Baselines and grass thickness

Segment 2 in "trick or treat" month

There aren't too many ways you can manipulate a field to your advantage. The bases are 90 ft. The pitchers mound is 60 ft. 6 inches. Obviously, outfields can vary as to whether there is a fence, how far is the fence and other slight nuances. But, you can dictate certain advantages with how you cut your baselines and thickness of your infield grass.

I can remember playing Florida St. when I was at Wake Forest. The first thing they did when they got off the bus was to roll a ball down both baselines. They were doing this to see how level the baselines were. This served two purposes. It first told them if they could bunt efficiently (would the ball stay fair or would it go foul). Secondly, it gave them a scouting report on their opponent. I would say that baselines that are level reveals that a team hasn't given thought enough to the bunt game to value the base lines. Where as a base line that has a slight upgrade to it speaks volumes for the "small ball" or bunting aspect.

Also, a team could create a grass thickness to foster its offensive mentality. If a team can run, it might thicken the grass to slow the ball down in the infield. Would this help? Absolutely.

Is it cheating to build up your baselines to support bunts? Is it cheating to keep the grass at an unusually high length? Maybe. But, the more knowledgable you are on certain things the less vulnerable you are to those things.