Hot off the presses, the Twins have hired a head groundskeeper — the first time they’ve made such a hire in nearly half a century. His name is Larry DiVito (photo not available, though please enjoy that shot of Groundskeeper Willie instead). Wondering about his credentials? Fear not.

The Twins new Head Groundskeeper, Larry DiVito, comes to Minnesota with a wealth of experience working in professional baseball. Over the past 14 baseball seasons, Mr. DiVito has worked as Head Groundskeeper for the Washington Nationals, as Grounds Crew Supervisor for the Los Angeles Dodgers and as Head Groundskeeper for the Pawtucket Red Sox.

“I’m very excited to come to Minnesota with the opportunity to build a field and grounds department from scratch,” said Larry DiVito. “I look forward to using my broad range of experiences in professional baseball to make significant contributions to the Minnesota Twins organization as we move into Target Field.”

Mr. DiVito is a member of the Sports Turf Managers Association and served as Representative of Professional Facilities on its 2008 Board of Directors.

The Twins haven’t hired a groundskeeper since 1961, the team’s first season at Metropolitan Stadium. As team president Jerry Bell noted at the team’s kick-off luncheon a couple weeks back, an outdoor park brings a lot of new wrinkles and unexpected twists along the way. We invite you to think about some of the other challenges — serious or not — and present them in the comments.

Fasola-link! Coffee and the military.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 4th, 2009 at 9:07 am and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.