Big-League Professionals Who Aren't Afraid of Getting a Little Dirty

To some fans, a convention of groundskeepers may sound slightly absurd — Does everyone show up with a rake? Is lawn bowling a group activity (actually, it is) — but these men and women are at the foundation of the game, the ones who keep outfields looking lush and infields level, who keep bad bounces at a minimum and rain delays from becoming chaotic.

All evidence suggests they enjoy what they do.

“When my girls were little, my wife was driving by the ballpark, and the oldest one pointed and said, ‘Hey look, that’s where Daddy lives,’ ” said David Mellor the director of grounds for the Boston Red Sox. “That really bothered me.’ ”

Nevertheless, he said the job was the next best thing to playing.

“I’m allergic to grass, and when I mow grass, my head fills up,” he said. “But I love it.”

As the longtime groundskeeper George Toma, who is now 83, said about still working as a consultant: “People say to me, ‘George, you should stop and smell the roses.’ But I ask you: What better smell is there than the fragrance of fresh-mowed grass?”

This is the 14th year that there has been a groundskeepers convention, and almost all of the 30 teams were represented.

“We like each other,” said Bob Christofferson, the head groundskeeper for the Seattle Mariners. “We compete with our teams, not with each other.”

Together for three days, they buy each other rounds at the bar, listen to guest speakers — the list this year included the veteran umpire Gerry Davis and Joe Garagiola Jr., a vice president for Major League Baseball — and, like everyone else, commiserate about the weather.