Ahead of her final game, Nicole Sherry reflects on two decades as Orioles head groundskeeper

On Monday night, long after the fans went home and most of the stadium lights were turned off, the 40-some members of the Orioles grounds crew huddled around Nicole Sherry in the outfield.

They’ve done these huddles before. They discuss the tasks ahead of them, the upcoming weather considerations — all the critical duties that help a Major League Baseball team run out onto a pristine playing surface for 81 home games a year.

This time was different. On the eve of Sherry’s final game as the Orioles’ head groundskeeper at Camden Yards, she called in her grounds crew — a mix of characters that changes faces every year and sometimes includes people as young as 16 — and left them with a message that was more for her ears than theirs.

“They’re a special group of people, and for me to have this week with them and just say: ‘You’re in good hands. You’re going to be fine. We’re going to get through this. Anything that comes at you, you’ve trained for this,’” Sherry said. “I don’t know how to say it. It’s a goodbye, but in a fun way.”

Bittersweet may be the word. Since 2006, Sherry has been the head groundskeeper at Camden Yards. In the interim, Andrew Lawing, the assistant director of field operations, will take over Sherry’s role. Sherry has nothing but confidence in Lawing.

“Every day, I’m training the next generation of sports turf managers,” she said. Lawing was Sherry’s assistant for the last 14 years. “He knows everything that I know.”

And that is quite a lot.

Sherry remembers a field trip with her agriculture class at Delaware Technical Community College around the turn of the century that brought her to Oriole Park. She had always been a baseball fan and she played the sport herself, but that moment all those years ago set a target for Sherry. Camden Yards, she thought, was a dream project. To tend the grass and dirt with the sturdy warehouse watching was her goal.

Sherry managed it. She became the second woman to be named head groundskeeper of a Major League Baseball organization. And throughout all the years — throughout rainstorms that forced field work early and late — she never lost the mystical connection to Camden Yards.

“I don’t take it for granted, every single day,” Sherry said. “It’s been 20-something years here at this ballpark, but that young girl in me still remembers that field trip and the feeling I had when I walked out on that field. It’s really an honor and a privilege to take care of Camden Yards, and every single day, I had that within me. Yeah, the days get long sometimes, but to be able to walk out and be able to turn around and be able to look at things you helped create and grew, basically, that’s pretty special.”

But Sherry is equally excited for her next opportunity. She is joining the state of Maryland as the assistant secretary of plant industries and pest management for the Department of Agriculture. It is, she said, a perfect fit.

“The umbrella is turf and seed and weed management — everything that I’ve learned and taken from here and from my schooling is going to help me in this next phase of my career,” Sherry said. “It doesn’t come open often. … I’ve been here and done this job. In professional baseball, I’ve done this job for 24 years. And I’m ready to have the next chapter of my life.

“It’s all good stuff,” she continued. “It’s definitely an opportunity to work in something that I really believe in and really respect and love, again. Two times. Who can say they’ve had a job in their passion? I love my job every single day, and now I’m excited to go to another one I’m going to love every single day.”

It’s possible that Sherry’s hours will be more normal than those she carried for the last two decades. The players aren’t the only ones who deal with grueling schedules.

But nature, Sherry reminded, doesn’t abide by a 9-to-5 schedule. “In the world of agriculture, there aren’t going to be any days off,” Sherry said. “Plants don’t know a day off.”

And that’s OK, because Sherry is committed to the “labor of love” required in agriculture.

As she thinks back on her tenure, Sherry said the opening day festivities will be among her favorite days at the ballpark. The Orioles won the American League East in 2023, and “providing an elite playing surface” for that team will be among her fondest memories, she said.

Tuesday will also be special. On top of her standard routine of game prep, which includes setting up the field for batting practice and then correcting any imperfections on the dirt ahead of the game, Sherry will throw a ceremonial first pitch.

Then the game will commence, and after the final out, win or lose, her grounds crew will do their duty long after everyone else has gone home.

Every morning for more than two decades, Sherry’s routine was the same. She woke up and checked the weather report.

On Wednesday, when she wakes up, Sherry will resist that urge. She knows those in her place are checking the weather and making plans, just as she did for decades.

“I’m going to not look at the weather tomorrow morning,” she said. “I’m going to just know that this crew is going to handle everything professionally and greatly for whatever comes their way late afternoon.”