Sorry if Germans... The swan tweeted this

[drt7891]

A bit ago.

DNF is overhauling the foul territory and converting it to artificial turf. They will leave the rest of the field alone

HOWEVER, that included the outer few feet of the base paths. Ole miss did this, but left the dirt alone. Please tell me I'm not alone in thinking this looks awful... I would have been fine with it if they had left the dirt alone.

https://twitter.com/geneswindoll/status/384766335776849921

 

[dawgstudent]

I'm with you on that. Not a fan.

 

[MSUDawg25]

Good god. That looks awful. Looks like a putt-putt golf course.

 

[randystewart]

I thought we were world famous for our natural sports turf/management? Has it gotten so bad that we can't grow grass in foul territory? Also the contrast of the fake dirt against the real dirt looks like complete crap.

 

[drt7891]

I think Ole Miss did a much better job with theirs. Unless you were really looking, you couldn't tell the difference and I'm pretty good at spotting stuff like that. It took me a while to figure it out. Theirs looks very good.

We just had to make ours scream "half-***" and "lazy..." There just isn't any other way to put it. It's like we said "17 it, we don't wanna paint lines anymore". Come on, Scott... Why'd you sign off on this mess?

 

[bullythisblackbear]

IS there anything that state does that gene swindoll doesn't think is just fantastic. That's why he and Murray get all access to the athletic dept.

 

[Requiem For A Dawg]

I thought we were world famous for our natural sports turf/management? Has it gotten so bad that we can't grow grass in foul territory? Also the contrast of the fake dirt against the real dirt looks like complete crap.

Exactly. This fake stuff looks like ****. The halo around home plate looks nice, but let's leave it at that. Terrible.

 

[patdog]

Just say no to artificial turf. Anywhere.

 

[engie]

Agreed. Not even REMOTELY a fan of this if it is, in fact, how we are going to leave it. Extremely half *** at the moment. That said, something is going to obviously have to be done differently at home plate -- so hopefully, the "dirt" is just there for alignment purposes and will be cut out -- and Gene has thrown everyone into meltdown mode unnecessarily. Obviously, that's ALOT of wishful thinking on my part given the lines and everything already being painted in...

Common sense dictated that it would be to the field turf in foul territory to the edge of the dirt -- and then to the foul line down to the poles -- allowing the dirt in the infield and paint/chalk in the outfield to "mask" the transition from turf to real grass. If done correctly, it would have looked great IMO...

I never thought about it heavily prior to them doing it to Swayze -- but after seeing it in person there and talking to an "in" with their program, I'm a big fan of how theirs was done. I thought ours would be identical to theirs -- but better -- since it would go all the way to the foulpoles instead of ending at the back of the infield.

Swayze:

 

[DAWG61]

It's just a bad picture with the netting in the way and it's Sep 30th so the field isn't exactly at top shape

 

[natchezdawg]

I don't understand the point..

I get putting in the foul territory around the dugouts. Those areas get tons of foot traffic.

I do not understand the point of putting in the baseline.

 

[drt7891]

It's the dirt that looks bad to me, not the grass. The dirt will look the same now as it will next April. Just a very poor execution if it's left like this.

 

[engie]

I get putting in the foul territory around the dugouts. Those areas get tons of foot traffic.

I do not understand the point of putting in the baseline.

Agreed

 

[drt7891]

It's supposed to make the transition from real to artificial more seamless, but we screwed that up majorly. It's also supposed to make it where the foul lines in the outfield are permanently painted. Again, we just threw all common sense, logic, and aesthetics out the window and said to hell with it.

 

[engie]

It's the dirt that looks bad to me, not the grass. The dirt will look the same now as it will next April. Just a very poor execution if it's left like this.

Agreed...

I guess the upside is that I imagine it can be "fixed" pretty quickly and easily -- because there is going to be significant outrage over this if left in it's current capacity. I was one of the biggest cheerleaders for putting it in foul territory, but this is a total travesty...

 

[engie]

It's supposed to make the transition from real to artificial more seamless, but we screwed that up majorly. It's also supposed to make it where the foul lines in the outfield are permanently painted. Again, we just threw all common sense, logic, and aesthetics out the window and said to hell with it.

We could even do that in the outfield(allow the lines to be painted turf) and still be a seamless transition to the grass. That's what I expected to happen in that regard...

