Lawn Care for Atlanta Braves Truist Park

A lot of work and preparation goes into the maintenance and care of a Major League Baseball field. For one thing, the stadiums are massive. Take Truist Park, home of the reigning World Series champion Atlanta Braves, for example. The deepest point from home plate goes all the way out to 402 feet. Other parts of the field go beyond 300 feet. This doesn’t even take into account all the grass behind home plate, in front of each dugout, and along the foul line.

That’s a lot of surface area to take care of. Given the stakes that come from the most popular professional baseball league in the world, there’s pressure to deliver the highest quality of conditioning. The same applies to the landscaping beyond the field, whether that’s within the arena or in the concourse outside the gates. 

It’s all part of keeping up appearances. When fans spend their hard-earned money on an experience you’re providing, it certainly can’t hurt to make the environment of that experience feel as pristine as possible. For that, the Braves have trusted one company going on a decade now.

Who manages the lawn care for Truist Park and the Atlanta Braves?

HighGrove Partners has been the official landscaper for the Atlanta Braves for the last 10 years. Based in Austell Georgia, HighGrove doesn’t actually care for the Braves’ baseball field itself. More on who takes on that responsibility in a bit. What HighGrove Partners does, however, is maintain all other types of landscaping both inside and around the surrounding area of Truist Park.

For example, Truist Park the Monument Garden, a place within the stadium where fans can relive and look back on some of the greatest moments in Braves history through memorabilia, statues, and more. Within the confines of that Garden is artificial planting installed by HighGrove Partners to give the Garden a more lively appearance. But the work hardly stops there.

Right next to Truist Park is a lovely two million square foot space called The Battery Arena. Within this property is the chance for anyone to grab a bite to eat, do a bit of shopping, or stay the night at a hotel. It’s a hot destination for fans to visit before they head inside Truist Park to watch the Braves, and HighGrove Partners puts in a lot of effort to make sure the space looks as lovely as possible, especially when the stakes for the Braves are at their highest.

“That work consists of pruning, making sure the weeds are under control at all times and the mulch is tucked and in place,” says Ryan Gardiner, vice president of client services for HighGrove. “Obviously, at times like this when we have these games and there are large numbers of people there for the World Series games, we have to be careful of making sure that there’s no damage done to the plants and pick up trash and making sure things are in place. Honestly, it’s all about the fan experience and making sure when the fans go there, they know they’re at a place that looks fantastic.”

Who manages the actual baseball field inside Truist Park and in other MLB stadiums?

Every MLB team has what’s called a grounds crew. The job of the grounds crew is to supervise and maintain the conditioning of the baseball field. They have to preserve the grass and the dirt within the infield to ensure it can be used to its highest capabilities, and there are a lot of aspects that go into those responsibilities. 

It starts with the grass that has to be trimmed every single day. Given the size of even the smaller MLB baseball fields, that can take a lot of time, but the field has to be in nearly identical condition every single day.

The foul lines that go down both the first and third base line can get ruined over the course of a game. It’s on the grounds crew to repaint the lines before the next game to ensure that the umpires can make the right calls if a ball is hit near the line. 

And in the event of inclement weather, the job falls on the grounds crew to both know in advance of possible weather conditions and be ready to apply a tarp around the infield to protect the surface should it begin to rain.

Why is it important for MLB stadiums to have lawn care both on and off the baseball field?

There’s an obvious answer here, at least in regards to the actual baseball field. If the field isn’t kept in pristine condition, it could lead to injuries by players not expecting the grass to be anything but leveled across its entirety or the dirt that’s wet because the grounds crew failed to put the tarp over the infield. And when injuries occur because of that negligence, it reflects badly on the organization that plays in that stadium and is responsible for the upkeep of the field.

When it comes to the care of that which is off the actual baseball field, it’s all about keeping up appearances. A world-class sports organization like the Braves, as reigning World Series champions, wants to uphold a certain image. One creates that image by taking care of the little things like the flowers and grass outside and inside the stadium, and it sets a standard that resonates throughout the entire organization.

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Sources

• https://blog.landscapeprofessionals.org/highgrove-partners-prepares-truist-park-for-world-series-games/ 

• https://work.chron.com/duties-baseball-groundskeeper-22114.html 

• https://www.mlb.com/braves/ballpark/events/venues/monument-garden