Clay Wood grew up playing ball and dreaming of a career on the baseball diamond. That dream came true — not with a baseball in hand, but as head groundskeeper for the Oakland As in the mid 1990s. He’s still there, maintaining the immaculate field and playing areas at the Oakland Coliseum, not just for the A’s, but for a quarter century, the Raiders, as well, changing a single playing field from baseball to football to concert venue and back, over and over again.
“Concerts, football, soccer, you name it,” the Danville resident says. “If it came in here, we were responsible for overseeing the setup and then, obviously, returning the field back to the best possible shape for baseball.”
Q: Were you always interested in landscaping?
A: (Growing up) we lived in a neighborhood that had a bunch of fairly small yards. A lot of elderly folks lived in that neighborhood, so I grabbed my dad’s mower one day and started walking around knocking on doors. The first way I earned any money as a kid was mowing yards.
In high school, I was a catcher and was assigned to take care of home plate – the batter’s box and catcher’s area. I took it pretty seriously, because I didn’t want to sit in a dustbowl all the time.
Q: Your original dream was to make it to the “bigs” as a player, right?
A: I had some early injuries to my knees from skiing. As a catcher, they weren’t great for my baseball career. Really, after that first year (playing) at Scottsdale Community College, I kind of knew I was done. I was studying business — and wanted to transfer to Arizona State — and I wanted to get into the front office on the baseball operations side.
Q: How did you get involved with the A’s?
A: One of our duties (in Scottsdale) was to catch minor league spring training bullpens, which was really cool. I got to know (former Oakland A’s pitching coach) Wes Stock — at the time, he was the minor league pitching coordinator — and some people in the A’s organization. I needed a job and that was really the one thing that was available: working on the grounds crew.
(Later) I tried to balance my school at Arizona State and still put in a lot of time during spring training around Phoenix Municipal. I think a lot of people saw that — carrying a full load of classes and working 40 to 60 hours a week during spring training.
When the position opened up for the Arizona head groundskeeper, (A’s then-assistant general manager) Walt Jocketty approached me. I felt like it was the right stepping stone to get where I wanted to go, major league groundskeeper.
Q: You achieved that goal soon after, when the A’s brought you up to Oakland. How did that happen?
A: About a year and a half later, my boss in Oakland was leaving to go to the Colorado Rockies to oversee the construction of Coors Field and be the head groundskeeper. I was only 24. There were a lot of qualified people, and they went through a long interview process. I flew to Oakland on my own dime and met with Sandy Alderson and just tried to explain that I was ready.
Q: Your first full season with the A’s in Oakland was 1995, the same year the Raiders moved back to the Coliseum. What was your reaction when you heard your job had just gotten a whole lot more complicated?
A: Probably “(expletive).” But seriously, it was a wow moment. Here I am, a 24-year-old kid, all my time groundskeeping has been spent in baseball. It’s my first year in the major leagues, which is challenging and difficult enough. Then to throw this bombshell on top of that. It was definitely: “OK, I just have to do what I have to do to figure it out.”
I will say this: I have always had great help and great crews. They deserve as much credit as anyone for what we do here. One thing about groundskeeping at this level — really at any level — you can’t do it alone.
Q: How difficult was it to transform a field from baseball to football? A lot of fans probably just took it for granted.
A: It’s easy to do if you’re a fan. You just show up one day, and there is a baseball game. And then you come the next day, and there’s a football field.
But the reality is that the process to do that was in a lot of ways miraculous. It’s an old stadium. It’s antiquated. It’s not set up well for baseball or football. There are thousands and thousands of moving parts — the backstop, the on-field seating, the foul poles, the netting, the outfield wall. Basically, everything in this stadium, except the out-of-town scoreboards in the outfield, is removable.
Q: And then there’s the pitching mound.
A: It was a major concern. Not only did we have to move the mound, we had to move the bullpens because they’re in the end zone.
Basically, we — myself, an architect and an engineer — sat down in a construction trailer, had a 10-hour meeting and came up with a design for a movable mound: three mounds on steel plates with a gigantic trailer to lift them up and move them. It’s been an absolute lifesaver.
Q: You put so much care into the field. It would be so beautiful for the spring and through much of the summer. Then football season came, and the field would get chewed up. Was that hard for you to watch?
A: It always was. You think maybe after 25 years, it would get easier, but it never did. We’d usually re-sod the field in late February or March. Then we’d play, let’s say, 65 A’s home games. And the field was just immaculate from April until mid-August – and, most years, really hitting its stride in late July or early August when the weather starts to warm.
All it took was one football conversion, and that beautiful pristine field was never the same. It never was easy to accept or to handle.
It wasn’t the Raiders fault. It wasn’t the A’s fault. It’s not a good stadium for multipurpose.
Q: What was your reaction when you heard the Raiders were leaving again?
A: (Laughs) Well, we heard it a few times. I never got my hopes up.
Again, it wasn’t the Raiders. It wasn’t the football. It was August, September and October, when they were playing both sports together. It was just super demanding and stressful, physically and mentally, for myself and my crew and really for everyone who works in the stadium.
There is just this sigh of relief to see them kick off in Las Vegas. Not necessarily joyful that the Raiders are gone, but very joyful that we don’t have to go through what we went through for so long. You look back on it, and it’s almost comical what my crew and the other crews at this stadium were able to do to make those two sports happen.
Q: How much are you looking forward to the A’s proposed state-of-the-art stadium at Howard Terminal? Will you miss the Coliseum?
A: I don’t want to say I won’t miss this place — but I really won’t miss this place. I love baseball. I love groundskeeping and that satisfaction when the players take the field. You never take it for granted to come to a major league stadium every day. My ultimate goal is to stay with the A’s and build a new field and a new stadium and ride that into retirement, then let somebody take it over.
Q: I keep hearing about your famous groundskeeper companion. Tell me about Reba.
A: Reba is an incredible dog. She’s a yellow lab, but she’s super dark red. She loves to be here. This year, I didn’t bring her (to work) much. I didn’t feel like it would be great to have a dog running around and everybody petting her (during COVID-19). And man, not only did I miss having her, but players, coaches, visiting players, visiting coaches (would ask) “Where’s Reba?” And then, “Oh, yeah, how are you doing?”
Q: Is she named after Reba McEntire?
A: She is. I love my country music and have always been a big fan of Reba.
Clay Wood’s tips for home gardeners:
Mow the lawn more frequently: “I only mow my lawn once a week — and I have somebody else do it, so I’m guilty of this, too. But I think a yard should be mowed at least twice a week.”
Use fertilizer: “I think a lot of people don’t fertilize enough. The best defense — whether for fungus or weeds or pests — is really healthy turf. You don’t want to over-fertilize, to the point where you create problems. But I think people at their homes run a little lean.”
Take care of the details : “You can do things that aren’t that difficult, and they really make a big difference. Just little details — edging your yard along your driveway or your curb or sidewalk.”
