As Rox groundskeeper, he's outstanding on the ball field

Tommy Hassett dragging the field at Brockton's Campanelli Stadium prior to a game. (Paul E. Kandarian/Globe Correspondent)

One in an occasional series on people with interesting or challenging jobs.

BROCKTON - There are few things in baseball more direct than a line drive. Except maybe Tommy Hassett's answers.

Ask Hassett how he, the sole full-time groundskeeper at Campanelli Stadium, home of the Brockton Rox, manages to keep the field so verdant, and he answers with a blunt reference to elbow grease and another part of the anatomy. "It's not rocket science," he adds curtly.

But Hassett, 50, is doing something right. Campanelli has won "best field" awards every year since the Rox formed in 1992 - not coincidentally, the year Hassett started.

While Hassett seems disarmingly gruff at times, any growling usually comes with a slight smile on his rugged, tanned face. And once warmed up, he can be fairly forthcoming about his field, talking about it like a proud parent.

There is a longstanding rumor in Brockton that Hassett was the model for Bill Murray's character, Carl Spackler, in the 1980 hit movie "Caddyshack." Hassett's maintenance shack in the back indeed bears a passing resemblance to Spackler's, a mishmash of equipment, fertilizer, field-drying agents, and a dirt-encrusted aerator. Hassett is well aware of the rumor, putting no stock in it.

"Ah, that's what they say, who knows," he said.

His daily ritual is as simple as it is long. Hassett shows up in the morning and on home-game days, doesn't go home until the game is done, sometimes late at night. He cuts the field every day to keep the Kentucky bluegrass roughly 1 1/4 inches high, applying drying agent as needed. He relies mostly on common sense, he said. The challenging part, he joked, is keeping people off the field.

"It's like when your mother cleans the house, then you come in with dirty feet and put your shoes up on the table," he said. "She doesn't like it."

It's not just the Rox using Campanelli field. Other local sports teams, including Brockton High School, use it as well, so it takes its share of abuse.

To the average visitor, none of that shows. The grass is brilliant green and the infield smooth and well tended on any given day.

Reminded that he has won "best field" accolades from the Northern League in 2002, the Northeast League from 2003 to 2004, and the Can-Am League from 2005 to present, Hassett brushes it off.

"It's nice for the organization," he said. "But you can't take it to the bank."

He spreads around the praise to include the four part-timers who help out, and the office staff who "will come down and help us pull the tarp when it rains if we need them."

He has been around baseball all his life. A native of the Bronx, he attended All Hallows High School in the shadow of Yankee Stadium, getting into Yankees games on a pass because his uncle, Bud Hassett, once played for the Yankees. Several of the Yankees rented space in the Hassett three-story home in the Bronx, he said, including legendary manager Ralph Houk.

Hassett has worked for a variety of teams, with his longest stint being 15 years in minor league baseball in Salt Lake City. It was there he fostered a friendship with Murray; the actor was a team co-owner who also is part owner of the Rox.

"I ran into him at the airport in Salt Lake once and he told me about the job in Brockton," Hassett said. "That's how I got here."

Hassett is single - "you can't be married and do this job; you're here all the time" - and continues to improve his groundskeeping game. Although he routinely checks out other fields, he says, "I never knock another man's work."

Asked if spectators bug him for tips on keeping their own lawns looking good, Hassett laughed.

"I tell them: If you do it every day, eight, 10 hours a day, your lawn'll look this good, too."

If groundskeeping were not his career, what else might he do? The question momentarily stumps him. "I'm not an inside guy, I know that," he finally said. "Being locked up in an office would drive me nuts."

Hassett may seem like a simple man, but he's not, said John T. Yunits, Rox president and former mayor of Brockton.

"He's a very complex guy, a very, very smart guy," Yunits said. "He really is an artist at his craft. He's here every game, every night, seven days a week. No one works harder."

Hassett shrugs off such praise. "Hey, as soon as you're on top of the hill, you can get knocked down pretty quick," he said. "When the season's over, I relax."

Paul E. Kandarian can be reached at kandarian@globe.com.