A week after hosting a Metallica rock concert, Comerica Park is taking on another identity as crews worked Tuesday to patch together a soccer pitch on the ballfield. On Wednesday, the home of the Detroit Tigers will host the International Champions Cup soccer match between Paris St. Germain and AS Roma. The pitcher’s mound, bases and home plate were removed to flatten the field, and 15 truckloads of sod were hauled in to cover...
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Converting Wrigley Field back to its normal state actually was quite an undertaking for Steve Bush, a Rock Island County Farm Bureau board member, and his company, Bush Sports Turf of Milan. Rock Island County farmer Steve Bush at Wrigley Field’s home plate Chicago Cubs fans probably won’t think twice about the appearance of the playing surface at historic Wrigley Field, built in 1914, when the 2011 baseball season opens. But...
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The list is lengthy and impressive: Dodger Stadium, Iowa State University’s Jack Trice Field, the University of Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium, Modern Woodmen Park. But Wrigley Field, Steve Bush said, “is king.” Mr. Bush, owner of Bush Sports Turf in Milan, is installing the playing surface at Chicago’s famed Wrigley Field. This comes in the wake of the University of Illinois and Northwestern University playing...
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FIFA doesn’t want to talk about installing grass for next summer’s Women’s World Cup in Canada. The Canadian Soccer Association doesn’t want to talk about it, either. Trey Rogers? He’s happy to talk about it. Rogers, a professor of turf grass management at Michigan State University, was the scientist in charge of the installation of real grass over the fake version inside the Pontiac Silverdome for the 1994 men’s World Cup, when FIFA...
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Despite only being a preseason friendly, Manchester United’s match against Real Madrid at Michigan Stadium drew a sell-out crowd of 109,318 — a new record for a soccer match in the United States. The previous record of 101,799 was set by the 1984 Olympic gold-medal match between France and Brazil at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The massive crowd at Michigan Stadium gave the match between two of the world’s...
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Rock Island’s Douglas Park has a one-of-a-kind sports history. The first Iowa-Illinois college football game was played there. So was the first NFL game — between the Rock Island Independents and St. Paul Ideals. In the 1960s, the popular World Fast-Pitch Softball tournament called Douglas Park home, as did countless high school baseball stars from Rock Island and Alleman over the years. Despite all that history, the park fell...
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