Nashua native lives out diamond dream; helped build Dyersville Major League park

​​By Bob Fenske, editor@nhtrib.com

Kevin Moses will admit that as he watched the members of the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees emerge from the cornfield, he got more than a few goosebumps.

And why not? The 2000 Nashua-Plainfield High School graduate played a big part in making sure the Field of Dreams was played on an immaculate, unbelievably manicured baseball field.

But for him, that night of Aug. 12 was less about the gorgeous diamond and more about history.

“To say I’m proud to be a part of the first Major League Baseball game ever played in Iowa, well, yeah, that would probably be an understatement,” Moses said in a recent interview. “It was a great night for Iowa. That’s how I’m always going to remember it.”

Moses is a sports turf account manager for a company called BrightView Landscapes, and his job is to make sure Major League Baseball games that are played “off site” are MLB quality, and he’s helped baseball prepare fields in places like Williamsport, home of the Little League World Series; Monterrey, Mexico; and London, England.

And Dyersville, Iowa, too.

It’s more complicated than it seems, he said. Putting together a baseball field isn’t just a matter of throwing some grass seed out and seeing what happens.

“We put a lot of time and effort into making sure we’re using the right seed, the right base, the right materials, because you want it to be a Major League park,” he said.

“I’ve always been fascinated by turf management and getting a field ready, and so in this job, you’re thinking ahead. What drains the best? What handles a big thunderstorm the best? All that kind of stuff.”

Moses was a multi-sport athlete at Nashua-Plainfield, but even more than 21 years after playing his last game as a Husky, he will tell you that baseball was always his favorite.

He attended Cornell College, where he played baseball, but his goal was always to stay involved in the game he loves.

“If that meant being a groundskeeper, that was fine with me,” he said. “It’s worked out pretty well for me.”

He worked for the Brickman Group, a company that eventually became BrightView, from February 2007 to January 2014 and served as the head groundskeeper for the minor league Camden Riversharks for four years and another minor league club, the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, for another two years.

He met his wife, Elizabeth, while working for the Riversharks; in fact, she worked for the team at the same time, and they have four children, ranging in age from 7 months to 7 years old.

The job means he’s on the road. A lot.

“She gets it, thankfully,” Moses said about his wife. “She knows baseball, she knows my job so I’m really grateful that she’s understanding. I mean when you’re home alone with four pretty young kids, I know that’s a challenge. I couldn’t do this without her.”

From 2014 to 2016, Moses worked as the grounds manager for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, but he remained heavily involved with baseball as he was responsible for all aspects of field maintenance at Cashman Field, home to the Las Vegas 51’s, the Class AAA farm team of the New York Mets.

He returned to BrightView in August of that year and takes great pride in the company’s team that has worked behind the scenes for games at the Little League World Series and foreign countries.

“When you hear the players compliment the field that makes the travel, the time spent away from home, worth it,” he said.

But as special as those other games were, nothing quite compared to Aug. 12, when Field of Dreams star Kevin Costner first walked onto the field and then was followed by members of the Yankees and White Sox.

For Moses, it was a chance to celebrate his home state and the small towns of Iowa.

“I think I learned a lot growing up in a town like Nashua. You get those small-town relationships, those small-town values, and I still carry those with me today,” he said.

“And I guess the best part of that game at the Field of Dreams is it put a spotlight on Iowa,” Moses said. “ To be a part of that, it’s something I’ll never forget.”