State of the Quarry

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sixofdiamonds
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Re: State of the Quarry

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From what I've just been told, the Horsham area just got hit with hail and a serious downpour. Ugh! The condition of the ball fields has now become questionable. The call will have to be made tomorrow morning. Again, check Twitter and Facebook before you leave for your game. If there is no announcement, the games are on.
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sixofdiamonds
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Re: State of the Quarry

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37 old metal halide light fixtures were taken down at the Quarry yesterday. We managed to get 18 of the 26 new fixtures installed. To be able to play the weeknight leagues this week, the job has to be finished today. In order to finish the job today, the Sunday Afternoon coed games at the Quarry have been moved to Carpenter Park in Horsham.
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sixofdiamonds
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Re: State of the Quarry

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A big-time THANK YOU goes out to Craig Henderson, Tim O'Shea, Tim's son-in-law Dan, his nephew Jimmy, and his employee Chris. These guys busted their butts to get the job done. We now have new lights.

We finished up around 5:30 and came back last night around 8:30 for an unveiling so to speak and a little tweaking if needed. I will say this much, it's bright. How bright? My guess is more than twice as bright as the old lights. It may take some getting used to and I'm sure I'll get some, 'It's too bright' complaints', but that comes with the territory. I remember when we changed from the white ball to the yellow ball. Same exact ball except for the color. Some HATED them... and they sure let me know. Some blamed their slump on them. Others swore up and down it was a different ball. Like I said, it comes with the territory.

All in all, the playing conditions have been dramatically improved, but don't take my word for it. Come out and see for yourself.
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sixofdiamonds
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Re: State of the Quarry

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Zach Martin was instrumental in helping us get this job done. Without his help, it doesn't happen.
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sixofdiamonds
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Re: State of the Quarry

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I went out there with my handy dandy light meter this week and took some measurements.

My post last fall...
If you’ve ever played under the lights at the School Road ball field in Hatfield, you’ve appreciated how well lit that ball field is. Surface light is measured in footcandles. I purchased a light meter that measures footcandles and took readings of both Hatfield and the Quarry. The average footcandles on the Hatfield infield is roughly 20 with the outfield a little more than 10. Not bad.

Metal halide lights suffer light degradation after only a few years. The Quarry fixtures are 40 years old. I knew when I measured the Quarry lighting it would be abysmal. To the base paths, the average footcandles is around 10. Shortstop and 2B averaged less than 5. The entire outfield measured not more than 4. Once the new fixtures are in place, the charts below depict the projected footcandle amounts at various locations in the infield and outfield. The outfield will be 3 times as bright as it is now and the infield at least twice as bright.

The average number of footcandles in the infield is now 25. The average for the outfield is 12. The Quarry ball field is now 2.5 to 3 times better lit with the LED fixtures than in the past with the metal halide fixtures.

The projected photo-metric footcandle output was pretty darn close.

Infield Footcandles

Image

Outfield Footcandles

Image
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