The Wall Street Journal - 11.03.2020

A14| Wednesday, March 11, 2020 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

F

or many years, Arizona

Diamondbacks chief exec-

utive Derrick Hall re-

ceived complaints about

the natural playing sur-

face at Chase Field.

Players grumbled that the grass

dried and hardened as the season

progressed, causing the ball to

bounce too high and roll too fast.

Medical personnel worried that

large patches of dead sod presented

an injury risk. Fans complained that

the grass looked ugly after a sum-

mer of Phoenix’s harsh desert con-

ditions and limited sunlight from

the stadium’s retractable roof.

Yet Hall refused to consider an

alternative. “I’m a traditionalist,” he

said. “I wanted real grass.”

Hall relented last year, agreeing

to replace the grass at the Dia-

mondbacks’ downtown ballpark

with artificial turf. He changed his

mind after finding a synthetic grass

technology that he believes genu-

inely mimics the real thing in terms

of how it plays and affects players’

bodies: the B1K—which stands for

“Batting 1.000”—system from Geor-

gia-based Shaw Sports Turf.

Artificial turf nearly disappeared

from Major League Baseball. Now

it’s suddenly back. After eight years

with grass at their home in Little

Havana, the Miami Marlins have

switched to Shaw’s turf in 2020.

The Texas Rangers will also use it

at Globe Life Field, their newly con-

structed stadium in Arlington

scheduled to open later this month.

It represents a controversial shift

in ballpark design: three organiza-

tions, or 10% of MLB, switching

their stadium from grass to turf in

the span of 12 months.

“We didn’t want the best turf

surface in Major League Baseball,

we wanted the best playing surface

in Major League Baseball,” said

Rangers executive vice president for

business operations Rob Matwick.

“People might say baseball should

be played on grass. I’d say it should

be played on the best quality sur-

face we could put our players on.”

Artificial turf came to baseball in

1966, after the grass at the Astro-

dome in Houston died from a lack

of sunlight the year before and

forced the Astros to play on dirt

painted green. AstroTurf—re-

branded from ChemGrass following

its arrival in Houston—quickly

swept the industry, as indoor (Seat-

tle’s Kingdome and Montreal’s

Olympic Stadium) and multipurpose

stadiums (Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers

Stadium and Cincinnati’s Riverfront

Stadium) came into fashion. By

1982, when the Metrodome opened

in Minneapolis, 10 of the 26 teams

(38%) played on fake grass.

Not everybody cared for seeing

baseball played on a neon green

carpet. In the 1988 film “Bull Dur-

ham,” Crash Davis, as portrayed

Kevin Costner, delivers a monologue

that includes the line, “I believe

BYJAREDDIAMOND

Weather

Shown are today’s noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.

