Twin Cities natives and cousins Jeff, Adam and Dan (left to right) are having a ball at Sahlen Field with Major League Baseball in town thanks to the Toronto Blue Jays. (Courtesy of Jeff Smolka)
*** As seen in Twin Cities Sun, August 28, 2020 edition ***
By Joe Kraus
For decades, Major League Baseball games in Buffalo were a fantasy.
But when COVID-19 forced the Toronto Blue Jays to find a new nest instead of Rogers Centre due to the Canadian government’s travel restrictions, the dream became a reality and Sahlen Field was redesigned for the shortened 2020 MLB season.
For Twin Cities natives and cousins Jeff, Dan and Adam Smolka, being part of the 20-person stadium staff has been an unexpected dream come true.
“I never thought I’d be working at Sahlen Field at all this year,” said Jeff, a 2018 North Tonawanda High School graduate. “Even two months ago, I’d be like, ‘Yeah, you’re nuts.’ And here we are, and I love it – I really do.”
After joining the Buffalo Bisons grounds crew in 2017, the Smolkas had their lives disrupted when the pandemic started. All back in Buffalo since March, Adam finalized his undergraduate degree in accounting at Ohio State remotely, while Jeff interned at The Country Club Golf Course in Buffalo and Dan finished classes online and saw his championship game in Texas with the Niagara University club hockey team wiped out.
Now a month into the MLB season, the pandemic protocols have been an everyday adjustment for the Smolkas and everyone else.
“It’s kind of weird looking around the stands and not seeing anybody, you know?” said Dan, a 2017 NTHS graduate. “They did a lot of work for the social distancing purposes, like with the bullpens and the dugouts. So you see the players sitting in the stands, which is odd in it of itself with having no fans.”
“And the cutouts (in the stands) — sometimes you have to take a double take because they do look pretty legit when you’re on the field looking in when we’re at home (plate),” added Jeff. “It’s definitely different. Very quiet, especially during the game.”
The Smolkas’ daily routine remains the same — being the first ones there and the last ones to leave after each game. Mowing the lawn, watering the infield, preparing the mound and home plate and setting up the cages for batting practice are just part of their routine. This year, it is more detail-oriented, including cleaning the wall-pads, watering the warning track and painting the foul lines before BP.
“A lot of it has to do with how it looks on TV too,” said Adam, a 2016 St. Joe’s graduate. “It’s interesting how they actually go into the details of how they want everything to be perfect, which is understandable because it is the major leagues.”
Sports fanatics is the best way to describe the Smolkas. All diehard Buffalo sports fans, they all played hockey and baseball during their time as Lumberjacks and Marauders.
Jeff caught the groundskeeping bug by mowing the fields of the NTNLL complex in 2010 and later attended the Bisons’ “Groundskeeper Fantasy Camp” with Dan in 2012, where they helped the staff between innings.
“And I knew that day, I wanted to do this,” said Jeff, who is studying Turfgrass Management and Sports Turf at SUNY Cobleskill and is receiving school credit for his time with the Blue Jays. “Nothing’s changed. I still want to be working in baseball as a groundskeeper.”
Once Jeff and Dan were old enough to become official employees a few years later, Adam joined the fun after he couldn’t find a summer internship in 2017.
“I’m pretty sure I laughed when they went to the Fantasy Camp back in 2012 but now look what happened,” Adam said.
Putting on the tarp through thunder and lightning in their first MLB rain delay earlier this month and seeing of Vladimir Guererro Jr’s growth as a Bison in 2018 have been great moments — but what’s been really special for these “boys of summer” is the family-like atmosphere in the workplace.
“You go to work everyday and you’re comfortable with everyone,” Jeff said. “They ask how you and your family are doing. That’s what I love about working there… Lot of good moments and favorite memories.”
“We saw the majority of the Blue Jays roster come through Buffalo,” added Dan. “That’s probably one of the coolest things too is you’re seeing guys that you’ve seen before, you know? You watched them come through Buffalo or make it to the ‘bigs.’ Now they’re back playing here.”
When Bisons general manager Anthony Sprague finalized the staff last month, one of his first questions was, “Would all the Smolkas be available to work?”
“They are a part of the Buffalo Bisons family,” Sprague said. “They took a different route because I think they saw the passion and wanted to be involved and they know what they were getting into. I would argue (groundskeeping) is one of the hardest jobs that’s at the ballpark. You’re the first one there and you’re the last one to leave. But they embrace it and they don’t think twice about it. Every time, they’re just there and work as hard as anybody.”
While Adam pursues an accounting career, Dan and Jeff are undecided about their own futures, considering how much the world has changed. Dan hopes to combine his CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) and Sports Management degrees and complete his hockey career over the next two years. When Jeff finishes next fall, working somewhere in sports is still his main goal.
For now, the Smolkas are enjoying this historic moment.
“We’re some of the people that made (MLB in Buffalo) happen this time around,” said Dan. “And just getting the field ready and getting everything done on time and being available for our boss and the people that rely on us… That’s just the way we grew up. That was our upbringing — give back in any way and every way that you can. And when you get the opportunity, you jump all over it.”
Joe Kraus is a Canisius College 2020 graduate and Journalism major whose work has appeared in the Twin Cities Sun and other local publications in Western New York. If you have any comments or an idea for a future story, please send to joekrausnt@gmail.com
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