Most lovers of America’s favorite pastime think two athletic teams stand up with a bat, hit a white ball around a spotless diamond-shaped field where precise white stripes appear magically at every game, and that’s baseball. Not exactly…
Imagine working up to 16 hour days in the sizzling Mississippi summer heat mowing the grass every day; carrying 50 pound bags of dirt; raking; cleaning; monitoring weather, fans, stands and more — all this to make a baseball diamond pristine and perfect. Then 50 guys arrive to intentionally “tear it up” for the love of the game, of course, and you have to start all over again — regardless of what time of night it is — to make the field look as though the teams were never there!
“If I do my job, nobody knows who I am.” — Willie Lawrence
To top it off, rarely, if ever, are you recognized for the overwhelming responsibility of the diamond’s flawlessness. In fact, few fans, if any, even know your name. Willie Lawrence, head groundskeeper at the Biloxi Shuckers MGM Park, likes it that way. And when one attempts to give the modest Lawrence kudos for his accomplishments by calling him the “master of the field,” he is quick to respond.
“I learn something new every day,” Lawrence says. “By no means am I a master of anything.”
He does, however, give credit and kudos to his mentor, Ray Sayer, head groundskeeper for the Pensacola Blue Wahoos, under whom he worked for four years before coming to Biloxi.
“Ray is a three time Southern League Groundskeeper of the Year award winner,” Lawrence says proudly. “To Ray, his field was never good enough.”
Sayer’s 53-year-old protégé holds a degree in computer science from the University of Southern Mississippi, and worked 17 years in that industry before Hurricane Ivan hit his hometown of Pensacola. To stay busy, he would go to the ballpark and watch his kids play baseball, repair the fences, mow the grass — whatever needed doing at the time.
“I thought this is kinda cool being in the Little League Park,” Lawrence says. “Then the park and rec guys showed up and offered me a job.”
That was 2006. In 2012, Lawrence went to the minors with Sayer and the Wahoos. When the groundskeeper job at the new MGM Park in Biloxi became available, Lawrence got the call that made his dream of becoming the head groundskeeper for a minor league team come true.
“Everything that happens on the field before the game is my responsibility, from the weather to the possum that runs across the field in the middle of a game” he says. Lawrence takes his job very seriously indeed.
“I don’t think about anything but the field and the dirt from February through October. If you have good dirt you have a good field,” Lawrence says, emphatically describing his most valuable tool — the rake. He has five for a variety of tasks. “I monitor the moisture to determine if the dirt is too hard or too soft; is it going to rain; is it overly humid, dry, too windy; are there rocks or holes.”
The majority of the game is played on the dirt and bad dirt could mean a bad hop [of the ball] and an injured player. Hence the moral and financial responsibility of being a groundskeeper comes into play for him.
When asked does the job get a bit easier when the Shuckers are out of town, Lawrence laughs and says, “That’s when the heavy lifting happens: Resodding, repairing worn spots, rebuilding the pitcher mounds to league specifications, and completing major repairs to the irrigation system.”
Aside from having to constantly monitor the weather, his greatest challenge is being away from his Pensacola home, his family, and the promise he made to finish college.
“I am currently a senior at the Milton, Florida, campus of the University of Florida studying plant science, more specifically turf grass management,” he says.
Being a groundskeeper at a baseball park is what Lawrence describes as a calling. As he puts it, it’s not about the money.
“Whether I am working in parks and recreation for the county or Yankee Stadium, I aim to get the field as good as I can get it,” Lawrence says. “It may be someone’s first ballgame and possibly the last for someone else. I have to get this place so outstanding, they will remember it forever.”