Diggin' time, diggin' time....

Thurs. Aug. 19th. It's Diamond Dig Night. This was event first held last year at MBP. It was an evening of mixed feelings for the grounds crew. On one hand it was very entertaining for us to see a bunch of extremely focused women digging like crazy in the infield, some them probably well-oiled from 2-buck beer on the boardwalk night. And digging with plastic spoons to boot. But no plastic spoons tonight. They made such a mess with them last year that we lobbied hard for metal, citing the reduced cleanup factor and the ability to use them again. It worked. We were happy. So we played the game, gave away another one in the late innings. And then it was time. We did some quick cleanup then prepped the infield for the onslaught. The box with the stand-in diamond had been buried by Tim and Knute the night before after we left for the evening. learning some lessons from last year, we knew that it was buried at least a foot off all the grass edges. The women last year dug right next to the infield grass and we had to rake all the dirt out of the grass afterwards. Tim also hinted that it would be buried not quite as deep, so it would probably be in a low traffic area, so as not to be dug up by any of the players inadvertently. We lined the infield into 4 quadrants and the women filed onto the field and staked out their spots. They would have 3 minutes to dig in the first round. After that the quadrants would be shut down 1 at a time and the women in those quadrants would be eliminated from the competition. When the word was given, the action was fast and furious, all the women tightly focused on the big prize, a 1 carat, $2500.00 diamond pendant. The first segment expired with no winner and the women in quadrant 1 were dismissed. No winner in the 2nd segment either and the group in quadrant 2 were eliminated. The diamond still wasn't found in segment 3, and the women in quadrant 3 were moved over to quadrant 4 near the 3rd base line to dig 1 more time. This time, though, we had a winner, with about 20 seconds to go on the clock. It was buried about 2 feet behind the 3rd base bag, right along the line. Of the 80-100 women on the field, 1 was extremely happy. As they all cleared out, we surveyed the carnage, and were actually pleasantly surprised. Not nearly as bad as last year, and no plastic spoons to clean up. One more in the books and now it was time for a weekend break before heading into the final home stand of the season. So until Mon. Aug. 23rd, we'll see ya. Later..