At the end of every summer, the finality of the last out of the baseball season seems like it will last forever.

For six months, Buford Highway in Lawrenceville once again returns to just another highway, and not the path to an oasis for Gwinnett County baseball fans.

But for some people, baseball never truly has an off-season. These are the folks who  work year-round to prepare Lawrenceville's own Coolray Field for when it's time yet again to throw out the season's first pitch.

While the spring and summer are dedicated primarily to stadium and game day operations, the winter is strictly business. Once the doors close on the last day of the Gwinnett Braves' season, the front office immediately begins planning and scheduling for the upcoming season.

"We spend every day in the off-season getting ready for the 2011 season," General Manager North Johnson said. "We're setting up all our marketing, our promotions, our sales -- whether it be season tickets or mini-plans or new anytime tickets. We're working with all our corporate partners putting the giveaway nights together and the fireworks shows."

Marketing and Promotions manager Maggie Neil said sometimes fans do not realize how much work goes into making these special nights at the ballpark happen, but the off-season presents just as much work as the summer.

"A lot of people just assume that because there is no baseball going on that we're all just hanging out at the office or that the offices are closed," Neil said. "That's not the case, though, and this is when the business side of things gets done."

Another aspect of the minor league off-season that sometimes goes unnoticed is the work that goes into groundskeeping during the winter. Head Groundskeeper Gerry Huppmann has been with the franchise since it was in Richmond, Va.

Huppmann said that even though there is no baseball being played, the day-to-day activities remain the same for his crew up until preparations begin for opening day.

"We'll add about 30 tons of infield mix to bring the infield up to specifications," Huppmann said. "We also start juicing up the chemical program to bring the grass out of dormancy so that it looks nice for opening day. We start bringing on staff and get all of our equipment ready."

While maintaining the field and preparing promotions takes up a large portion of the off-season, Johnson said now that the team is in Lawrenceville, it gives players an opportunity to stay locally knowing they will either be playing at Coolray Field or in Atlanta when the season begins.

"At the AAA level, the guys want to stay [in Gwinnett] because they can work out at Turner Field," Johnson said. "They work out with each other, and as far as the housing situation, it's easier to live in once place year round."

When the doors open for opening day in 2011, Johnson said there will be some upgrades to the stadium and some new features for fans to get excited about, but he said Braves fans will need to keep an eye out for official announcements to know exactly what they can expect come April. For now, it's time to prepare for the magic that opening day always brings.

"[On Christmas] when kids wake up and all of a sudden there's toys under the tree, everybody thinks Santa just showed up that night," Johnson said. "That's kind of how we are with opening day. People show up and there's all this stuff going on, and people don't realize it took us six months to prepare for that."