Nice article by David Briggs of The Toledo Blade on longtime Mud Hens groundskeeper Jake Tyler’s last opening day:
One more time, with feeling, Jake Tyler tended Toledo’s diamond of Eden. For the longtime groundskeeper of Fifth Third Field, opening day was closing time.
“It’s tough,” he said. “I’m excited for what I’ll be doing but … it’s tough. I think about this place 24 hours a day and I’ve never thought of it as work.”
Ok, that last part is not entirely true.
Tyler clocked in at 4:30 a.m. Thursday and spent the run-up to the Mud Hens’ opener against Louisville — his next-to-last day — more glued to the radar than Jim Cantore. He will not miss the rain.
But as he sets off after 15 seasons to begin his own local athletic turf company, the 38-year-old Tyler will miss the rest of it.
Read it all here