If there’s an unsung hero on this dreary, disappointing Red Sox season, it’s David Mellor.

Throughout countless rain delays, suspended video games, and subsequent doubleheaders, Fenway Park’s senior grounds director is a ray of sunshine.

“If it’s not the rainiest, it’s certainly one of the rainiest (seasons) in my Red Sox career and 39 years in the Majors,” Mellor advised the Herald on the brisk however mercifully-sunny Wednesday afternoon, hours earlier than the workforce’s ultimate dwelling recreation of the 12 months.

In truth, this was one of many rainiest summers on document for the town. Between June and August, Boston took on over 20 inches of rainfall, the second-highest complete because the National Weather Service’s data started in 1872. Eight of the primary 13 weekends of the baseball season included a minimum of one wet day, and made this 12 months even busier for Mellor and his crew.

Earlier on Wednesday afternoon, Alex Cora singled out Mellor, praising him for preserving the membership afloat.

“Shoutout to Dave again,” Cora mentioned. “I think the grounds crew this year, they deserve a standing ovation, because it’s been crazy.”

The venerable grounds director, nonetheless, was far too humble to take all of the credit score when he heard what the supervisor mentioned. In truth, he’d reasonably give credit score to his coworkers and the expertise that helps them do their job.

“I’m humbled by his kind words and support,” Mellor mentioned. “I’m blessed to have incredible colleagues and coworkers, Derek Gauger, Jedi Saverse, Devin Fitman, and our crew. Their dedication, hard work, their attention to detail, the pride that they put into the crew and the field day in and day out, really makes all the difference. And our vendors who help us. It’s a lot of teamwork, and I’m really fortunate to have that support.”

This was an extremely busy season for Mellor & Co. The variety of rain delays have been effectively into the double digits, with a number of video games suspended halfway or postponed altogether. The grounds crew ran by means of fairly just a few luggage of drying agent. “We buy it by volume, in bulk,” Mellor mentioned with a chuckle.

However, issues might’ve been worse, if not for sure ballpark renovations final winter. Fortuitously, maybe even clairvoyantly, the workforce renovated the sphere to enhance the drainage.

“We did put some new drainage in, especially right behind where we dump the tarp, so that certainly helped this past year. It got a lot of work,” he laughed.

However, preserving area operations working easily is about a lot greater than drainage or drying agent. It’s additionally about belief between his crew and the umpires. Their climate cohorts, Fox 25 and DTN Weather Service, are “great allies,” he mentioned.

“During the innings, talking to the umpires and sharing that information, that really helps provide the proper information and earn their trust,” Mellor defined. “And that is vital, earning people’s trust.”

It’s becoming that Mellor is understood for making Fenway lovely even within the worst circumstances; it mirrors his personal life, and the challenges he’s overcome and nonetheless grapples with, together with this season.

Before he grew to become famend in his area, gaining recognition for stunningly elaborate area designs and writing two books on gardening and landscaping, David Mellor was a teenage pitcher with desires of enjoying within the Majors. At 18 years previous and about to start faculty, he was hit by a automotive, which crushed his legs and compelled him to discover a new dream.

Instead, he began his groundskeeping profession with the Milwaukee Brewers. He beautified the house fields of the Los Angeles Angels, San Francisco Giants, and Green Bay Packers earlier than arriving in Boston in 2001.

But throughout his time with the Brewers, Mellor had been hit by a automotive for the second time. The two accidents prompted him to undergo from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) for many years. Yet as soon as once more, he discovered a strategy to deliver some gentle out of the darkness; in 2019, he wrote a ebook about his PTSD journey and the four-legged buddy who made all of the distinction.

Since 2014, his beloved service canine and companion, Drago, had been a fixture at Fenway. When he wasn’t by Mellor’s facet, the majestic German Shepherd may very well be seen enjoying with the gamers and the baseballs they gave him, or having fun with a patch of daylight on the Fenway grass.

“Drago literally saved my life,” Mellor mentioned. “He changed my life.”

Drago sadly handed away final June after having a stroke on the ballpark. He’d been such a particular a part of the Red Sox group that the team paid tribute to him on-line and on the sphere the subsequent day. Two months later, his son, Keeper, one in all a number of puppies from a litter Drago fathered in 2018 – former Red Sox gamers Rick Porcello and Ian Kinsler adopted others – took up the service canine mantle.

But this season, the younger canine has been noticeably absent from the ballpark, and Mellor defined that it had nothing to do with the unhealthy climate.

Last fall, not lengthy after Keeper made his Fenway debut, “some overzealous drunks” within the concourse ran as much as Mellor and Keeper, wanting to fulfill the duo and take an image. They have been screaming Keeper’s identify, Mellor mentioned, and once they began stomping their ft, they misplaced their stability and knocked over a trash can, terrifying the canine.

“They startled Keeper so severely, he’s too startled to work in the crowds now,” Mellor mentioned.  “He’ll all the time be part of my household, he lives with us at dwelling.

“But even though our trainer came in to try to desensitize that startle reflex, Fenway just has so much stimuli, especially the day in and day out exposure he has to have with me, being on the field, the crack of the bat, loud noises, sound system, being in the concourse, the equipment, it was just too much for him to live a happy life in this exposure. He’ll always be an important part of our home life, but he just can’t help me as a service dog in this environment.”

Mellor acquired by means of the season with out Keeper, however Fenway hosts varied occasions all season lengthy, so the Red Sox’s ultimate dwelling recreation doesn’t imply his work is completed. Far from it. He’s hoping to have a brand new service canine at his facet by the point a brand new baseball season begins.

With Keeper ready to greet them once they come dwelling from work, in fact.