By Luc Robert
The provisional delivery of the future synthetic baseball field on rue Filion to the City of Saint-Jérôme took place Thursday, November 21, while a multitude of engineers carried out an evaluation of the construction, compared to what was planned in the plans and specifications.
“We mainly looked at compliance and the small adjustments to be made at the ball park. It’s a beautiful job and the locations are superb. I would like to reassure people who mentioned that there are not many platforms. We designed a lot of embankments in the outfield, which will serve as natural benches. It will be great with the mountains overlooking the fence,” noted engineer Pierre-Luc Legault, from the City of Saint-Jérôme.
The view from home plate indeed offers a majestic mountainous landscape towards center and right fields, with the mounds reminiscent of the rock and turf layout of the “California Spectacular”, located at Angels Stadium in Anaheim.
“It will impress the players”
The surface of the field is entirely synthetic. The space around home plate, as well as the running lines of the paths, usually kept on clay, are also made of synthetic materials.
“It’s sure to impress the players the first time they step onto the Turf. The brown surfaces are made of walnut, whose fibers retain water and keep the temperature lower than that of first generation synthetic pitches. There will no longer be drastic increases in mercury and the risk of heat stroke. The Game-On process is unique in Quebec. This technology made me invest $150,000 out of my own pocket in the adventure, but since it was installed at my home in Saint-Jérôme, I did not hesitate to put in the work. The Turf looks great and I’m very happy with the finished product: it cost $1M in total. The Cusson-Morin engineering firm did exceptional work, while I was very impressed by the efforts made by the City of Saint-Jérôme,” underlined Mr. Luc Rochon, owner of GTR Turf de Saint-Colomban , subcontractor for the surface of the land.
According to the latter, the pitch will be safe, even at the warning track, where players are used to treading on gravel before hitting the boundary fence.
“The warning track has a special texture, different from Turf. Then you know you’re getting closer to the end of the field. As for the walnuts in the infield, they will be brushed every 100 hours of use by the brushes of a maintenance tractor. This will bring the grains back to their area. We have surpassed ourselves and we hope that the population will see our efforts. We deliver organic land, 100% recyclable. There is even a shock-absorbing underlay installed under the carpet, to prevent injuries,” underlined Mr. Rochon, referring to the damaged knees of Andre Dawson, on the old surface of the Olympic Stadium.
Old dump
For his part, Mayor Marc Bourcier said he was happy to have reached the final stages of creating the park.
“I did not go back to see the alterations, after having viewed the Turf installed. There remained light tests, spreading of walnuts, and seeding of the park’s exterior grass to be carried out. The work is on point and will meet the needs of Jérôme athletes. It’s amazing to think that we were able to build the land on a former tailings site. It revitalizes the sector,” he argued.
Some anomalies
Nothing better than the eye of former players and ball managers to evaluate places. Two ex-baseballers took part in the exercise with the newspaper The North on site.
“The field remains very beautiful, with immense clearance space behind home plate, allowing junior or senior national championships to be held. The large retention basin to the left of 3rd base will also help limit the accumulation of water. However, we cannot ignore a few omissions: the roof pallet of the shelters should be extended by two feet. Players stand on the fences during matches and equipment bags are also placed there. They will be exposed and get wet,” predicted one of them. The other specialist continued: “The clearance space between the boundary lines and the side fences is tight. In a field of this size, there are always two adjoining exercise mounds near the fences. There can only be one here, on each side. In diamond, installing an artificial mound also presents challenges, depending on the quality of it. At Maurice-Tessier Park in Blainville, an artificial mound ended up malfunctioning and pitchers twisted their ankles. But overall, the Saint-Jérôme ball field seems a great success,” finished our other enthusiast.
