MLB infields built with dirt from Western Pa.
— This is not a story about dirt. It’s actually a story about an old asphalt plant, a set of computers older than the average baseball player and a man who revolutionized an industry he didn’t know existed. OK, and it is about dirt. But this dirt is special: It starts under the ground in Western Pennsylvania and ends under the cleats of the best baseball players in the world.
“Most people have no idea that the infield mix for Major League Baseball, from San Diego to Boston, comes from Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania,” said Grant McKnight, president and founder of DuraEdge.
DuraEdge, which has administrative offices in Grove City, counts 21 of MLB’s 30 stadiums among its clients, including iconic ballparks such as PNC Park, AT&T Park and Wrigley Field.
DuraEdge makes its soil at a former asphalt plant in Plain Grove, near Slippery Rock. The operation runs on decades-old computers, in a trailer the team affectionately calls “mission control.” Large hoppers spit out sand and clay onto belt feeders, which carry the materials into a 1950s pugmill that McKnight bought at an old farm field in Ohio. Piles of red clay stand nearby, like scale models of the Grand Canyon.
McKnight happens to be from Western Pennsylvania, whose clay, he insists, is special.
“Not all dirt is created equal,” McKnight said. “It’s a very, very unique mineral.”
That clay, mined in a proprietary location near the plant, is the only material that appears in all of the company’s infields. DuraEdge ships that clay by barge, train and truck down the Ohio River and across Appalachia’s railways to the company’s nine mixing facilities throughout the country, where it’s blended with locally sourced sand.
What makes this dirt different from all other dirt? Matt Brown, the Pirates’ director of field operations, said DuraEdge infields are easier to maintain, sturdier and less prone to “chunkPITTSBURGH
ing” when a player slides or pivots, resulting in fewer funky baseball hops. Plus, the clay is absorbent, letting teams play in rain and even preventing costly postponements. Before the Pirates installed a DuraEdge infield in fall 2008, PNC Park averaged 5.6 postponed games each season. Since then, that number has shrunk to 2.5 postponed games per year, according to data provided by the team.
“Once it’s in place, it’s pretty much foolproof,” Brown said. “It takes an obscene amount of water, as you can see. We’re able to play four or five innings in a moderate rain and be completely fine.”
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