We open this week with a thank you to Gayle S. of St. Paul, whose email last weekend initiated an interesting (I hope you agree) conversation with Larry DiVito, the only head groundskeeper in Target Field history.
Gayle asked: “Why is the triangle of dirt directly in front of home plate at Target Field so much darker than the dirt anywhere else on the field?” I can’t say I had noticed, but it gave me a chance to visit Larry in his dungeon located just behind the visitors’ dugout, a dark room filled with more weather data screens than your typical weather-obsessed local TV station.
He answered the question — we’ll get to that in a moment — but it became an entry point into a wider conversation about changes to the ballpark, some subtle and most less so, in its 16 years as the Twins’ home.
For instance: Have you noticed the most visible change to the outfield in several years? I confess, I hadn’t.
I mentioned, as plenty of fans do every year, how I miss the pine trees in center field that were removed after one season. DiVito then pointed out that over the winter, “we put larger junipers on the hill,” just beyond the center field fence, where the trees once stood. The vertical wall behind the fence has been covered in juniper plants since the park opened, but below them, DiVito pointed out, “we’ve had grass there for years. It’s better visually now. We had to replace the sprinklers to make it work, but I was really happy with how it’s turned out. The color for the hitters’ background blends together a lot more smoothly.”
I asked how many such tweaks are made at the team’s request, with the home team’s roster in mind. He didn’t specify who he was talking about, but he said, “there have been times over the years where, if an infielder is dragging a little bit, maybe a regular is hurt, we’ve been asked to leave the grass a little higher,” in order to slow down ground balls.
But the opposite has been true, too. He pointed out that when Target Field first opened, “there weren’t many home runs hit here,” and he’s right — 116 home runs were hit, by the Twins and their opponents, in 2010 and 126 were hit a year later. To this day, aside from the 60-game 2020 season, those stand as the two worst seasons for power hitting in the ballpark’s history, and there have been four seasons in which twice as many homers have been hit as in that debut season.
With that in mind, DiVito said, “I remember Gardy [Ron Gardenhire, the Twins’ manager at the time] telling me, we want the ball to move through the infield,” so the grounds crew cut the grass as low as possible, to speed up ground balls.
Maybe it worked — according to stathead.com, the Twins racked up more ground-ball hits in four of their first five seasons at Target Field than they have in any season since.
I also asked him about summer concerts, and the toll they take on the playing field. I’ve attended five concerts in major league ballparks in the past three years, and each time, I wonder about how ripped up the field gets with a gigantic stage built in center field, and thousands of fans walking over the turf. Twins fans may remember that the 2022 All-Star break was extended by a day — they didn’t open the second half until Saturday — because of an Elton John concert in Detroit.
Surprisingly, DiVito said the science has gotten pretty good about those concerts. He cited a Pink show in 2023 as particularly impressive in protecting the playing field.
“The Pink concert was so well run in terms of build-out and supervision. It was great,” DiVito said. “It’s as many people as we’ve ever had in here, but it went really well.”
OK, so what about that especially dark dirt in front of home plate?
“We’re trying to reduce topspin on the ball right there, so that dark brown-purple substance is a little heavier and holds more moisture than the product we use on the baselines and the infield,” DiVito said. “It slows down a ground ball, and is pretty standard in the majors — I don’t know if I’ve heard of anyone in my 30 years of doing this who wants to speed up those balls.”
What would happen? DiVito had an example.
“Remember Graig Nettles, making all those great plays in the [1978] World Series? If you watch the replays, those are all from balls bounding off the dirt in front of home plate and gaining topspin,” DiVito said. “It doesn’t mean our guys can’t handle it, but this gives them more time to get their angle. Especially at third base — I mean, third basemen are just next-level. So much of their jobs are entirely reactionary, so we like to moderate that as much as we can.”
Thanks for your question, Gayle S.! I feel like I learned so much.
