The Buffalo Bisons (Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays) announced that they have hired Jeff Smolka to serve as the team’s new head groundskeeper at Sahlen Field.
A native of North Tonawanda, NY, Smolka is in his seventh year working in minor league baseball, most recently as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays grounds crew at their Florida Operations in Dunedin, FL. He joined the Blue Jays in Florida as a groundskeeping intern in 2020 and was promoted to a full-time groundskeeper in 2022 and then Assistant Manager, Turfgrass before the 2023 season. He also assisted in the renovation of the fields at their Player Development Complex when he joined the staff in 2020.
A lifelong Bisons fan, Smolka was a member of the Bisons grounds crew from 2017-2020 and was a part of the team while Sahlen Field hosted the Blue Jays during the 2020 season.
Smolka is graduate of SUNY at Cobleskill with a degree in Turfgrass Management who also worked on the grounds of the Country Club of Buffalo in 2020. His past volunteer work includes at the North Tonawanda National Little League, at the LPGA Pelican Women’s Championship at the Pelican Golf Club and the American Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament at BayCare Park in Clearwater, FL.