The team I help out plays at a lot of local middle school fields, and among numerous problems, they all seem to not be level or anything close. Does anyone have any advice on how someone could go about leveling an entire field (infield, outfield, and foul territory) without forking over the dough for a professional grading job? Maybe that would be the only option, but I'm just wondering if anyone else has ideas. Not that I have the power to actually do this, but it just got me thinking that there had to be a way.

Get a trancent (not sure how to spell it - the tripod looking through think you see guys on the side of the road using) and find the high point that you want. Kill the grass and stake out the heights you want the ground so you can get the slope you want.

You can probably get a small tractor with a blade on the front to push the dirt. If you can just find some guys who know how to do this work it's really not that hard but you need to know what to do.

Not sure if this would be the best way to do this but this is how I would do it.

This won't be much help, but here is something else to think about. Coach2709 has replied on how to lower a local high spot, but if you are thinking about changing the overall slope of the field, or anything involving moving large amounts of earth, then you probably would need to worry about drainage of the field. A field that is nice and flat and the same height everywhere has no obvious path for rain or over-irrigation to escape. Here in California, many fields have been converted to artificial turf (not the carpet type, but the long plastic fibers held down by little black rubber balls). These fields are very level, and I'm told that providing a drainage network is a much bigger expense than the grading. I think the same considerations would apply to a grass field if it is made very level.

I haven't tried this but saw it and thought you might want to give it a look.
http://www.ultimate-baseball-field-renovation-guide.com/roller.html

quote:

Originally posted by Ryno23:
I haven't tried this but saw it and thought you might want to give it a look.
http://www.ultimate-baseball-field-renovation-guide.com/roller.html

We have used these rollers on the above website and they do an excellent job of flattening fields, but not such much for leveling a field that needs grade or slope work.

Try a harley rake or a tiller and loosen up the top layer of dirt. Then go over with a heavy drag and then a regular drag. The problem of uneveness seems to come from busy spots(positions, sliding paths, etc..) if you can loosen the high spots and move the dirt into the low spots, you porblem should go away. After you use the field, it's a good idea to take a rake and push the dirt back into the low areas or even drag the entire field. Once you do that, wet those areas down real good and they should harden up like the rest of the field.

This may sound daunting but there is really no easy way to do it. Once you fix the problems, keep up your daily maitenance and it will be much easier in the future.

Hope this helps,
Jon
www.hardballcoach.com

i have a friend in the paving busines, he was happy to bring his grader to the field for free. i'm sure you have a local contractor that would donate his service.

we only did the infield, but it doesn't take long with the right tools and know how.