Holloway geared up for SAL All-Star Game

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Holloway geared up for SAL All-Star Game
06/13/2008 10:00 AM ET
By Tim Britton / MLB.com

Jake Holloway stands in center field, a few feet in front of the replaced patch of sod you can't notice until you're just about on top of it, surrounded by small patches of grass recovering from a Girl Scout slumber party and a battle with dollar spot -- the diseased remnants of a record drought in North Carolina over the last year.
He looks back toward home plate, his arms trying to frame the panoramic view of the field at NewBridge Bank Park.
"What's better than standing back here and looking back in?" he asks with a smile. "You get 8,000 to 9,000 people out here -- holy cow. It's a fun ballpark to play in, that's for sure. It's fun to take care of."
Holloway is head groundskeeper for the Class A Greensboro Grasshoppers, a position he has held for 10 years now since working his way up from being an intern. He's also assistant general manager of stadium operations for Greensboro, responsible for the upkeep of the entire four-year-old facility.
NewBridge Bank Park is a big change from Greensboro's old stomping grounds down the road at World War Memorial Stadium. Holloway is quick to point out that he loves a challenge and that he feeds off adversity, but even he concedes that the old stadium, built in 1926, wasn't ideal. It was initially built as a football field, didn't drain well and wasn't exactly flat.
"We went from an Oldsmobile to a Corvette," Holloway says after marveling at the speed of the new field's drainage system, the one that means "if it stops raining, we can play baseball."
Holloway's Corvette will be on full display Tuesday night when the Grasshoppers host the South Atlantic League All-Star Game. It's the first time the game has come to Greensboro since 1990 and is the day Holloway has been anxiously awaiting the entire season.
"I haven't missed an All-Star Game yet, but I've never hosted one. So all of my buddies who are in the league -- whether general managers, groundskeepers, group sales guys -- they're all coming to my house," he says. "So if I'm gonna throw a party, and everyone's coming to my house, everything's gonna be perfect."
And when he says everything, Holloway means everything. The entire concourse will be pressure-washed, the green padding on the walls will be cleaned with a special solution Holloway just ordered, and giant stars will be painted on the outfield. He'll also be closely checking that the rye and Bermuda grasses that constitute the field are cooperating -- an interplay that fascinates a man who cherishes the biology of his work.
Holloway won't say he's obsessed or overprotective of his field the way some groundskeepers are. But a perfectionist?
He laughs and nods his head. "You have to be," he says. "When the spiderwebs that are in the backstop stop bothering me, it's time to go do something else. That means it's not in my heart anymore.
"But by the way, the spiderwebs still bother me."
Not a whole lot else seems to bother Holloway, who has to think long and hard about aspects of his job that he doesn't like -- not being able to accomplish all he planned to -- and who looks at problems with the field as "job security."
He doesn't even hesitate to show off the "scars" of his job, starting with the uneven tan. In addition to the sharp line separating his reddish-brown forearms from his light peach upper arms, Holloway also rocks the raccoon look, with white ovals around his eyes sketching the shape of his ever-present sunglasses. And don't forget the hat tan, either -- the one that, once it starts, makes you feel you have to keep wearing a hat just to hide it (but making it worse all the same).
His hands, too, show the stains of his daily work. Today, his right hand has white paint residue on it, but Holloway insists it should be gone sometime tomorrow, when it will probably be replaced by something else. And don't even talk about the fingernails. They're never clean.
"It's tough shaking somebody's hands," he says laughing, displaying the corkscrew his hand makes before the shake to hide the grime accumulated on his palm.
But those are the travails of a groundskeeper, and Holloway admits that it wouldn't be the same job without them.
"The attractive thing to me was being around baseball, being around sports, physical activity, sweating, being outside," he says. "If I'm not sweating, something's wrong."
Holloway is certainly sweating this week, with triple-digit heat hitting Greensboro and the final preparations for the All-Star Game in full swing. He has meticulously planned out the schedule for the weekend before the game, leaving extra time for fine-tuning and potential setbacks.
There is one thing that's not quite on the schedule.
"Something I did forget is a little bit of sleep somewhere," he says. "I don't know where. I haven't figured that out yet."
Even if he had the time, it might be tough for Holloway to sleep, since his excitement at the chance to show off his jewel to the entire league resembles that of a little kid on Christmas Eve. He's excited because he loves the Grasshoppers organization and how "we do it the right way," he's excited because he cherishes the challenge of being on the South Atlantic League's center stage, and he's excited because he finally gets to show to the world what he's poured so much of himself into.
"To take pride is probably an understatement," Holloway says of his relationship with the seven or so acres on Bellemeade Street. "It's part of me: the blood and sweat I put into this. I don't know what's stronger or more potent than pride, but whatever that word is, that's how I feel."
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues or its clubs.