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Step inside Labatt Park, with head groundskeeper Mitch Lumley, to learn what goes into preparing the historic diamond for games, including for the team’s longest tenant – the London Majors.
It seems like the perfect fit. Mitch Lumley grew up on this diamond, after all, competing with the London Badgers as a youngster – eventually spending parts of two seasons with the London Majors over a decade ago.
And Labatt Park is in the Lumleys’ blood. Mike, Mitch’s father, a key figure in baseball in the Forest City for decades, once pitched in this park as a member of the London Tigers, in the early 90s, when the Detroit Tigers’ Double-A affiliate called this place home.
“I’ve been at this field every single week of my life since I was little,” the younger Lumley said. “This field means everything to me, so to work here has been such a cool experience.”
Mitch Lumley is the head groundskeeper at Labatt Park, where he maintains the city’s crown jewel of a ballpark, which just happens to be the world’s oldest continuously active baseball grounds in the world – next year celebrating 150 years in existence.
So, it only seems fitting that its current caretaker is someone who’s spent so much of his life playing on it – up to and including today, where Lumley plays men’s league baseball at the very park he prepares for games. He enjoys its beauty, appreciates its history, and has a passion for this place that’s perhaps unmatched.
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Where to start? For Lumley, it usually begins at 7:30 a.m. After pulling into the park, he inspects the grounds from the previous night’s usage. On Mondays, that usually means there’s a lot of wear and tear, having been used for numerous games during the weekend.
But some of the work has already been started – thanks to the night crew who do final preparations for games – like chalking the foul lines and batter’s box between games – and work after play is done until the park closes for the day.
“The night crew is pretty good at getting some of the stuff done, which makes our lives so much easier,” said Lumley, with a hat tip to the night shifters.
After an inspection of the field to see its current state, Lumley tackles the mound and home plate first, which he says are the most important tasks of the day. After all, all play starts from these two areas.
With pitchers constantly landing on the mound with their full body weight, the clay gets beaten up, leaving holes. It also softens, which can result in injuries. So, it’s crucial for Lumley and his crew to make sure the mound is in prime condition.
They do this by repairing the divots from pitchers by adding more clay and then compacting it down. It’s a process that is repeated until the surface is firm enough to land on safely. Water is also added to blend the old clay with the new and to keep the surface firm, as well as to keep dust down.
With home plate, similar measures are taken to make sure the area is safe for batters, making sure they won’t slip while in the box. This entails patching any divots left from cleats, cleaning off the plate, and watering the area.
Both home plate and the pitcher’s rubber are spray-painted white to make them appear better for TV, including for London Majors’ broadcasts on YouTube.
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And then it’s on to the grass, often cited as the most eye-catching feature of a ball diamond.
“We usually cut the grass, water the field, and make sure all the main important stuff is done for the day. And then we start doing odd jobs,” said Lumley.
Lumley’s focus is on the infield, as Labatt Park is only equipped with a push mower. For the larger outfield portion, a City worker is brought in three times a week – Monday, Wednesday and Friday – to get the larger section done.
Though he’s spent the better part of the last 10 years working for the City at other parks, Lumley is in his first year at Labatt, and he’s fairly new to mowing fields. A quick learner, though, he’s taught himself to the point where he’s now comfortable leaving designs in the infield grass.
When the grass is cut, the watering begins. It’s a recurring theme, especially for the infield dirt. If it’s not properly watered, it can lead to the playing surface becoming extremely rough and dusty, which is not a desirable situation for either infielders or baserunners.
When the watering is done, the odd jobs start, with the hard work out of the way.
“We make sure the dugouts are clean, swept and disinfected, and everything is good to go,” said Lumley. “We make sure the bullpens are good. Anything to make the players feel that much better. The little extra details are something a lot of other fields don’t get.”
All those small details, Lumley says, are what keep this place special.
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Since Labatt Park is owned by the City, it gets significant use.
“Monday to Friday, we usually have about eight rentals during the day, mostly every night we have a game, and if the Majors have a practice, it’s double-booked,” said Lumley. “As for weekends, we have anywhere from three to four games on Saturday. If the Majors play on Sunday, it’s only one, but if it’s men’s league, it’s five games, and that’s a lot of wear and tear on the field.”
On men’s league days, the night crew has a very limited time between games to do some minor upkeep, including watering the field. That’s important, because on hot days the dust can rapidly accumulate if not settled.
Despite all the usage, if you’ve been to a Majors game this season, you might not think anyone other than the Majors play at the park. That’s entirely because of the hardworking crew, day and night, who maintain the grounds at a high standard.
If Lumley isn’t part of the hard-working crew, he’s playing on the field in a men’s league. When he’s on the job, he takes time to document some of his work. You can watch some of his groundskeeping footage that he films with a pair of Ray-Ban Meta glasses on his Instagram @litchmumley.
Some of his clips have reached hundreds of thousands of views. And these are not home run highlights. It’s him stamping down the mound.
“People love watching mound work. I guess there’s something therapeutic about it,” said Lumley. “It’s something you don’t usually get to see, the behind-the-scenes stuff that goes into building the mound.”
Being at the park and being able to spread his love for Labatt on social media has brought Lumley joy, but he has further ambitions. He wants the park to reach its full potential.
“I would love to see this field get back to hosting national championships,” said Lumley, who believes its among the best in the country “When I think about baseball parks in Canada, I think of the Rogers Centre, first, and then I think of this place. Those are the two I think about.”
