Both the infield and outfield of Yankee Stadium are growing on 1,000 acres of green farmland in Pilesgrove, Salem County.
The farm's crop of inch-high Kentucky bluegrass is ultimately cut into 4-by-70-foot rolls of sod and shipped to what is arguably the premier address of Major League Baseball - known to some as the sport's home office.
There, it will be stomped and traipsed on by the likes of Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, and other cleated millionaires.
The farm, East Coast Sod & Seed, is the field from which the field of dreams comes.
It's been providing sod for the Yankees since 2000, which means three of the last 12 World Series - held in both the old and new Yankee Stadiums - were played on Salem County grass, including the Yankees-Phillies tilt in 2009.
In January, East Coast sent 100,000 square feet of sod - two acres, worth $50,000 - to Yankee Stadium for the 2013 season, which starts April 1.
The Yankees aren't the only A-list client for East Coast, a niche farm with specialized clientele.
The farm sends sod to the Pine Valley Golf Club in Camden County, rated the No. 1 golf course in America in 2013 by Golf Magazine.
It also trucks its product to the Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, sixth-best in the United States and the site in June this year of the U.S. Open. There's a legendary top-five golf course in the South that East Coast also serves, but can't - for delicate business reasons - reveal in the media.
But it's the ballpark in the Bronx that inflates pride among the employees at East Coast - as many as 50 workers during busy points in the growing season. Farm trucks bear the Yankees logo and the words Official Sod Grower.
"We send grass to baseball's biggest venue," said David Giordano, East Coast's farm manager. He adds with a grin, "People around here don't want to hear that."
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The farm's crop of inch-high Kentucky bluegrass is ultimately cut into 4-by-70-foot rolls of sod and shipped to what is arguably the premier address of Major League Baseball - known to some as the sport's home office.
There, it will be stomped and traipsed on by the likes of Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, and other cleated millionaires.
The farm, East Coast Sod & Seed, is the field from which the field of dreams comes.
It's been providing sod for the Yankees since 2000, which means three of the last 12 World Series - held in both the old and new Yankee Stadiums - were played on Salem County grass, including the Yankees-Phillies tilt in 2009.
In January, East Coast sent 100,000 square feet of sod - two acres, worth $50,000 - to Yankee Stadium for the 2013 season, which starts April 1.
The Yankees aren't the only A-list client for East Coast, a niche farm with specialized clientele.
The farm sends sod to the Pine Valley Golf Club in Camden County, rated the No. 1 golf course in America in 2013 by Golf Magazine.
It also trucks its product to the Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, sixth-best in the United States and the site in June this year of the U.S. Open. There's a legendary top-five golf course in the South that East Coast also serves, but can't - for delicate business reasons - reveal in the media.
But it's the ballpark in the Bronx that inflates pride among the employees at East Coast - as many as 50 workers during busy points in the growing season. Farm trucks bear the Yankees logo and the words Official Sod Grower.
"We send grass to baseball's biggest venue," said David Giordano, East Coast's farm manager. He adds with a grin, "People around here don't want to hear that."
READ MORE
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