Keeping the Ballfields Playable Isn't So Easy

It’s an American icon. A source of spring, summer and fall fun and a feast for the eyes. But the appearance of your local baseball or softball field, with thick green grass and neat lines, is not as effortless as it appears.

Ask Jim Forbush, president of the Northborough Baseball-Softball Association. The association takes a large part of the responsibility of keeping a half dozen or so diamonds from getting rough.

“Nature's constantly trying to take over,” Forbush said. “We have these nice dirt infields and clean crisp lines. It sounds simple—but the grass, the weeds are always trying to take over.”

Watering and seeding and maintaining wells to water and shacks to hold maintenance equipment also add to the to-do list.

It makes other sports look a little easier.

“I envy the guys from basketball and soccer,” Forbush said.

Among the nonprofit league's challenges, of course, is the fact that funds are not abundant, and most of the maintenance and improvement is done with volunteer labor.

That’s where the leagues rely on people who are committed to making baseball or softball happen in the best way possible. Forbush can name three folks right off the top of his head whose dedication to keeping those infields nice and those lawns green is crucial.

Sean Durkin, Craig Robert, Jeff Fontecchio and Craig Murphy all devote a great deal of effort to the cause.

It’s not done, of course, without donor or sponsor money: just check out the sponsorship signs at Memorial Field on East Main Street. Many local businesses do their part, not only purchasing signs but sponsoring teams.

“We have about 20-25 sponsors with signs at the east main street,” he said. “We end up breaking even altogether, but it’s supplemented by 10-15 percent through donations and sponsorships from families or small businesses in town. We do need those dollars.”

The funds also help keep improvements going, Forbush said. Last year the league revived a nearly 40-year-old field near the , with all that entails or clearing and leveling and building.

Three years ago, the fields on East Main Street were refurbished.

And the work goes on.

“There’s a constant state of work at the fields,” he said.

The need for such maintenance isn’t just because nature keeps trying to take over; these fields are well used.

“Our primary coverage is K through 8, somewhere between 500 and 550 kids,” Forbush said.

Among those are Forbush’s own children, as are the children of many of the volunteers.

But there are volunteers with no children in the program for whom it’s just a labor of love, so they and their neighbors can wander down the street on a balmy summer evening to sit in the shade of a maple tree and hear the crack of the bat and the cheers of the crowd.

For a game schedule see the league’s web site at www.northborobaseball.org.