Kauffman Stadium is ready for opening day with new grass field

Are you ready for baseball? Kauffman Stadium is.

Here's a look at the new turf after the field was replaced this offseason for the first time since 1994.

The Royals tore up the field — and much of what was below it, including the irrigation and drainage system — after the 2017 season ended.

“Everything below surface, it started to become kind of like an old house,” Royals head groundskeeper Trevor Vance told The Star last year. “The irrigation is showing some age and it wasn’t draining as well as it had. Pipes were getting weak. We had repeated repairs with the system.”

New sod was rolled onto the rebuilt field in mid-November and the grass is green and ready for the first pitch on opening day: 3:15 p.m. Thursday for the Royals' game against the Chicago White Sox.

This story was originally published March 27, 2018 at 6:07 PM with the headline "Kauffman Stadium is ready for opening day with new grass field."