City Hi Lo W Hi Lo W City Hi LoW Hi LoW

Today Tomorrow Today Tomorrow

City Hi Lo W Hi Lo W

Anchorage 15 -2 s 15 3 s

Atlanta 71 57 c 72 60 c

Austin 83 64 pc 82 65 c

Baltimore 56 41 pc 61 50 c

Boise 62 31 s 54 31 pc

Boston 5338pc 5041pc

Burlington 41 28 pc 50 41 pc

Charlotte 72 49 c 71 59 sh

Chicago 53 43 c 64 35 sh

Cleveland 50 40 c 60 46 pc

Dallas 83 66 c 86 62 t

Denver 6639pc 5430pc

Detroit 48 36 c 57 37 c

Honolulu 82 67 sh 80 68 r

Houston 81 63 c 83 65 c

Indianapolis 58 45 c 64 38 r

Kansas City 67 46 s 67 34 pc

Las Vegas 66 55 pc 71 55 sh

Little Rock 69 59 r 74 54 t

Los Angeles 69 53 pc 70 56 sh

Miami 81 67 c 83 70 s

Milwaukee 47 39 sn 57 34 r

Minneapolis 49 37 pc 46 28 pc

Nashville 68 54 t 72 53 r

New Orleans 80 64 c 81 65 c

New York City 56 43 pc 52 48 pc

Oklahoma City 73 59 c 77 47 pc

Omaha 61 44 s 58 29 pc

Orlando 84 60 s 85 60 pc

Philadelphia 59 42 pc 60 49 pc

Phoenix 72 60 r 76 56 r

Pittsburgh 51 40 pc 61 51 sh

Portland, Maine 49 32 pc 46 38 pc

Portland, Ore. 55 34 pc 55 34 pc

Sacramento 72 46 pc 76 45 s

St. Louis 66 49 pc 71 40 r

Salt Lake City 61 41 c 58 35 s

San Francisco 65 48 c 67 49 s

SantaFe 6137sh 6336c

Seattle 51 39 pc 50 37 c

Sioux Falls 56 36 s 47 28 pc

Wash., D.C. 59 46 pc 63 55 c

Amsterdam 55 45 c 50 42 pc

Athens 62 48 pc 66 52 s

Baghdad 85 57 pc 86 64 c

Bangkok 98 82 pc 97 82 pc

Beijing 56 30 pc 56 28 c

Berlin 53 47 c 52 38 c

Brussels 56 45 sh 51 40 pc

Buenos Aires 77 70 pc 79 74 c

Dubai 82 62 pc 80 64 s

Dublin 49 33 sh 48 36 c

Edinburgh 46 34 sh 46 34 pc

Frankfurt 59 51 sh 56 38 c

Geneva 64 45 pc 65 44 pc

Havana 84 64 s 86 66 pc

Hong Kong 73 69 r 77 70 r

Istanbul 59 46 s 61 45 s

Jakarta 90 75 t 87 76 t

Jerusalem 68 56 pc 75 51 c

Johannesburg 81 62 pc 80 61 s

London 57 42 c 51 41 pc

Madrid 77 51 pc 78 52 pc

Manila 91 79 s 93 76 s

Melbourne 82 64 s 83 67 pc

Mexico City 80 54 pc 82 56 pc

Milan 65 42 s 64 48 pc

Moscow 48 39 r 45 36 r

Mumbai 84 66 pc 83 64 pc

Paris 62 50 c 54 40 pc

Rio de Janeiro 82 70 s 81 71 s

Riyadh 82 57 pc 84 59 pc

Rome 62 44 pc 63 46 s

San Juan 84 73 sh 84 74 sh

Seoul 47 32 s 54 36 s

Shanghai 62 49 c 60 51 sh

Singapore 91 77 pc 90 77 pc

Sydney 7564pc 7563s

Taipei City 68 62 pc 76 65 sh

Tokyo 63 46 s 57 46 s

Toronto 4029pc 4742pc

Vancouver 48 35 s 47 35 pc

Warsaw 5440pc 5736sh

Zurich 61 45 pc 61 42 pc

Today Tomorrow

U.S. Forecasts

International

City Hi LoW Hi LoW

s...sunny; pc... partly cloudy; c...cloudy; sh...showers;

t...t’storms; r...rain; sf...snow flurries; sn...snow; i...ice

Today Tomorrow

Warm

Cold

Stationary

Showers

Rain

T-storms

Snow

Flurries

Ice

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30s

40s

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Anchorage

Jacksonville

Little Rock

Charlotte

Louisville

Pittsburgh

New York

Salt Lake City

Tampa

Nashville

Memphis

Detroit

Kansas

City

Dallas

El Paso

Billings

Portland

Miami

San Francisco

Sacramento

Orlando

Atlanta

New Orleans

Houston

Phoenix

San Diego

Los Angeles

Las

Vegas

Seattle

Boise

Denver

Mpls./St. Paul

St. Louis

Chicago

Washington D.C.

Boston

Charleston

Milwaukee Hartford

Wichita

Indianapolis

Cleveland

Buffalo

Austin

Helena Bismarck

Albuquerque

Omaha

Oklahoma City

San Antonio

Des Moines

Sioux Falls

Jackson Birmingham

Cheyenne Philadelphia

Reno

Santa Fe

Colorado

Springs

Pierre

Richmond

Raleigh

Tucson

Albany

Topeka

Columbia

Augusta

Ft. Worth

Eugene

Springfield

Mobile

Toronto

Ottawa

Montreal

Winnipeg

Vancouver Calgary

Edmonton

60s

70s

40s

20s 30s

10s

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-0s

90s

80s 80s 80s

70s

70s

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40s

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40s 40s

30s 30s

30s

30s

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20s

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0s

DOUBLE HEADERS| By Lynn Lempel

Across

1 Sharks and Jets,

e.g.

6 Hunk on a wall

11 “Frontline”

network

14 Sign of spring

15 Sister brand of

KitchenAid

16 Plan for senior

yrs.

17 Dentist’s

journal

submission?

19 Badger

20 Manipulative

type

21 Programmers’

inelegant

solutions

22 Teeny bit

23 Renaissance

rulers of Florence

25 “Sorry, too busy”

27 Lead-in to a lively

dance?

32 Tide rival

35 Butterfly locale?

36 Show to be true

37 It’s at the end of

the line

39 DNA kit tools

42 Equal, on

scoreboards

43 Lagoon

surrounder

45 Mare’s offspring,

perhaps

47 ER staffers

48 Cruise for

confectioners?

52 “Yikes!”

53 Consider

carefully

57 Distort

59 Guiding

philosophy

62 Irked

63 Words with roll

or rampage

64 Fires set by

frustrated math

puzzlers?

66 Boating hazard

67 Boating hazards

68 Send in payment

69 Cut from the

staff

70 Singer Lauper

71 Long-eared

equines

TheWSJDailyCrossword |Edited by Mike Shenk

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14 15 16

17 18 19

20 21 22

23 24 25 26

27 28 29 30 31

32 33 34 35 36

37 38 39 40 41 42

43 44 45 46 47

48 49 50 51

52 53 54 55 56

57 58 59 60 61 62

63 64 65

66 67 68

69 70 71

Previous Puzzle’s Solution

s

Solve this puzzle online and discuss it at WSJ.com/Puzzles.

LOOFA LCDS AND

ANWAR DEREK PEA

GU I LE UNABASHED

SPELT MAST KIDD

IHOP HOLIDAY

CATNAPS I RAN

OR I G STAN SN I DE

LEVIS EGG SYRIA

ASONE REAL DONT

LEWD PARINGS

MOLOKAI APOP

UN I V RVER OPALS

MAK EAM I NT K I LOS

PIE WENDY INFUN

SRS ERGS EGADS

Down

1 O’Neal who won

an Oscar when

ten years old

2 Remove from

memory

3 Put on

4 Like liters

5 Govt. agency

that’s got your

number

6 One of a bear trio

7 Apple on a

desktop

8 Laptop

accessory?

9 Org. that selects

World Heritage

Sites

10 Course standard

11 Burgundy wine

12 Babysitter’s bane

13 Lengthy chronicle

18 Horned

heavyweights

22 Static

24 Upper limit

26 Purchase from a

virtual store

28 Intimidate

29 1836 battle site

30 Equal, on

scoreboards

31 Burgundy wines

32 Exerciser’s

target

33 Shutter speed

setting

34 Dawn of metal

tools

38 Radius end

40 Ad entreaty

41 Apply

indifferently

44 Daily weather

factoid

46 Psychotherapy

concern

49 Perfectly well

50 Mount for

George

Washington?

51 Follows

54 Brown buildings

55 Bert’s buddy

56 Takes a break

57 Catnap spot

58 Fort in

“Goldfinger”

60 Scratched (out)

61 Lucy’s TV

partner

64 Seller of Chicken

Littles

65 ThirdLove

product

Shaw’s turf.

“I’m comfortable going forward

that this artificial playing surface

will be better than the attempt at

real grass in a really tough environ-

ment,” Reed said.

The three stadiums that replaced

their grass share a lot in common:

They play in cities with extreme

weather and have retractable roofs.

Three other teams—the Astros, Mil-

waukee Brewers and Seattle Mari-

ners—play in stadiums with retract-

able roofs and natural grass.

In Miami, the amount of rain and

high humidity made growing qual-

ity grass a challenge, resulting in a

surface “inconsistent for our play-

ers” and “aesthetically not up to

our standards,” Marlins chief reve-

nue officer Adam Jones said. He

added that artificial surface will en-

able the Marlins to more easily use

the stadium for non-baseball events

in the season.

In Arizona, Hall says the addition

of turf improved the experience for

players and fans. With grass, the Di-

amondbacks needed to keep the

roof open until 4 p.m. at the earli-

est before 7 p.m. games to let sun-

light onto the grass. That led to

players working out before games

outdoors with temperatures of 110

degrees or more. Often, the air con-

ditioning wouldn’t kick in fast

enough to stop fans from sitting in

a blistering hot building early in the

game. Now the roof can remain

closed all summer.

A Diamondbacks player, above, walks on the Chase Field turf. Arizona switched from grass to artificial turf last season.

