Cleanup starts at snow-covered Salt River Fields

Mother Nature threw the Valley a curveball and created a big mess at Salt River Fields.

Wednesday’s wild weather dumped snow on the fields, and left the ballpark with a thick coat of ice. Ground crews started to clean up on Thursday by chopping up the frozen snow with lawn mowers.

“Get it a little thinner so as the day warms up a little bit we’ll start to get this to melt off,” said Dave Dunn, general manager at Salt River Fields. “Even after it melts we’re going to have a lot of moisture underneath to take care of.”

The change in the weather came just before the Diamondbacks play their first spring training game against the Colorado Rockies on Saturday.

“The fields will be fine. The stadium field drains amazingly well,” Dunn said. “There’s no more rain or anything else in the forecast so we’ll be good.”

While the fields should be in good shape come game time, they weren’t ready for practice. The Diamondbacks were forced to move their training to Papago Park on Thursday.