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Zwaska Announcement

Everlasting Lumber — FEATURES

Can be recycled again Strongest grade of recycled plastic available Impervious to weather, outperforming metal, wood or even concrete/aggregate…

Upgrade User Account Assistance

Need help updating your BeaconAthletics.com user account? Let us know with this form and a Beacon representative will help you with upgrading your…

Fall Renovation

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Clay Amounts

Outdoor Batting Cage Comparison

TUFFframe means BUILT TOUGH. All of our TUFFframe™ outdoor cages will provide a safe, spacious batting practice hitting tunnel that will last for…

Batting Cage Turf

Portable Mound Comparison Guide

Which Portable Mound Do You Need? Game-ready. Portable practice mounds. Platform batting practice mounds. And that’s only the half of it. There’s…

Batting Cage FAQ

Can you create custom-size batting cages? Yes, we can create custom-size batting cages. Please reach out to us with all the cage details and we’ll…

Aer-Cushion® Outdoor Padding

A safer, more playable facility. Our outdoor backstop padding and rail padding is the best way to protect players and provide the safest, most…

A Special Message on Fan Safety from Beacon’s President

Dear fellow ballfield professionals, We’ve all seen the horrific headlines, images and stories of fans being struck by errant line drives and foul…

Make an impact.

Are you looking to leave your impact on the groundskeeping industry? If so, Beacon Athletics has the ideal opportunity for you. We are looking for an…

Beacon Netting Solutions Can Help Keep Fans Safe

We often hear, “what can we do to protect fans?” With line-drive and foul ball incidents making headlines, that question feels more timely than…

Beacon Athletics

THE ULTIMATE BALLFIELD RESOURCE. We know, it all starts with you. Just after daybreak, with no one else around. You make the magic happen. It takes…

Build or Renovate with Confidence

You’re faced with seemingly endless decisions. Whether you’re building a new ballfield complex from scratch or renovating your existing facility,…

Backstop & Barrier Netting Systems

Hundreds of our clients consider Beacon an essential engineering partner as well as a product resource. As design engineers, we will take your…

How to Bind Up Your Clay Areas

The mound and plate areas see the most action in a baseball or softball game and that is why they sustain the highest wear on a ballfield. To hold…

Spending Wisely Requires Due Diligence

So you are getting ready to make a purchase of a product you need to maintain your sports field. You may be inclined to go for the lowest price…

The Real Cost of Sports Field Maintenance Products

As the person in charge of buying your sports field maintenance products, you are probably naturally drawn toward selecting the lowest-priced product…

The Ultimate Field Prep Checklist

This is the only guide you’ll need for preparing your fields. These lists are lengthy, but we’ve broken them down into several subcategories to…

How to Avoid These 6 Common Groundskeeping Mistakes

You must first harness the assets that you have… Coaches and volunteers, God love ’em. The games of baseball and softball usually can’t go…

Why Using Cat Litter As A Drying Agent Is A Bad Idea

We’ve heard many stories over the years about people using cat litter on a wet field when they run out of calcined clay products like DuraEdge…

Soil Science: The Function of Soil Entities

A soil is made up of three types of soil particles: sand, silt and clay. Each of these particles plays a vital role in the success of the infield…

To Clay or Not To Clay?

That is the question. And we have answers to important questions to help you make the decision whether or not to add a clay base to your high wear…

Making the Decision to Add a Clay Base

Is now the time to add clay to your high wear areas? The first thing to consider is if you have access to water on your field. Pure clay, when used…

Wear and Tear of the Groundskeeping Staff

Football season is underway at all levels across America. Teams have begun to prepare themselves for the long season ahead. As a result, this is…

Building a Pitching Mound

There are different ways to build it. Choose the method that best fits your level of play and budget. You can view mound diagrams and dimensions by…

Area Tarps… They’re Not Just For Rain Protection

When the average observer sees a ballfield with tarps on the mound and home plate area, they assume groundskeepers put those in place to protect…

The 9 Essential Ballfield Tools

Are you one of those guys who keeps a rake and shovel in your trunk? Then this post was written for you! That extra attention to detail and…

The Hitter, The Pitcher, and You

“A groundskeeper’s goal is to allow hitters and pitchers to focus on their job at hand and not worry about the surface beneath…

Finish & Surface Grade

No other portion of a ballfield construction or renovation project has more impact on the success of your facility than the finish grade and the…

How to Choose Calcined Clay for Your Field

We have been big fans of DuraEdge engineered soil products for many years. Their approach to innovation through science aligns with Beacon’s core…

5 Ballfield Maintenance Tips for Midsummer

The baseball/softball season is a long one with games played pretty frequently at most ballparks. The Little League fields that I help oversee…

Renovation: Mound & Home Plate

The race is on for fall projects… Our first taste of late autumn chill may have already paid a visit as renovation to ballfields hits a fevered…

