SCG turned major league ballpark

A baseball diamond is installed at the SCG for the MLB opening series. pic mark evans Source: Mark Evans / News Corp Australia

MURRAY Cook shares a name with a Wiggle but his life's work may well have been the basis for one of Kevin Costner's characters.

Or, more accurately, that famous Costner line in the 1989 baseball movie Field of Dreams: "If you build it, they will come".

Cook has been the official field consultant for Major League Baseball for over 20 years, and after building baseball fields in 45 countries worldwide, the guru yesterday unveiled his latest effort in Sydney.

The Sydney Cricket Ground was revealed as a fledgling ballpark after Tom Parker and his groundskeepers — using the precise measurements of Cook — cut the diamond to be used in next month's historic MLB season opener.

Over the course of the next 18 days, the famous cricket ground will be entirely transformed for the series of matches between the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Australian baseball team.

a baseball diamond is installed at the SCG for the MLB opening series. pic mark evans Source: News Corp Australia

It is nothing short of an epic construction.

MLB venues must meet extremely specific standards for consistency, and given an approved clay/soil mix for the infield and nine-tonne pitchers mound couldn't be found in Australia, 250 tonnes of it was imported from San Diego in 11 shipping containers.

Parker's men tore up 3560 square metres of the SCG surface to install the infield, and the warning track, which is made of 300 tonnes of crushed terracotta and lets players know they're headed for a fence.

None of it would have happened, however, without the construction of the new Bradman stand, in front of which the home plate will sit.

"We have been trying to come here a long time, actually," said Cook.

"When we came a few years ago, we were going to be put it (the diamond) on that side in front of the Brewongle Stand. But the slope on the cricket field was too steep and they couldn't change it.

"So when they said: "well, we're going to put up the new stand, the slope might work. We checked and found it was closer, so it all moved forward.

a baseball diamond is installed at the SCG for the MLB opening series. pic mark evans Source: News Corp Australia

"We have such specific requirements of the level of the infield, and that's what we really had to shoot for here, getting that infield level, which we did."

So intertwined was the new Bradman Stand with the baseball adventure, foundations for the dugouts were drawn into the plans and were built after the Ashes Test.

In Parker and his crew, Cook at least has a cluey workforce. He has encountered all sorts in baseball's global march.

"I was in the USSR back in 1989, when it was still a Communist country. We built fields there," Cook said.

"Beijing Olympics in 2008 I was teaching 140 volunteers that didn't know where first base was. Because they just didn't know the sport.

"Here, it is different. It's been great, we've had great support."

a baseball diamond is installed at the SCG for the MLB opening series. pic mark evans Source: News Corp Australia

Parker's men will have six days to re-turf the SCG after the baseball circus moves on, with the NRL Heritage Round on a week later.

Until then, it's "an really interesting and enjoyable" ride for the veteran groundskeeper, who hasn't seen his old lady change identity like this before.

He will be asked for advice on wind conditions, too, with Diamondbacks and Dodgers hitters already keen to know if they'll have wind at their backs when trying to land home runs in the Trumper and Brewongle stands.

"There could be a nice tailwind from the northern end, and they're hitting that way to the south. So yep, that'd good for them," Parker says.

Soon it will be built by Cook, and the people are definitely coming. There are only 1000 tickets left on sale.

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