BRIDGEWATER, N.J. — Shortly past sunrise on the day after Hurricane Ida’s remnants brought torrential rains, Dan Purner, the groundskeeper for the Somerset Patriots, drove his pickup around vehicles that had been abandoned on main roads when Hurricane Ida’s remnants had brought heavy rains overnight.
The baseball team, which is in its first season as the Yankees’ Class AA affiliate, was in Maryland on Sept. 2, but water awaited Purner at TD Bank Ballpark. When he arrived at 7:30 a.m., puddles dotted the warning track. If that was the worst of it, he thought, the field would be fine.