Beacon Athletics
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Your Guide to Using and Selecting Field Rakes…

Rakes of all shapes, sizes and configurations are vital crafting tools for the ballfield groundskeeper. Like the tools in a cabinetmaker’s toolbox, each tool has its preferred use and specialty on a ball diamond. Some can be fairly specialized while others can be used for a wide variety of operations. Just like a supermarket’s cereal or chip aisle, there are more choices then one knows what to do with sometimes. Most of the chores you will perform with your rakes include the following:

• General raking – Just moving soil around, raking out the trash, rocks, and spoils
• Rough grade work – When the grade doesn’t need to be precise and totally smooth
• Fine grading – Sod prep, infield skin leveling or game ready finish
• Back raking – Using the rake in a reverse direction (pushing) in order to fluff up or cut shallow fine textured valleys and ridges in the infield soil or topdressing to speed drying of the surface of an infield skin after a rain event
• Scarification – Cutting down high spots on clay or infield skin areas, loosening the surface of the soil areas
• Lip Removal – Loosening and removing soil and topdressing that is glued into the turf edges of the skinned area or warning track by rain and irrigation

Which tools work best for each operation? The table below looks at the various tasks and ranks how each the tool typically performs on that task. Keep in mind that ultimately the choice of tools for a task ultimately falls on the personal preference of the groundskeeper. Everyone has their favorites but this table should give you a place to start if you are looking for information about which tool is right for which job. Details about using each rake follows the table.

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Source: Beacon Athletics