For the first time in the team’s 80 year history, the field at Dwyer Stadium has been named “Field of the Year” by Ben Hayes, President of the New York-Penn League.
“I think its pretty unique in Batavia, pretty much the two of us doing the work, our game day guys do a lot, but when its a small franchise you gotta do a big amount of work, I was surprised and pretty honored,” says Thomson.
The field crew of two has managed to sneak in one day off a month during the winning 2019 Muckdogs season which started in April for Joe Mogavero and Cooper Thomson.
“It was tough, we had a bad spring,” says Thomson.
It was one of the wettest springs on record, but the crew of two worked around it along with the scheduled high school baseball games.
“We come in here at 8 o’clock in the morning and leave here at 3- 4a.m. in the morning,” says Mogavero.
“Its just him and I most of the time and we just do it, we just keep going.”
Thomson calls the game to game creations a science and an art. Not knowing if the team would make the playoffs this year the pair had to be prepared to create a new field look for the playoff game this evening.
Thomson spent Tuesday evening painting postseason by hand on the field.
There were some pretty good competitive fields in the league this year.
“Williamsport, who hosted the MLB game, they have two full time MLB guys and State College, they have a state college looking out for their field. Its pretty cool to compete with them,” says Thomson
Thomson, 21, who is from Australia, has become a fan favorite at the field and was even signing photos today.