Bricks vs Bagged Clay

In general, unfired clay bricks will have a less labor-intensive installation process than bagged clay. The bricks come pre-compacted and formed so…

Drying Agent Etiquette

Drying agents are a must-have tool for dealing with rain situations but be sure to use them correctly in order to use the least amount and get the…

The Groundskeeper Checklist: Documenting The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

One of the most important things any grounds crew can do throughout the season is maintain a groundskeeper checklist. This is where you would…

4 Renovation Project Ideas for Your Ballfield

Typically during the summer, we’re in the middle of a hurried rush to prep our fields as best as possible for practices and games. When summer…

Calcined Clay vs Expanded Shale-What’s the Difference

Both Calcined Clay and Expanded Shale topdressing products are made from natural occurring earthen materials that are found in specific locations in…

Setting Base Anchors

With Major League and Minor League Baseball moving away from 15″ square bases to 18″ square bases for safety purposes, it is likely this…

New Versus Existing Infields

DuraEdge Engineered Infield Soils have revolutionized the industry with a manufacturing process that relies on testing and computer-controlled…

Topdressing Amounts

About Topdressing A great way to manage playability is to add topdressing to your infield skin. It will greatly improve your ability to maintain your…

About Topdressing

Why You Need It A great way to manage playability is to add topdressing to your infield skin. It will greatly improve your ability to maintain your…

Where the Ground Ball Begins…

Spring training is underway and college baseball is in full swing now as well. The fields you maintain are three acres of land, including the warning…

From a Basic Tool Comes a SweetSpot

In celebration of Beacon’s 70th Anniversary, we take a look at another revolutionary innovation… After our successful innovation of the…

Dugout Design

Player safety begins in the dugout. A poorly conceived dugout can leave players at risk from overthrows and lined fouls. Consider these…

Fan Safety: 5 Things to Consider

It is our strongly held belief that, at a minimum, attending a baseball or softball game should just be fun & safe, legalities and liabilities…

A Rake is a Rake… Or Is It?

Your Guide to Using and Selecting Field Rakes… Rakes of all shapes, sizes and configurations are vital crafting tools for the ballfield…

‘Tune-Up’ Your Mound, For Pitcher’s Sake

► It’s in the details… There are numerous critical measurements and dimensions that a groundskeeper establishes and maintains on their…

Give Me Some Water…

I grew up in California, in the San Francisco area. Over the course of the first twenty-five years of my life we experienced a major drought as well…

5 Ways To Help Your Infield Skin Rebound From Rain Quickly

While some parts of the U.S. are battling a daunting drought, other parts of the country may be dealing with lots of rain. You just never know. In…

10 Tools Groundskeepers Should Be Using

With more than 30 years as a ballfield groundskeeper, including 15 years serving as the head groundskeeper for the Baltimore Orioles, a lot of people…

10-inch Mound

The 10″ pitching mound is an 18′ diameter circle. The center is located 59′ from the apex of home plate along an invisible line…

8-inch Mound

We recommend the 8″ pitching mound as a 14′ diameter circle due to the size of and stride of the pitchers throwing off this mound. This…

6-inch Mound

We recommend the 6″ pitching mound as a 12′ diameter circle due to the size and stride of the pitchers throwing off this mound. This is…

Your First Step After Winter Leaves the Field

Looks can be deceiving. Be sure that all frost is out of the infield skin before jumping onto it in early spring. Enter too early and serious damage…

The History of the Beacon Level Board

In the summer of 2000, Paul Zwaska left Major League Baseball and the Baltimore Orioles to return to his home state of Wisconsin to begin a new…

Engineer Your Infield Solution

Are your infield soils troubled with being too dusty when dry, too greasy when wet, or too soft and sandy? There’s a solution for that. It’s…

Tips for Caring for Area Tarps

When the baseball/softball season gets rolling along rain showers can become a regular factor for groundskeepers. But area tarps are used for more…

Hitting Mats – The Groundskeeper’s Secret Weapon

Hitting and pitching mats are a great tool in the groundskeeper’s tool box. You may not think of them as a “tool” but they are…

9 Keys to Recovering Flooded Ballfields

How to Recover When Your Field Floods… Every year there are many weather events that present major challenges the sports field manager —…

Understanding Soil Test Results

An infield soil test is the first step in improving the performance of an existing infield. Soil testing is a valuable tool that ballfield…

Sharpening Your Tools For Efficient and Easy Work

One way to make easy work for you and your crew is to sharpen some of the tools in your groundskeeping arsenal. By taking a grinding wheel or hand…

Softball Pitching Circle

The softball pitching circle is a 16′ diameter circle. The center is located along an invisible line extending from the apex of home plate…

Choosing a Nozzle for Your Infield Hose

Water is the magic ingredient that helps to make a good infield a great infield. When applied properly, water helps to keep the soil bound together…

Reducing Risk: Fan Safety 2020

► The urgency of safety. “My wife heard it. It was the worst noise she’s ever heard — the crack of my skull.” These are the…

THE SUN: Our Friend and Our Enemy

Protect your crew with our tips to reduce sun exposure...

