When it comes to groundskeeping and sports field maintenance, Roger Bossard, head groundskeeper for the Chicago White Sox, is in a league of his own. In Major League Baseball for more than 35 years, he's been through the famous days of former owner,Bill Veeck, Disco Demolition Night and, more importantly, pioneering the sports field techniques used with the latest retractable domes and other ballpark innovations. For Bossard, the game is in his blood. He's a third generation Major League groundskeeper. Grandfather Emil and Father Gene are remembered for their "masterfill groundskeeping techniques" and the entire family has a rellutation for doing their part to deliver checks to the "Win" column for nearly a century. He's emerged from the long shadow of his father and grandfather and their famed 17 Tricks of the Trade, which were touted for delivering a real home field advantage in the old days. Today he's recognized, in his own right, as one of the premier groundskeepers in baseball. "From the age of 8 or 9, I was dragging a hose around for the crew," remembers Bossard. "It took me 6 years to move up through the system to make assistant groundskeeper. I wasn't even allowed to water the field for the first 5 years because my dad always said thatno two days were alike and I needed to be able to recognize what the field needed."
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