Sports

Horrible Field Conditions For College Football Bowl Game At Yankee Stadium Features Ironic Sponsor

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Yankee Stadium Field Grass Pinstripe Bowl
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Field conditions at Yankee Stadium were absolutely terrible as Boston College played against Nebraska during a postseason college football game on Saturday. Players were slipping and falling all over the diamond-turned-gridiron.

Ironically, the presenting sponsor of the Pinstripe Bowl is a lawn care equipment manufacturer.

This is not the first time this has happened. Believe it or not, MLB stadiums were not built to host non-baseball sporting events. The type of grass planted in the infield and outfield is specific to a sport that creates very little wear and tear. The actual dirt making up the diamond itself has to be covered up by makeshift sod. This was the scene at last year’s game:

Pinstripe Bowl Yankee Stadium Field Grass
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Yankee Stadium was a mess.

If that was not bad enough, rain and sleet loomed over the Bronx for 24+ hours prior to the Pinstripe Bowl. Temperatures hovered around 40 degrees. Cold and wet is not a good combination for field conditions!

Where baseball games are not played in heavy rain, football games continue as scheduled. Here is how it looked on the field less than 30 minutes prior to kickoff:

The grounds crew at Yankee Stadium did its best to remove the standing water from the playing surface.

Their efforts were thwarted by a steady drizzle all afternoon. It was already a disaster in the first quarter.

The field was essentially a slip-and-slide!

Nebraska and Boston College played the same game on the same field so the awful playing surface did not provide an advantage to either side. However, it made a sloppy game between two opponents who finished the college football regular season with seven wins or less even sloppier.

Every single player at the Pinstripe Bowl dealt with footing issues. Both offenses were slowed by the awful field. Sickos everywhere rejoiced at the chaos while traditionalists begged for college football bowl games to be played on a normal field.

To bring the whole thing full-circle, the Pinstripe Bowl is presented by Bad Boy Mowers. Bad Boy Mowers manufacture lawn care equipment. That’s pretty ironic for a game with poor field conditions, no?