And in the Beginning, Baseball Created Spring Training

It is the annual rite of spring. Like the game of baseball itself, spring training has a very rich and colorful history full of great stories. Very…

Paint & Striping Unit Choices for the Part-Time or Volunteer Field Painter

Fall sports are just around the corner, that means football and soccer fields will soon be active. This is the time of year that we see a lot of…

How & Why to Test Your Soil

An infield skin can be the source of unlimited frustration for a professional groundskeeper. Identifying the composition of the infield mix will…

Why & How To Test Your Infield Soil

It’s science, not guesswork. The infield skin has the potential to provide unlimited frustration for a professional groundskeeper. However,…

Nail Dragging: Why & How

You likely have heard of the concept of nail dragging if you have worked as a groundskeeper. Working with a nail drag is about taking your infield…

How To Pick the Right Float Drags

Choosing the right float drag for your infield can get confusing. Actually, the truth is, it’s smart to have different types of float drags on…

Windscreen — 4 Things You Need to Know

The addition of a fence windscreen provides instant aesthetic appeal as well as improved playability. Having a good understanding of materials,…

Building a Warning Track

Width of a warning track. The track should be wide enough to give players a three-step warning (at full speed) that they are approaching a…

13 Years Ago: The Original Ballfield Dimension Guide

► It all started in 2007… Our newest updated & expanded edition of the venerable Ballfield Dimensions & Reference Guide is about…

Spiking & Dragging Practices

Depending on depth, scarifying procedures are performed for the following reasons: To maintain surface grade Scarify and restore smooth playing…

Determining Your Infield Soil Needs

To bring your infield skin up to proper grade, you’ll need to estimate how much soil you should add. With 1 cu yd of DuraEdge infield soil…

What Float Drags Should You Own

One of the groundskeeper’s most important responsibilities in maintaining a ballfield is to ensure that the infield skin is firm, yet resilient,…

7 Tips for Float Dragging

When you are float dragging the infield skin, there are some things you need to consider. Keep these 7 TIPS in mind: If pulling your drag with a…

Renovation: Plan Now

Now is the time to make next season easier. The beginning of fall is the perfect time to begin strategizing the renovations and improvements that…

Ballfield Design & Dimensions Guide

The Essential Ballfield Guide Produced by Beacon Athletics since 2007 Welcome to the definitive resource for ballfield design, construction and…

Renovation: The Infield Skin

This is a great opportunity to evaluate your surface grade. Daylight at this time of year is on the wane. The sun is coming up later and setting…

Managing Your Project

To ensure that you are spending your money wisely, consider these ten tips from the professionals at Beacon Athletics, DuraEdge and 4Most Sport…

Backstop Netting

There is no question, backstop netting can improve sightlines and safety. When you’re looking to replace a chain link backstop or build a…

No Smoke, No Mirrors… Just Better Soils

DuraEdge has revolutionized the infield soil industry since coming to market in 2006. Ballfield professionals love DuraEdge because of their…

Batting Cages — Important Considerations

Batting cages are an important part of any ballfield. From location to maintenance, here are the most important considerations to effectively…

Installing Your Infield Skin

KEYS TO ENSURING SUCCESS Choosing the right infield soil for your ballfield is just half the battle, making sure it is installed correctly is equally…

Earth, Wind, and Fire: Using the Elements to Dry a Field

Last week the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim experienced a rare torrential summer rainstorm that resulted in the Angels first postponed baseball game…

Spring Fever and Your Ballfields: 7 TIPS

March Madness is here! But, I’m not talking about basketball, even though I love that madness, as well. I’m thinking of the mad rush to get…

6 Tips for Opening Your Ballfields

Spring has sprung in some parts, or it is around the corner in others. Coaches will be begging to get onto their baseball and softball fields as soon…

Puddle Problems? Here’s what to do.

The “perk rate” — the rate at which water moves through a soil — is relatively slow and varies greatly between different makeups of soil. The…

Water: The Not-So-Secret Field Ingredient

Embrace it. As we move through summer and things really heat up — both growing season and baseball season — it’s important to remember how…

The Field Opening Checklist

There are dozens of critical tasks for a groundskeeper to complete to open a field. We’ve boiled down the list to the most important things you…

Infield Soil Overview

A ballfield’s integrity depends on the quality of its basic soil makeup. DuraEdge applies the scientific method and takes the guesswork out of…

Artificial vs. Natural Pitching Mounds

Over the past 30 years, there’s been a noteworthy shift to artificial turf fields and indoor workout facilities for baseball and softball. To go…