Proactive Turf Management: Lessons from a Winning Groundskeeper

The West Michigan Whitecaps are without question one of the premier franchises in baseball. Not in the Midwest League. Not in the minor leagues. In all of baseball. 

If you’re looking for proof, you don’t have to look far. Since 2000, the Whitecaps have won five league championships — more than even legendary MLB teams such as the Boston Red Sox and the San Francisco Giants. And if the honors stopped there, it would be more than enough. 

But they don’t. 

LMCU Ballpark, home of the Whitecaps, was named Professional Baseball Field of the Year by the Sports Field Management Association in 2023. Head groundskeeper Mitch Hooten earned the title of Sports Field Manager of the Year in 2019 and is a four-time Midwest League Groundskeeper of the Year winner, in 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2025. He also was named Minor League Baseball’s High-A Groundskeeper of the Year in 2025.

Hooten has earned his success the same way a good team does: by focusing on the fundamentals and controlling everything within his ability, before small problems become major headaches.

“There’s a lot of preventive maintenance that happens on this field,” Hooten says. “Instead of waiting for something to happen, I try to catch it before it gets out of hand. Eighty to 90% of what we do to this field is proactive. We’re trying to make the plant stronger, make the field stronger, and head off problems before we have to re-sod or spend a lot of money on repairs.”

Better drainage for stronger turf

Getting to this point, however, hasn’t been without challenges. The entire playing surface was rebuilt in the 2024-2025 offseason as part of a larger stadium modernization project. Drainage issues, a natural by-product of the ballpark’s location alongside the Grand River, had long plagued the field. 

“This whole area is considered a flood plain,” Hooten says. “It’s basically just junk — river bottom, muck, sand and clay. But the bigger problem is that our water table is extremely high. Before we built the new surface, we put live wells in to test the water. In left field, we had solid water 2 feet below the surface, so that last season on the old field, we deep watered just twice the entire year, so we knew we had a problem. We don’t want a self-watering field, especially from groundwater. We want to control everything we can.” 

The renovation involved more than just putting down new turf. A new 15-inch concrete subbase was laid 2 feet below the playing surface; new drainage and irrigation systems were installed as well.

“Now when it rains,” Hooten says, “the whole field drains properly. Before the renovation, when it would rain, the water would just stand. We’d dump the tarps and the water would just sit.”

Beyond the inconvenience, standing water meant an open invitation for fungal pathogens and the diseases they bring. 

“We would get pythium badly,” Hooten says, “especially in left field where our water table was so high. I remember leaving the field one Friday afternoon and, when I came back on Sunday to mow, left field was just gone. We had a great fungicide program, but it didn’t matter. Pythium had taken over.”

Managing sports turf stress

These days, Hooten finds himself less worried about losing entire sections of the field to disease, but he is still concerned with wear spots that can create conditions ripe for smaller, unsightly outbreaks. 

“The old saying is 80% of the game is played on the infield,” Hooten says. “So that infield takes a lot of abuse. Even players standing in their position spots creates a lot of wear. We had to re-sod the corners in front of the bullpen because the pitchers just wore it out.”

If it were just Whitecaps players — or even just baseball games — that would be one thing. But the field at LMCU Ballpark hosts high school football games and the occasional concert, and those events all take a toll on the playing surface Hooten and his staff have worked hard to build. 

“But a strong fungicide program, along with a balanced fertility program, good cultural practices, and turf that’s disease resistant to at least some diseases — it all helps.”
—Mitch Hooten - head groundskeeper at LMCU Ballpark in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Weather challenges in sports turf management

Baseball games and practice sessions, concerts and football — these are all at least somewhat predictable. Weather is the ultimate variable for groundskeepers like Hooten. Springs that are rainy. Or not. Summers that are hot and dry, unless they’re cool and wet. 

“In the spring of 2026, we had a lot of rain,” he says. “It was one of the wettest springs on record. Plus, our nighttime temperatures were in the 30s and 40s into May. Then we went from that to the 90s and 100s, then back down into the 70s. But that’s the fun part of managing this field; it’s just a roller coaster of extremes.”

And then there’s winter. With a potential snowfall of over 100 inches — winter of 2025 saw close to 120 inches — and the last events of the season happening in late September or even early October, Hooten and his crew are on a tight timetable to get the field ready for its long winter’s nap.

“Usually, by the end of July, I’m already planning for the winter,” he says. “This year, we have one, potentially two high school football games that will be played here in October. And the last few years, we’ve had 3 to 5 inches of snow on the ground on Halloween. So, we might end up with just three weeks to grow it in while we shut everything down for the winter.”

Building a proactive turf management program

After 10 years of experience at LMCU Ballpark, Hooten and his staff have settled into a maintenance program that keeps the players and fans happy and that minimizes the need for rescue treatments or other heroic measures. He credits a fair amount of trial and error, good record-keeping, and an eagerness to engage with and learn from industry sales representatives. 

“I like to follow the research,” Hooten says. “I keep up with what the scientists with the different chemical companies are doing, and I like meeting sales reps and having one-on-one conversations. The best product reps I work with are a lot smarter than I am, so when they share their knowledge, I listen.”