Keeping Four Winds Field Clean is a Team Effort

SOUTH BEND, IN – With opening day just over a month away and the 2020 South Bend Cubs in Arizona getting ready to defend their crown, the Four Winds Field Staff Operations Crew is prepping for another great season themselves. Keeping the grounds and facilities clean and well-maintained is a key factor contributing to the positive experience fans can expect all season long.

“People always see what goes on during the summer,” said Team President Joe Hart. “But a lot of what we do in order to get ready for opening day actually happens as soon as the season ends… While the weather is still decent, they’re out there painting the ballpark, pressure washing and trying to get the ballpark put away before winter even hits.”

Throughout the fall and winter months, Assistant General Manager of Operations Peter Argueta is tasked with staying ahead of the curve in order to lessen the burden come spring. Offseason tasks include re-applying new flooring to concourse bathrooms; painting tables, railings and walls; and anything else that can be done proactively so as to make sure it doesn’t become an issue during the season.

Once the season begins the days become more complicated. “On a gameday we have our morning crew start the day off by doing a detail cleaning of our suites and group areas as well as our restrooms,” said Argueta, who is entering his 15th season in baseball. “The morning crew consists of 10 people. All detail-oriented work gets done with the morning crew, be it brushing toilets, wiping windows or scrubbing the floors. They also take care of making sure we power spray any areas in the stadium that require that kind of cleaning and they make sure that restrooms and suites are all fully stocked with paper towels, toilet paper, etc.”

During the game the crew consists of 12 men and women who are each assigned “Areas of Pride” to check on and maintain to the high standards that are expected. They will patrol these areas, interact with fans and make sure everything is clean and well stocked. This crew is joined after the game by eight post-game crew members and together they set out to clear the entire stadium of any trash.

Once the trash is taken care of, the during-game crew heads home and the post-game crew uses backpack leaf blowers to clear the entire 360-degree concourse and any seating areas of any dust or debris. Then they go check on the bathrooms and suites. Each crew member possesses a step-by-step guide for each specific cleaning duty in the ballpark, including the bathrooms, and at the beginning of the season they are shown a three-minute instructional video on how to properly clean a toilet. This ensures that every bathroom and toilet is cleaned consistently and in the same way, as to uphold their lofty standards.

“It’s a massive undertaking, it’s one of those things where you realize you got 7,000 people on a Friday night and you got to turn around the ballpark and do it again on a Saturday,” said Hart. “That doesn’t just happen…Our mindset, especially during the summer, is the ballpark needs to be as clean in the 9th inning as it is the minute the gates opened.”

Four Winds Field won Ballpark Renovation of the Year in 2012 and Ballpark Digest’s Best Ballpark in 2017. So naturally the bar is high; but Argueta relies heavily on his many years of experience to maintain the home of the South Bend Cubs and he knows what works well and simply tries to make those methods a little more effective and efficient each year.

“We know what the stadium should look like,” Argueta said. “It’s just a matter of making sure we get it there.”

The South Bend Cubs will open the season at home for the second straight season when they host the Lake County Captains on April 9 at 7:05 p.m.

About the South Bend Cubs

The South Bend Cubs are the Class A minor league affiliate of the 2016 World Series Champion Chicago Cubs. Over the past 32 seasons, the team has won four Midwest League titles, most recently in 2019, and has captured eight division titles. In 2019, the South Bend Cubs hosted the Midwest League All-Star Game. In June 2017, Four Winds Field, home of the South Bend Cubs, was voted Best Class A ballpark in the country by Ballpark Digest. In 2015 the team was named Ballpark Digest's Team of the Year and received the John H. Johnson President's Award, the highest award in minor league baseball. The team is owned and operated by Swing-Batter-Swing, LLC whose principal shareholder is Andrew T. Berlin of Chicago, Ill. More information is available at www.SouthBendCubs.com.