The Sodfather: A Game to Remember

By Hannah Sundwall

Roger Bossard, better known as the Sodfather, was tested during Monday’s game vs. Kansas City.

The Sox and Royals were delayed twice before the game was officially suspended in the bottom of the fifth inning with the game tied 1–1.

As the stadium cleared out, Bossard and his crew got to work to repair the damage that had been done.

“I have a 24-man crew and we stayed close to 10:15 p.m. last night. We scraped close to three tons of conditioner off. The problem with the groundskeeper is that when you scrape it off, then you have to start adding stuff back on because the condition for the ball to bounce is the amount of material or conditioner that you put on the field. So we stripped it all last night, I put on about a half a ton of stuff and then this morning I rolled it two times. It’s in pretty good shape right now.

As far as the water, I have a little meter out in center field, one of the many things I’ve got, and I had a little more than an inch and three quarters of water.”

According to Bossard, when a one inch micro-burst hits a baseball field, it drops about 64,000 gallons onto the field. In all, there was roughly 115,000 gallons of rain to hit the field at Guaranteed Rate Field on Monday.

“The field took it well, I was really happy with the drainage system, once again the infield clay is a different story. There’s a reason why we’ve got a tarp.”

The Sodfather is always prepared and has 14 tons of quick dry on hand, for situations like this. On Monday, Bossard went through 121 bags of quick dry (approximately three tons worth).

“Last May, we had a lot of rain, we had over eight inches of rain and we haven’t had that much rain this year. But it seems like every time the White Sox come in town, rain is on the tail of the plane. I guess it’s something as a groundkeeper, you have to deal with.”

We’re glad we have Roger on our side.