Low attendance hurts more than morale

By DAVID BRANDT
dbrandt@jacksonsun.com
Jul 4 2004

The outfield grass isn't green right now at Pringles Park, and that's because the Diamond Jaxx aren't pulling in enough green.

As the attendance goes down, Jaxx' head groundskeeper Jason Spillman has an ever-shrinking budget. He's seen the outfield grass go from bad to worse over the past week or so, and it has left the grounds crew scratching their heads with what they can do with a limited budget.

''That's the million dollar question right now,'' Spillman said. ''No one's got the answer and it's rough to deal with.''

The lack of money meant the grounds crew had to put Bermuda grass in earlier than they would have liked. The Jaxx start the season with ''cold weather'' rye grass, and end the season with ''warm weather'' Bermuda grass.

Spillman said usually the grounds crew substitutes the Bermuda grass in for the rye grass sometime in July, but since they didn't have the money to keep the rye grass healthy, the Bermuda grass was put down in late May.

''Bermuda grass loves the heat,'' Spillman said. ''We really haven't had many days where the temperature has been above 85 degrees and that's when it normally thrives.''

Couple that with all of the rain West Tennessee has received in the past two weeks, and Spillman has a major headache on his hands.

''This area of the country is hard to grow grass in anyway,'' Spillman said. ''But it's been even worse with the weather and a small budget.''

Pitching carousel continues for Jaxx

Ricky Nolasco is back with the Diamond Jaxx after a rough stint in Triple-A with the Iowa Cubs.

The right-hander was superb through April and early May with the Jaxx. He was 1-1 with a 2.45 ERA before being called up to Triple-A.

But Nolasco appeared overmatched with Iowa. In nine starts, he was 2-3 with a lofty 9.30 ERA. He was hit hard, giving up 68 hits in 40 innings pitched.

For the time being, Nolasco will take the rotation spot of Chadd Blasko, who will skip a start with a tender shoulder.

''He'll take some time off and rehab a little,'' Jaxx manager Bobby Dickerson said. ''Hopefully he'll come back ready to go.''

The Jaxx already have Sean Marshall on the disabled list. The left-hander has a hurt tendon in a finger on his pitching hand.

Van Buren stumbles

In a doubleheader on Thursday night against the Montgomery Biscuits, Jermaine Van Buren finally proved to be human.

The Jaxx' closer blew a save in the first game of the doubleheader, giving up a hit to score the tying run. But the Jaxx came back to win 5-4 in 11 innings. In the second game, Van Buren gave up a solo home run in the ninth inning before picking up his 16th save of the season, a 2-1 Jaxx victory.

Even with the rough night, Van Buren still has only given up two runs in 28
innings of work with a microscopic ERA of 0.64.

- David Brandt, 425-9636