leadsop97 Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 My favorite fields to march on have always been grass fields. Specifically, when you're performing under the lights and there's the slightest bit of dew on the grass....as long as you're marching with proper technique, you won't fall, and you feel as though you're just gliding on air. It's beautiful. My least favorite is everything else....Astroturf isn't too bad, but that astrograss stuff is heinous. For those of you who like asphalt and think it's not too bad, I feel bad for your knees and ankles in a couple of years. Every corps I have ever marched with used the blacktop as their practice field, and at 21 years old, there are times when I feel like my knees are going to give out within the next 5 or so years. of course, part of this is because i'm fatter than I'd like to admit The weirdest field I have been on that i can think of, well there's two of them. Both baseball fields, both the same situation. The show in Pittsfield, MA and the one in the Syracuse area (I marched in this show with the Hurricanes in 2003, possibly the Brigs homeshow?). The field seems to be miles away from the stands, because the field was in the outfield.....not very good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 I was teaching a Garden State Circuit corps in 77, the King's Regiment, and we had a show in Havre' de Gras MD (might have been part of a July 4 celebration or something..I recall a parade as well)...in a parking lot at the edge of the water at the marina. The "field" was not a full-sized field, esp no front to back (it was waaay short of a regulation football field). There were no stands...one corps truck was used as the 'Pressbox' for the judges. "Audience", such as it was, was people wandering by and pausing for a few minutes to watch. Well...our bass line was trained to keep their eyes on the DM (still doing mostlyu elevator drill in those days), and as they crabbed front-to-back, they reached the edge of the "field" with their eyes firml on the DM...and SPLASH!...one of went right into the drink. Same show...a guy was attempting to parasail from the water on waterskis, and as the tow boat lifted him up, he discovered that his bathing suit was not...quite...tied...properly...and it ended up around his ankles as he flew by 20 feet in the air or so..."hainging out" as it were! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kstein Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 Wow! Never saw a member bite it and end up in the water. While I'm not sure if this will win the award for worst field, it certainly wins the award for most stunning result of marching on a crummy field. And a "High GE" fly by to boot! What a show!!! Cheers! Karen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UWGKKpsi Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 Marched with CorpsVets... Best - Georgia Dome or Bridgeport. Gotta love the turf. Worst - Wherever Music City Legend had their home show last year. Practice field looked like giant gophers lived there. Actual stadium only had half the lights working, VERY faint lines covered completely by dew so they couldn't be seen, no PA system, and STILL let the show go on. Most interesting - Marching with the Univ. of West Georgia at the national cricket stadium in Antigua. Odd shaped field, dodging kids playing cricket, performing for the prime minister, and only a rope where the 50 yd line would be to guide us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAC oboist Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Our home practice field was actually a parking lot. One night we couldn't get a car moved from the forty yard line. One of the drill instructors had the job of keeping backward marchers from running into the vehicle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SF2K4 Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Best: Columbus Crew Stadium Worst: Sevierville County High School Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PCSoprano9702 Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Worst: Bob Mathais Memorial Stadium Modesto, CA Yardlines were several inches lower than the rest of the field and covered with chalk that got kicked up easily and was constantly reapplied. Stands were cold, low, and not very stable. Oh and it was in Modesto. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callawyn Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 (edited) Is it the Malden, MA stadium that has the very strange field-to-stands angle due to it being a combo baseball/football field? You're thinking Pittsfield, MA. Malden was a regular football field, admittedly in bad shape, with a subway line running above ground just behind the backfield. Pittsfield isn't a combo anything, its a Baseball field, period. To avoid pitcher's mound problems, for the drum corps show the football field is drawn on the outfield of the baseballe field. So, the 50 yard line/front side line is just behind 2nd base. No change to the stands at all, so the entire crowd is watching the show at some odd angle, excepting only those seated behind home plate (50 yard line) who, oddly, are the furthest away from the competing corps of anyone in the stadium. I also competed on a baseball field somewhere in Connecticut where they made the 3rd baseline the front sideline. Worked much better exept for the odd transition from grass to dirt when crossing into the infield. Of course the pitchers mound was about 4 feet high and I nearly fell on my ### backing over it. Surprised no one's mentioned Hamilton, Ontario. Nice stadium, and astroturf, but I've seen a variety of corps screw up bigtime by not realizing that there are two 50 yardlines. Its marked for Canadian football. One of my favorite fields was somewhere in Maine where the stands were so close to the field that the front row of the crowd could stick their feet out and have them over the front sideline. When we played you could feel the crowd reaction. Probably the oddest 'field' I ever performed a field show on was the front lawn of the Canadian Capital in Ottowa. A paved walkway served as the front sideline, no stands at all so the crowd stood, and they wouldn't let us paint yardlines, so we only had cones on the front 'sideline' to go by. Edited January 27, 2009 by Callawyn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callawyn Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Our home practice field was actually a parking lot. One night we couldn't get a car moved from the forty yard line. One of the drill instructors had the job of keeping backward marchers from running into the vehicle. Boo, there's a much easier solution. We used to run into this problem all the time. Depending on the vehicle size, 10-20 guys can bounce/drag it out of the way. Very first drum corps performance I ever did our bus got blocked in by a Pinto. We not only bounced it out of the way, we manhandled it right out of the parking lot and left it wedged between 2 trees. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perc2100 Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 As a member, the Columbus, OH show was the weirdest. It used to be held in a AAA minor league baseball park, but the way the field was lined it was at an angle to the stands (so if you stand facing parallel to the stands/fans you are not parallel to the sidelines). Not to mention the bad turf, dirt from the infield and the pitcher's mound. It was the stadium where I first saw a drum corps show so it was special for me to march in that show, but it's a very odd stadium for sure. As a staff member, I'd have to say the oddest was the Ill. state fair grounds (I think that's the one). It's actually a dog or horse track or something lined for drum corps. It used to pay corps VERY well, but the field was no where near the size of a football field front-back, so it made things a bit hard for members. Plus, the short backfield had a concrete wall (so if you're marching backwards behind the back hash, chances are you're running into the wall). Luckily I was teaching a small Div. 3 corps, so it didn't effect us too much; but I've heard stories/seen videos of larger Div. 2 corps scrape their backs on the back end pretty badly. One benefit: REALLY over-inflated scores, so it was a nice morale booster for the corps :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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