{"id":797710,"date":"2026-07-13T14:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T14:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/797710\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T14:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T14:32:09","slug":"how-does-coors-field-stay-so-pretty-chalk-it-up-to-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/797710\/","title":{"rendered":"How does Coors Field stay so pretty? Chalk it up to experience."},"content":{"rendered":"

Razum fell in love with groundskeeping as a baseball-obsessed teenager in Cleveland. He got a summer grounds crew job working for the Bossard family \u2014 a big name<\/a> in the world of sports turf management \u2014 as part of the Cleveland Guardians (n\u00e9e Indians) and Browns organizations. Razum worked his way up from there, eventually maintaining Spring Training fields in Arizona before working with the Angels and Athletics in California.<\/p>\n

When the Rockies joined the MLB, they became the only team between Kansas City and Los Angeles, and thus the de facto home team for fans across the Mountain West \u2014 fans who were willing to travel. Razum put a lot of pressure on himself in those early years to give the new players and new fans a field to be proud of.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to get every game in that was scheduled because people were traveling long distances,\u201d Razum said. \u201cSo dealing with weather was kind of a big, big deal. Whether it was rain or snow or whatever, it was kind of expected to get that game in that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now a seasoned veteran, Razum has shed some of those nerves. The weather, unfortunately, never gets easier.<\/p>\n

Colorado is in the middle of a drought after a historically dry winter<\/a>. Earlier this year, Denver Water declared a Stage 1 drought in an effort to reduce water usage by 20% in the city. Denver residents can only water their yard on two assigned days per week, and only before 10 a.m. or after 6 p.m. Denver city parks and golf courses are also cutting back<\/a> on their water usage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The grass at the ballpark remains pristine. Razum said the Rockies received an exemption on water restrictions from the city because Coors Field is \u201cwhere the guys make their living.\u201d But he also noted that his grounds crew has always tried to be good \u201cstewards of the water.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople kind of tend to overwater their yards and things,\u201d Razum said. At Coors Field, Razum said he gives the plant \u2014 the infield and outfield grass, that is \u2014 no more than what it needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Razum described the preseason as one of the \u201cworst winters we’ve had as far as drought and dryness.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, you know, we’ve had years where we’ve had drought conditions before,\u201d he said. \u201cThose past years kind of helped us prepare and \u2026 be ready for a predicted dry year.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a year characterized by heat and aridity, perhaps the most memorable day of the Rockies grounds crew\u2019s season so far is the May 5-6 snowstorm that dropped up to a foot of snow in some parts of the metro area. Coors Field doesn\u2019t have a roof; that precipitation blanketed the ballpark.<\/p>\n

The Rockies still played the Mets the evening of the 6th thanks to late night and early morning work<\/a> from Razum and his crew. Using a \u201csnow pusher\u201d that goes easy on the grass beneath the snow, the grounds crew completely cleared the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe weather changes all the time here, as you well know,\u201d Razum said. \u201cWe’ve dealt with big hailstorms prior to the game, big rainstorms during the game. The field was built to handle those kind of things. We have a really good drainage system underneath.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Razum fell in love with groundskeeping as a baseball-obsessed teenager in Cleveland. He got a summer grounds crew…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-797710","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\/797710","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=797710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}