By RICHIE HALL
If you ever watch a Philadelphia Phillies game and think the field looks beautiful, give some credit to a young man who once “lived” at the Noblesville Babe Ruth fields at Forest Park.
That would be Caleb Robinson. He started volunteering at Babe Ruth as a pre-teen, then became the head groundskeeper before graduating high school. Several years later, at age 26, Robinson is now the Manager of Field Operations for the Philadelphia Phillies.
Robinson talked with the Reporter during last week’s Major League Baseball All-Star break. Before working for the Phillies, he got his first professional experience with the Indianapolis Indians, then spent a few months with the Boston Red Sox before heading to Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park.
Robinson said the experience begins with his time with the Indians, where he worked for Joey Stevenson, the team’s Director of Field Operations.
“I ended up liking it so much that I wanted to turn it into a career,” said Robinson. “He got me in contact with other people in the industry, so that led to my Boston internship.”
Sleeping on deep freezers
The origins of Robinson’s career date back to 2008, when his father joined the Noblesville Babe Ruth Board of Directors. At the time, Robinson was 11 and begin volunteering with NBR, “doing all the groundskeeping stuff, helping with the concession stand.”
The next year, Robinson was hired part-time, working wherever he could fill in. That led to him becoming the Head Groundskeeper for Babe Ruth’s two fields in 2014, and he stayed there through 2017. During that time, he graduated from Guerin Catholic High School in 2015 and began taking classes at IUPUI, where he graduated from in 2019 with a Criminal Justice degree.
“I literally lived there during the summers,” said Robinson. “There were some nights I slept in the concession stands. I slept on the deep freezers. That’s where I got the love for the industry without knowing there was an industry for it.”
Robinson said he “practically lived” at the
Noblesville Babe Ruth fields as a teenager. “The tractor I was driving, we traded in before my senior year of high school. I was trying to prep the fields for the morning. The whole joke was I was going swimming because the fields were so badly underwater,” he said. (Photo provided)
In March 2018, Robinson began his first internship, with the Indians, working with Stevenson, who said that when Robinson got to the Indians, “it was just fine-tuning” Robinson’s already-obvious talent.
“You could tell he had the passion to work in sports turf,” said Stevenson. He pointed out that the word “interns” means something a little different when it comes to working on a baseball field, saying that interns are treated like full-time employees. And Robinson was busy from the beginning.
“He started as a game-day person, so it would have been helping us chalk foul line, water the field, clean dugouts,” said Stevenson. “As it progressed, he wanted to work more hours. We got him up to speed on the plate repairs, mound repairs, getting him on the mower.”
Robinson also spent part of 2018 as a Sports Turf Intern with the Boston Red Sox. That was an exciting period, as the Red Sox would win the World Series that year. He also got experience in working at special events, as Fenway Park hosted several concerts during that year.
“When I was with the Red Sox, we had a total of 10 concerts that summer,” said Robinson.
Also during this time, Robinson began taking classes at Penn State for an Associate of Science degree in Turfgrass Science and Management. He completed that in 2019. In May of that year, he began working with the Phillies, again as a Sports Turf Intern.
During his first homestands with the Phillies, Robinson was mowing the field, including one of the parts of the field that gets seen the most, “so I thought that was pretty cool,” he said.
“I felt like I was thrown in the fire, but that’s where Indianapolis really prepared me,” said Robinson. “We did a lot of the same things when it comes to preparing the field. A lot of it is very similar.”
As a result, Robinson called making the move from the Indians to the Phillies “an easy transition.” There was also and interesting connection. Mike Boekholder was the Director of Field Operations for the Phillies when Robinson began working there. Boekholder would spend 19 years in that position before leaving in 2022. Prior to that, he spent four years with the Indy Indians.
“He went from Indy to Philly kind of like I did,” said Robinson.
Coming together
Once he was with the Phillies, Robinson moved up the ladder swiftly. He became the Grounds Organizational Intern in November 2019, staying in that position for a year.
“They ended up re-upping me for an additional year, just so I could stay there longer, and get a little more experience,” said Robinson. “They took an interest in me, and that led to me getting the full-time spot the year after.”
In March 2021, Robinson was named the Manager of Grounds for the Phillies MLB Urban Youth Academy at FDR Park, which features two baseball fields and two softball fields. Robinson then became a groundskeeper in July 2022, holding that position until moving into the Manager spot in March of this year. Now he is the one managing the interns.
“We tell them, ‘You’re going to be out here with us every day,’” said Robinson. That includes duties such as repairing the mounds and plates, and helping water the infield.
“The only thing we don’t allow them to do is chemical sprays and running some of the tractors and other implements,” said Robinson.
“There’s other things that we all come together to do,” said Robinson. “We all try to handle the fertilizers. I do home plate, we’ve got another guy that does the mounds. We all have our own responsibilities, but we all also come together in the end when we need to.”
Robinson has some off-the-field duties as well. “Administrative tasks, mostly,” he said.
“I started doing payroll this year for our department,” said Robinson. He also helps out with interviewing interns. “We’re usually hiring four or five game-day positions,” he said. “We want to meet them in person to see what they’re like.”
During games, Robinson and his crew stay in the background, although Stevenson said he occasionally sees Robinson on television. They do get a chance to see the players up close and personal, although Robinson said he tries to give them their space.
“We’ll say ‘Hi,’ ask them how everything’s going,” said Robinson. He does know the Phillies’ catcher, J.T. Realmuto well.
“I know how he likes the catcher’s box, so I’ll try to get it as close as possible,” said Robinson.
Robinson has been to two World Series during his still-young career, with the Boston Red
Sox in 2018 and, pictured here, the Phillies in 2022. (Photo provided)
Working with the Phillies is a fun job, but Robinson noted that if he and the field crew aren’t doing their job properly, then the players can’t do their jobs properly.
“I don’t want to be the reason why they can’t succeed,” said Robinson.
The Phillies were very successful last season, as they made it to the World Series.
“That was really cool to experience, not just once, but twice,” said Robinson. It his second World Series, following his 2018 experience at Boston as an intern. Even though the Phillies lost to Houston, Robinson noted that the team “did have eight home games (throughout the playoffs), so that was an awesome experience,” he said.
The entire experience has been a good one for Robinson, and it’s he would like to continue for a while.
“I definitely see myself doing this for a very long time,” said Robinson.
“I think he has the talent to keep moving forward. He showed it Indy and obviously got him a look into the big leagues,” said Stevenson.