," he said. "If you had your eyes closed, you would think 'man, this feels like grass.' "

Eck Stadium's transformation to an all-turf playing surface began Tuesday afternoon.

By Wednesday, crews scraped off half of the outfield grass, dismantled the outfield fence and began tearing up the old infield turf.

By the end of September, the synthetic turf will cover the entire playing surface. The pitcher's mound will be the only dirt on the field.

The sliding pits, batters box and base paths will be dirt-colored turf. The turf in those areas will be shorter than the infield and outfield, in order to simulate the look and play of a dirt and grass infield. The batters box will feature removable pieces, held by Velcro, to keep that area looking fresh. The turf features a component, called AstroFlect, that will keep it cooler than other synthetic turfs, West said.

"This will play a lot more like grass and look like natural grass," said Mark West, AstroTurf director of sales. "We feel it replicates grass as closely as it can be replicated."

Stephenson expects the surface to play faster than turf infields at schools such as Kansas State and Texas. West said WSU is the first stadium to use GameDay Grass.

"It will be faster than other turf that's out there, because of the nature of how it's filled," Stephenson said. "But it will be slower than the turf we currently have."

The new turf replaces the old AstroTurf infield, installed after the 1999 season. West said maintenance is minimal. WSU will need to groom the field every 30 days, depending on the amount of use.

"It's going to be fun to play on," Stephenson said. "I think it will be on the cutting edge of new fields for all of baseball."

A construction cam will be up and running in the next few weeks at www.AstroTurfUSA.com. Follow all the progress as the Shockers new state-of-the-art GameDay Grass field is installed.