CHS Field

St. Paul Saints, American Association

9/10

My exterior shot is somewhat blurry, as I arrived late.

A large crowd takes in a Friday nighter.

By this point, the ball pig had been sent to the showers early, for poor behaviour.

I swung into St. Paul nearly an hour late for first pitch. I'd made a long, long trip from just over the border in Saskatchewan and after a delay just waiting for the cars ahead at the border itself, I knew I'd be late very early in the day. I was held up further when a Saints rooter named Greg needed help push starting his motorbike. After a few tries, Greg was off and running. This was part of a quick back to back, featuring games in St. Paul and Winnipeg on a Friday and Saturday night. The St. Paul Saints, of the American Association, were fighting for a division title with Winnipeg, headed into the final week of the season.

The Saints had left their first home to move into this, a brand new ballpark in downtown St. Paul. Attendance ended up sitting at just over 8,000, which was even more impressive that considering a short drive away, the Minnesota Twins(who were well out of contention) were playing the White Sox.

There were a lot of things I liked here. Firstly, the park itself is located downtown and is not only new, but actually well designed. A large concourse with a very high ceiling reminded me somewhat of Salt River. The section numbers were listed on the ceiling as well. A wraparound concourse saw more than a few people watching the game from the outfield. Parking wasn't the best, but I eventually found decent street parking two blocks away for not much money. Still, I found this place to be just amazing for Independent level baseball. I don't know how the facility could be any better.

But, even with that, the best part here is for sure the atmosphere. The Saints, when they were in the infant Northern League, adopted a strategy of making the atmosphere as quirky as possible and while the new park isn't anything like their old one, they've kept a lot of the quirks, including a somewhat unorthodox pair of PA announcers at a table in the front row and a live Pig bringing balls out to the umpire between innings. Sadly, the pig had a meltdown before I got a picture and was as far as I knew, sent home early. The PA announcing was comparable to a Top 40 station's morning show. It took some getting used to, but after awhile, I felt it added to the experience, as more regular spectators seemed to enjoy it.

I did have some cheese curds here and while they weren't bad, they weren't terribly special either.

Overall, showing up late(....again) took away from this place, but not enough to keep me from really enjoying it. I'd really like to get a return visit in again this year. 9/10.

Linescore

2016-09-02 
                          123    456  789   R H E
Lincoln Saltdogs    001  010  300  5 12  0
St. Paul Saints       001 001  000   2 6 1 
Temp: 72F  Time: 3:07 Att: 8,339