NEWS
By Melissa Harris and Melissa Harris,melissa.harris@baltsun.com | July 20, 2009
Thomas cannot read or write. He lives with his mother in a two-story house in Hamilton, purchased with rolled change and savings from working as a groundskeeper at the Johns Hopkins University. He has longed to escape Baltimore and buy a ranch house in the country with a fenced yard and a room large enough for a pool table. Now, Thomas, 43, knows he'll never get that - because two people he trusted stole his entire life savings. Two weeks ago, Joseph L. Moody, a groundskeeper who worked with Thomas for a decade, and Moody's girlfriend Janet Gilmore pleaded guilty to stealing more than $150,000 from Thomas.
FEATURES
By John Woestendiek and John Woestendiek,Sun reporter | July 23, 2008
Mike Palulis paced the right field warning track, then stood with hands on hips, shifting from foot to foot as he looked out over his realm - a slowly filling Camden Yards. He seemed more antsy than nervous, like something inside needed to get out. He adjusted his uniform, took some practice swings with an imaginary bat; then he paced some more. Palulis had gotten his assignment - he was to head to the bullpen in the fifth inning - and now he was taking a moment to focus. The Orioles had, after all, just lost their 15th-straight Sunday game.
BUSINESS
By Nancy Jones-Bonbrest and Nancy Jones-Bonbrest,Special to The Sun | June 25, 2008
Casey Amos Groundskeeper Queenstown Harbor, Queenstown Salary: $10.50 an hour Age: 24 Years on the job : Two How she got started : After working in office and customer-service-related jobs, Amos wanted to work outdoors. She decided to try her hand at landscaping and was hired to maintain the flower beds at the 735-acre Queenstown Harbor golf course. "I just kind of gave it a shot. The job evolved from there." Typical day : For the first three or four hours each morning, starting at 6 a.m., she is one of about 20 groundskeepers who mow the greens and fairways.
SPORTS
By Roch Kubatko and Roch Kubatko,SUN REPORTER | May 8, 2008
While the Orioles produced some of the best teams in baseball over three decades, beginning in the 1960s, they went unchallenged when it came to their garden. The tomato plants that grew at old Memorial Stadium, and the competitions between head groundskeeper Pat Santarone and manager Earl Weaver that sprouted along with them, are almost as legendary as any championships that were won. Santarone died unexpectedly Tuesday at his home in Hamilton, Mont. He was 79. "Pat and I were very close.
SPORTS
By Jeff Barker and Jeff Barker,Sun Reporter | November 2, 2007
WALDORF -- Now that the World Series is over, most baseball fans will resign themselves to other pursuits until spring training. But not Murray Cook of Ellicott City. For him, there's always another baseball diamond to contemplate. And right now, that field is in China. Cook, a consultant to Major League Baseball, is helping with the construction of the Wukesong Olympic Baseball Fields in Beijing. "The groundskeeper is the 10th man on a team," says Cook, who routinely travels to such distant sites as China, Japan, Taiwan, Spain, Nicaragua and Colombia to construct and design fields.
NEWS
By Jacques Kelly | April 21, 2007
It's too early for former Orioles groundskeeper Pasquale "Pat" Santarone to put in his tomato plants. After leaving Baltimore and his old turf at Memorial Stadium in 1991, he has been living in the Rockies in Hamilton, Mont. - elevation, 4,000 feet. The grass in his valley is now green, but a storm this week deposited fresh snow on the Sapphire Range a mile from his home. He lives there with his English-born wife, Pam, whom he married after his wife, Delores, died in a 1998 automobile accident.