Project Gallery
Ballpark Wall Padding, Chesapeake Baysox
The Chesapeake Baysox replaced 1,195 linear feet of wall padding at Prince George's Stadium in Bowie, Maryland, home of the Baltimore Orioles' AA affiliate. The project covered the outfield wall, both sideline runs, the backstop, and the dugout rails, using two different mounting systems across one continuous perimeter. Every pad is wood-backed with 3 inches of AirTrex 50 foam under 18 oz forest green PVC-coated polyester.
How much padding does a professional ballpark perimeter take?
- Outfield wall: 500 feet, pole to pole along the fence arc
- Sideline walls: 310 feet down each line
- Backstop: 75 feet behind home plate
- Dugout rails: Square rail padding along both dugout fronts
Why does one project need two mounting systems?
The substrate decides the attachment. Prince George's Stadium has concrete along the sidelines and backstop, and chain link in the outfield, so the same pad mounts two different ways.
- Z-clips for concrete walls. Clips anchor to the wall, and the pad hooks onto them. The pad hangs flat, comes off for maintenance, and goes back on without new holes.
- Bolt-through for chain-link. There is nothing solid to hang from, so the pad and fence sandwich together. Galvanized bolts pass through washers on the pad face into a backer plate behind the fence, drawing the two tight against each other with no gap.
The pads are identical either way. Same wood backing, same foam, same covering. Only the hardware changes.
What keeps outdoor padding from failing early?
Moisture is what ends a pad's life. Water gets behind the covering, has nowhere to go, and the foam and backing degrade from the inside while the outside still looks serviceable.
Bottom vents in each pad let trapped condensation escape. Combined with a PVC-coated polyester covering that resists rot, mildew, and UV, that is what separates padding that lasts a decade from padding that lasts a few seasons.
The pads coming off this wall had reached the end of a long working life. Replacing them was maintenance on a normal schedule, not a repair.