(Sioux Falls) The Birdcage has taken a beating over the past few days, with 48-hours of baseball that included a 3-game Canaries homestand. It was also a busy weekend for head groundskeeper Larry McKenney. Sioux Falls Stadium has become the 2nd home for Larry.

McKenney has been with the Canaries since day one.
John Kuhn, Canaries Team President says, "Larry is here everyday. When I drive in and don't see his car, you wonder if everything is o.k."

The veteran of the Canaries staff is the only person to be with the 'Birds every season since the team returned to Sioux Falls back in 1993. McKenney started off selling tickets and quickly saw his role expand. Today he is a part-owner, the team's Assistant General Manager and the Head Groundskeeper.
Larry McKenney says, "There's nothing like jumping on a mower and mowing good grass."

McKenney admits becoming the head groundskeeper was the last thing he thought his role with the Canaries would be.
"When I got an office key in 1992, our offices were on South Main there, and I got in at 8:00 and opened the office up. I said to myself, I wonder how long this is going to last. I guess I didn't think I'd be around here this long," McKenney said.

McKenney spends hundreds of hours at the Birdcage each week, doing his best make sure the field is one of the best in the American Association.
"You know where the players are coming from. It was too hard, too soft in the infield, we hear it. We try to do our best to satisfy all the players," McKenney said.

Now that the Birds have qualified for the post season for just the second time in team history, winning one for a guy who's done just about everything for a franchise would be a fitting end.
"You want to win for guys like Larry. For all the work he does, guys like us that do the promotions and stuff, that's great but you know someone who has been here every single day since the day the franchise got started, you really want to win for them," Kuhn said.

Last year was a big year for McKenney as he had a bobble head made after him by the Canaries as well as being en-shrined into the South Dakota Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame.