By Katie Vasquez and Jim Mancari
Finally, after a long, cold winter, baseball is back!
And with baseball comes the exquisitely mowed grass, smoothed infield dirt, and expertly painted chalk lines on the field — all prepared to ensure a quality, consistent product is delivered each night.
As fans, it’s easy to take the grounds crew for granted. Especially for New York fans, we’re so focused on the action that takes place on the field that we may not realize what it actually takes to get that field ready to play.
All this to say, there’s much more to the grounds crew than being the people who unroll the tarp when it’s raining.
Nick Baker, a parishioner at St. Mel in Flushing, is the manager of field operations for the New York Mets, and his office is Citi Field in Queens. He and his team are tasked with caring for every inch of the playing surface with the utmost detail — truly an Amazin’ career path.
A native of Iowa, Baker always enjoyed being outdoors. He played Little League baseball in his hometown of Albia, and he took a special liking to one of MLB’s brightest stars at the time.
“With there not being a professional team in Iowa, I grew up being a Mets fan,” Baker said. “I was a catcher, so of course I was drawn to Mike Piazza.”
While at Iowa State University, he channeled his passion for the outdoors into earning a horticulture degree with an emphasis on turf management. In 2009, he spent the season as an intern with the Mets’ grounds crew during the inaugural season at Citi Field while also attending Mass at St. Luke in Whitestone.
For his first few years in the business, he bounced around to cities across the country. He spent time with the Minnesota Twins organization, the St. Paul Saints of the Independent League, and the Milwaukee Brewers spring training complex in Phoenix. At each stop, his Catholic faith remained a staple in his life.
“The one constant for me was that there’s always been a church,” Baker said. “First, I would find the ballpark, and then I would find a church to go to.”
In 2019, he returned to the Big Apple — this time with his wife, Emily, and their three children: Adeline, 11; Flynn, 9; and Cora, 6. His son, Flynn, is named after Pete Flynn, the late longtime Shea Stadium head groundskeeper.
Emily coaches Adeline in Catholic Youth Organization volleyball for Sacred Heart, Bayside, and all three children attend religious education at St. Luke’s, where their parents are the teachers.
Throughout the offseason, Baker and the grounds crew team still tend to the field closely months before the start of the season. They cover the grass with geotextile blankets to make a greenhouse effect on the ground, and they maintain the infield dirt, warning track, pitcher’s mound, and batter’s boxes religiously.
Once the season begins, it’s a daily process to care for the field. Much like ballplayers go through the same exact routine every day to get ready to play, the grounds crew follows the same exact steps to get the field ready so that those players can play.
The day starts at 8 a.m. and continues throughout the morning and into the evening. Mowing, soaking, leveling, filling — you name it, this team does it and does it well.
When batting practice ends around 6 p.m., the crew puts the finishing touches on the prep, such as one last watering, painting the lines, positioning the bases, and smoothing out the dirt. After the third and sixth innings, they’re back out there, switching the bases and dragging the infield to ensure a true hop for the ball.
“I call it Groundhog Day some days because it’s the same thing over and over,” Baker said.
In baseball, every play is critical to the outcome of a game, so the grounds crew takes pride in making sure the field is in pristine condition, which lets the players’ talents dictate the outcome. It’s a beautiful thing!
The Catholic virtue of patience is an integral part of Baker’s life. It takes more than 11 hours to prepare the field for a night game, and it takes an entire offseason to get the field ready for the long haul of the regular season.
Staying grounded and staying patient goes a long way as a groundskeeper, so Baker’s Catholic faith has molded him perfectly for this unique career.
If you attend a Mets game at Citi Field this season, marvel at the gorgeous site you’re beholding and admire the work that went into the stunning masterpiece.