I thought we would keep 100% of the artificial bs behind the dirt though...

 

[Xenomorph]

The fake dirt looks like ****. *

*

 

[LandArchDawg]

It looks horrid. And the line between dirt and fake dirt can be a trip hazard. Who signed off on that deal?

 

[DerHntr]

Neon red "dirt". Nothing better than that to go along with your traditions of America's pastime.

Maybe we can screw it up like the old days by spelling Mississppi wrong.**

 

[drt7891]

It saddens me to say that even making the whole infield artificial would look better. It's the sudden transition from dirt to turf that's killing me.

 

[drt7891]

Mississipi **

Mizezillatronku

 

[AlSwearengen]

Is it possible that we are going to put down a different type of dirt? I don't know **** about dirt, but if they match the color, it will look pretty good.

 

[Shamoan]

looks like we are opting for the 15 foot home plate slide.


that looks awful.....but what do the recruits think? **

 

[engie]

Is it possible that we are going to put down a different type of dirt? I don't know **** about dirt, but if they match the color, it will look pretty good.

Probably an attempt to match the "wet" dirt look. Still half *** -- and will get worse as a game goes on.

 

[JacksonDevilDog]

The areas around the batters box and the dugout get torn up and are hard to keep up. Once they get finished, it will look good. Some of our fans are probably still against us lifting weights too.

 

[DAWG61]

So we ditch the foul lines because we don't want to spend the time/money/energy to paint the foul lines every day? Man that is some weak ****! Fix this Stricklin.

 

[Cooterpoot]

Looks like ****. Straight out of Home Depot. What the hell kind of cleats you use on a half real, half fake field?

 

[thatsbaseball]

Classic MSU, Dress the football team like a bunch of snowflakes and we`re split pretty evenly between love, hate and meh. 17 with the baseball team and somebody`s gonna get their *** handed to them by everybody. For the record the field looks like **** and whoever came up with putting that crap on the base paths needs to be demoted.

 

[Mjoelner]

**I think it's great! Fake red dirt is the new black jersey! Recruits will love it!**

 

[Nugdawg]

Questions...So you are digging from second base headed to third on real dirt...you hit the third base bag on fake dirt and make the turn on fake dirt..do you trip or slow up or hesitate as a natural human tendency with a change of surface? Second....when sliding into home plate...have you now left fake dirt to slide into real dirt or are you sliding on carpet?

 

[Shamoan]

seriously, this will be a problem at some point. when reading foul/fair ball, most will tip foul because there is no give in the dirt to add the element of doubt. as a purist, this is absolute horse ****. its just terrible.....unless they make it all dirt (which looks like they wont), the game will not be the same at dnf. half of the base paths in dirt, the other half in carpet....looks like ****....affects the game....this was a horrible idea.

mr stricklindzz, what you just did is one of the most insanely idiotic things i have ever seen. at no point in your rambling, incoherent field design, were you close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. everyone in this forum is now dumber for having seen this. i award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

 

[drt7891]

If I remember correctly, OM's is extended all the way out to the foul poles. The white lines in the outfield looked permanent to me when I was there back in the spring, but I don't remember 100%. Either way, that should count for something... you can't even really tell where the fake ends and the natural begins.

I'm honestly completely pissed off by this... we not only are using fake turf (which is not really the problem, to me)... but it's like we have to show the world how not to use it. The grass/warning track is totally fine... it really is. There are plenty of ways to seamlessly transition the two where 95% of the average joes will never even know it's there (like you and I have pointed out several times now... visit Swayze field for an excellent example). Imagine how that crap is going to look on television.

ETA: The turf does extend to the foul poles. This is a much better angle. You can barely see the transition just to the inside of the foul lines.

 

[engie]

If it extends to the foul poles at Swayze -- it's a recent addition. It didn't when I was there in the 2012 baseball season. The picture I already posted shows it pretty clearly. This one does as well. It was most obvious in the warning track dirt transition just behind the bags...

 

[drt7891]

It must be recent. I remembered the turf covering all of foul ground but if you look at the picture I posted there is no transition at the infield and you can see one just to the inside of the foul lines. Also the warning track is artificial out to the foul poles

Either way, it's still very well done.

 

[uptowndawg]

I always took pride in how we maintained our grass and dirt

Do not like

 

[uptowndawg]

Wait'll you see those rad hashtags were going to

Iron on that ****. **