Artificial Turf Strikes Back

Three teams—Arizona, Miami and Texas—have switched from grass to fake grass in the past year

ELAINE THOMPSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS, JASON MOORE/ZUMA PRESS

THE IVY LEAGUE on Tuesday

canceled its men’s and women’s

conference basketball tourna-

ments due to health concerns

surrounding coronavirus, the lat-

est sign that the road to the Fi-

nal Four this year remains un-

certain amid the epidemic.

The tournaments were to de-

cide which Ivy League teams

would receive automatic berths

to March Madness. Instead, the

teams with the best regular sea-

son record—Yale’s men and

Princeton’s women—will receive

the conference’s automatic bid

to the NCAA tournament. Teams

with the second-best records

will play in the National Invita-

tional Tournament.

“Regrettably, the information

and recommendations presented

to us from public health authori-

ties and medical professionals

have convinced us that this is

the most prudent decision,” said

Ivy League executive director

Robin Harris.

The Ivy League became the

first to take any significant mea-

sure in response to the coronavi-

rus outbreak. Several of the con-

ference’s schools are currently

on spring break.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine called

Tuesday for indoor sports games

and outdoor sports gatherings in

his state to bar spectators over

coronavirus fears, facing off

against the NCAA, baseball, bas-

ketball and hockey franchises,

who have big events scheduled

this month.

None of the sports organiza-

tions immediately agreed to De-

Wine’s request, which is one of

the farthest-reaching by a local

official to date and shows how

unpopular decisions about

sports cancellations are likely to

become a political hot potato.

DeWine stopped short of issu-

ing an order prohibiting fans

from attending, or canceling

games. But spokesman Dan Tier-

ney said the governor was

“strongly recommending” sports

organizations comply with the

suggestion, that would extend to

the “foreseeable future.”

SPORTS

BYLAINEHIGGINS

ANDLOUISERADNOFSKY

Ivy League

Cancels

Tournament

Yale’s men won the regular season.

there ought to be a constitutional

amendment outlawing AstroTurf

and the designated hitter.”

Tastes began to revert in 1992,

when the Baltimore Orioles moved

into Camden Yards, a baseball-only

facility that sparked the construc-

tion of “retro” ballparks around the

country. These stadiums incorpo-

rated elements of stadiums of yore,

and all of them featured grass.

As recently as 2018, only two

teams still played on an artificial

surface: the Toronto Blue Jays at

the retractable-roof Rogers

Centre and the Tampa Bay

Rays at Tropicana Field,

the last domed sta-

dium in baseball.

Given the persistent

rumors about the

Blue Jays perhaps

considering grass

and the Rays actively

looking to build a new

stadium in Florida or

elsewhere, the end of arti-

ficial turf in baseball after

more than half a century appeared

possible, if not imminent.

“You can make turf that looks

perfectly identical, but it’s still not

grass,” said Mark Anderson, a 47-

year-old resident of Savannah, Ga.,

who runs the popular “MLBcathe-

drals” Twitter account, which posts

pictures of ballparks to its 82,

followers. “It’s the artificial versus

real Christmas tree argument: Some

of the fake ones look phenomenal,

but it’s still not a real Christmas

tree.”

Chuck McClurg, vice president of

Shaw Sports Turf, understands that

some fans feel that way. “That’s a

natural response,” he said. “Base-

ball is America’s pastime. It’s al-

waysbeenplayedonnaturalgrass.”

But McClurg and the teams now

partnering with Shaw insist that

this latest incarnation of turf bears

no resemblance to old-school Astro-

Turf, or even more recent versions

that consist of individual blades of

“grass.” It uses a plant-based

infill made up of 90% coco-

nut instead of the tradi-

tional rubber pellets

and sand. Teams say

the new substance

acts like actual soil.

Jamie Reed, the

Rangers’ senior di-

rector of medical op-

erations and sports

science, took an active

role in studies at Auburn

University designed to test

the surface. In 2018, Shaw visited

the Rangers’ old stadium and shot

baseballs out of cannons to test

how they behaved on the grass, so

it could replicate the speed and

bounce on turf. Shaw also con-

ducted kinesiology studies in an ef-

fort to create a surface that didn’t

lead to injuries. This ultimately led

to the Rangers abandoning their

initial plan of attempting natural

grass at their new park in favor of

5

Number of Major

League Baseball teams

that will play their home

games on artificial turf

in 2020.