now with the Philadelphia Phillies<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cYou know, having the best of the best groundskeepers in the country, it\u2019s humbling,\u201d Lee said. \u201cI\u2019m not saying that I\u2019m the best-best, but you know, it\u2019s like some of these guys that I meet during the sports field managers conference. It\u2019s great to get to sit in lectures them, talk with them, and bounce things back and forth. And this is how we learn, just through that networking and now I\u2019ll be getting to work with some of those guys too in this game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lee won\u2019t have a specific assignment in Miami, but referred to it as a \u201cteam effort,\u201d and he\u2019ll be ready to jump in wherever he\u2019s needed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While LoanDepot Park is much bigger than Avista Stadium, with capacity crowds of over 37,000 expected, between the lines they\u2019re just the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe say it doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s 509 or 305 area code, the bases are still 90 feet apart,\u201d Lee said. \u201cYou know, we have to keep that dirt as safe and level as possible and playable. Whether it\u2019s a high a prospect, or a big leaguer like Shohei Ohtani, we do our jobs to maximize the professional standards of Major League Baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lee oversaw all of the renovations to the playing surface two offseasons ago when Avista Stadium went though it\u2019s MLB-mandated upgrades in order to retain affiliation. They removed a rock-filled base, evened the field,\u00a0put in new drainage and irrigation, and made what was already a good product even better\u00a0\u2013 and safer.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, when they built (Avista Stadium), it was 1958 and it really had not received any upgrades over the years since then,\u201d Lee said. \u201cWhat we have is we have a sand-based field. We\u2019ve got great drainage. We got great root depth. \u2026 When we had that first rain last year and pulled that tarp, I couldn\u2019t have been more amazed at how fast that water perked through. I mean, no sooner had my crew got the tarp off and got it at pumping the water, all that water had just soaked through within minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lee is looking forward to his big league assignment and all that it will offer over the next couple of weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Miami\u2019s a perfect city for this,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, they\u2019ve got such a diverse community and then for something internationally like this to be happening. And it\u2019s a good experience for me too, because I get to work with some of my fellow peers. I\u2019m always learning something. Even after 30 years, I\u2019m always learning something.\u201d<\/p>\n
He hopes some of that carries over to his crew at Avista Stadium as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI try to reflect that on my people too, you know, for my grounds crews. Maybe they\u2019re not going to be sitting here doing what I\u2019ve been doing in 30 years. Maybe they get that bank job or a realtor or whatever they\u2019re going to be doing. But, you know, I want them to look back on this moment like \u2018That was the best summer job I ever had.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s more than one way to participate in the World Baseball Classic. You can be one of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-519026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}