Yesterday, I was baptized into the world of Minor League Baseball. I pulled the tarp off of the puddle-infested diamond for the first time in my (hopefully) long career. It didn’t take much time before my feet were covered in mud, but it wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be. Maybe it’s because I’ve discovered nothing is beneath me. Maybe it’s because I’m incredibly biased in favoring my job in the Minors. I’m not sure what the reasoning is, but I had a sense of accomplishment after helping my officemates wrap the beast with a giant roller, shooting water all over the warning track circling the field.
I may have been ready mentally for the tarp task, but materially was an entirely different story. Because of an event I attended after work, I wore my suit (minus the jacket) to work on Wednesday. I happened to have an extra t-shirt in my car, but I didn’t have any shorts. I borrowed a pair that fit my outfit quite nicely, if you consider the hodgepodge of clothes I had.
I ended up wearing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shirt over my shirt and tie, and tossed an orange pair of shorts on. There was no way I was going to ruin my nice shoes, so I went barefoot instead. That made it much easier to clean off afterward anyway.I couldn’t correctly upload the photo here, but I published it through Twitpic.
After moving, folding and flattening the tarp, the real challenge arose. Rolling it up was harder than it seems. We pushed the giant black roller across the whole field, constantly stopping to make sure the tarp was going onto it straight. Once it was rolling it wasn’t too bad, but taking so many breaks made it more of a workout. With a couple pop culture and rap references to motivate us toward the end, the tarp touched the wall (not so) perfectly wrapped.
The entire “grounds crew” washed our feet off, and our physical activity for the day was done. I ended up making it to the post-work event just fine in my suit.
*****
Today I ended up making a trip to UPS to ship a former player’s equipment to Durham, one step away from the big club. If you have any crazy stories about your current or former job, I’d love to hear them. Leave a comment below!
Nick Gagalis 
Nick,
“Baptized” is right! During my first stint in the minor leagues with the Binghamton Mets I was told on my first day, “Bring a pair of old shoes to work every day because EVERYONE pulls tarp, oh by the way we have to go pull it now.” I was wearing dress clothes at the time. Most often I didn’t wear dress clothes to work as I was up in the PA Booth during the day.
During my time with the SWB Yankees I new better on my first day. I had extra shoes and clothes under my desk as I wore dress clothes almost every day. Many times we had no time to get changed so we just kicked off our shoes and socks, rolled up our dress pants and went running. Pulling tarp barefoot was the best decision ever. What I haven’t mentioned yet is that I worked their during the 2009 season in which it seemed like a monsoon was hitting the northeast every day. We pulled a lot of tarp.
I must say, there is nothing more humbling than being out on that field pulling tarp and getting all nasty and then looking right beside you and seeing your GM right next to you getting just as messy. I had the pleasure of working with two wonderful GMs and seeing them pulling their weight with the rest of us made us all really feel like a team.
You are not officially “in” baseball unless you’ve pulled tarp!