Behind the Scenes, Rituals Begin Early

Field and Food Made Ready for Twilight Game

The lights are on. The outfield is mowed, and the baselines are chalked. The infield dirt is getting one final mist of water so it won't crumble under the spikes of players chasing grounders and running out doubles.

On the mound is pitcher Brian Finch, 23, the starter for the Frederick Keys. His warm-up music, a rap song about being a superstar, pumps over the loudspeakers in Harry Grove Stadium: "live large/big house/five cars."

A spotty crowd fills in, full of families and packs of teenagers. Behind the Keys' dugout, a team of female softball players flirts with the minor leaguers and jumps to catch sunflower seeds and gum they flick out of the dugout.

Finally, the umpires take their places. At 7:04 p.m., Finch throws his first pitch.

Strike!

With that, the public side of a summer-night ritual -- minor league baseball -- begins again.

But one recent day spent at the stadium showed that the preparations for the game actually started about 11 hours earlier.

At this ballpark -- which those in and out of uniform treat as a steppingstone to something bigger -- game nights begin at 8 in the morning.

"People think we just come out here . . . cook some hot dogs and open the gates," said Shaun O'Neal, the team's advertising sales manager. In reality, he said, there's a lot more to it.

First, consider the grass.

Jon Pawlik, the head groundskeeper, cut it at 8 a.m. on this recent day, in preparation for a night game between the Keys and the Salem (Va.) Avalanche.

He mowed the grass, snipping off the very tips of blades that had grown since the last mowing, and mashed the turf flat with a special roller. The result was an outfield fit for the majors. With a two-inch buzz cut, crosshatched with light and dark green stripes, it fairly glowed under the lights.