“It plays slow -- slower than grass -- but I have to say my legs feel a lot better right now than they would if we were still playing on that thin old carpet. Eight games into homestand in years past, I would be dying. My whole body would be sore. Now, I feel good.”
Torii Hunter, Minnesota Twins
Tigers to play Tulane at Turchin
Apr 22, 2008
www.2theadvocate.com
by Randy Rosetta
There will be a little something old and something new today when LSU and Tulane tangle on the baseball diamond for the second time this season.
What the Tigers also hope they can snatch is a much-needed breath of fresh air.
LSU (23-16-1) and the Green Wave (27-12-1) square off at 6 p.m. at Turchin Stadium on Tulane’s campus.
That’s where the old comes in. The Tigers will play on Tulane’s campus for the first time since 1997. In 14 meetings between 1998-2007 when the teams played in New Orleans, it was either at Zephyr Field or at the Superdome, with the Wave holding a 9-5 advantage in those games.
The new?
Tulane’s stadium has been completely rebuilt and spiffed up since it was damaged by Hurricane Katrina. This is Tulane’s first season back in its on-campus digs since 2005.
So LSU, the team counting down the days in its own venerable facility, will make its first appearance at the new Turchin, where the Wave is 21-5-1 this season.
“The new place is great for our fans,” Tulane coach Rick Jones said. “We were the last displaced team in the city to get back into our home. We went two years without a facility.”
The most notable nuance of the stadium is the playing surface. Tulane installed FieldTurf, a synthetic surface known best as the new artificial surface of choice in football.
The Wave’s field is completely FieldTurf — a rubber surface-based substance that emulates grass instead of being similar to carpet. Except for the pitcher’s mound, there are no dirt cutouts on the field at Turchin. The areas around the bases and the warning track are FieldTurf but painted brown.
“The FieldTurf has allowed us to get games in with bad weather that we wouldn’t have with real grass,” Jones said. “It’s been minimum maintenance and maximum practice time.
“It plays like a natural turf and doesn’t offend the senses if you are a baseball purist.”
LSU doesn’t figure to be offended, especially if the Tigers can figure out a way to get back on the right track.The following material was derived from foreign sources and is only available in its original language.
