Minor League Stadium Ravaged By The Dreaded Mumford & Sons

The Pioneer League’s Missoula Osprey had to postpone all of its games this weekend when the aftermath of a Mumford & Sons concert combined with bad weather to make the baseball field mushy and unplayable.

Mumford and his damned sons performed at Ogren Park on Sunday, August 11. As NBC Montana’s camera drone showed, the field, especially right field, was in bad shape the following day, but there was still equipment to clear out and time to fix the damage. That alone might not have been devastating to the Osprey’s schedule, since the team wasn’t playing a home game until that Friday, but the the August 11 rain and resulting moisture altered the field’s condition to what some professionals would refer to as “fucked.”

The specific issue was the ground in right-center field, as it was too soft to be safe for any players running in it. From the Billings Gazette:

At the root of the problem is an area where the Mumford & Sons concert stage was set up. The amount of weight placed on that area of the outfield condensed the sod and dirt, then the water from almost two inches of rain on the afternoon of Aug. 11 seeped in.

“Then as it was pressed, it really acted like a sealant,” Osprey marketing director Taylor Rush explained. “It’s trapping the water underneath. We have spots where there’s an inch or two of relatively dry dirt or sod and the second we get underneath that it’s a muddy mess.”

The Osprey, a Diamondbacks affiliate, postponed Friday’s game against the Great Falls Voyagers with the intention of playing a doubleheader Sunday, postponed Saturday’s game, and then postponed Sunday’s doubleheader because the field still wasn’t playable. Today’s doubleheader will be played at Great Falls, instead.

The team hopes Ogren Park will be usable by Tuesday. Curse you, Mumford, and your horrid sons too!

[ Billings Gazette]

H/t to Montana Mint