Charger Field

All photos of Charger Field available on Flickr.

My charting of rural Stearns County continued yesterday with an expedition to yet another ball field.  For this adventure, I braved further into the unknown wilderness of the county than ever before, with nearly a half-hour drive west to Spring Hill.  Coming in at a whopping 68 residents, it shockingly wasn't the smallest town I've been to thus far in my town ball travels, but it did feel the most remote, as I had to traverse many acres of farm land and several gravel roads to get there.  Spring Hill has the same ingredients that so many other towns of the area do: a single road lined with a couple dozen homes, a bar, a church, a ballfield, and ringed by farmland.  In fact, it looked eerily similar to a town I visited a couple years ago called Lake Henry which was only 5 minutes down Hwy 4.  And as I'll get in to, the ballpark was also as nice if not better than Lake Henry's as well.  I pulled into the lot off of Lake Henry Ave south of "downtown" at 1:30 just as the game was starting, and paid the customary town ball rate of $5 to the volunteer parking lot attendant.

For somebody like me who's now been to a fair number of town ball parks, what struck me immediately upon arrival was the high quality of the facility in general.  I will continue to beat a dead horse by saying it's still impressive to me that any of these parks have little more than a chain link fence and a set of rusty bleachers, so I was awestruck by what I found in Spring Hill.  They had a covered grandstand that was honestly better than some minor league and collegiate ballparks I've been to (Concordia, Rochester, Pohlman Field...I could go on).  It consisted of eight rows of metal bleachers with backs that were clearly new and/or very well maintained, and the entirety of it was covered by a metal sided canopy, including the front aisle.  Normally on a hot summer day this would have been a fantastic area of respite, but on this upper-60s afternoon it was so well covered that it was almost chilly.  The bleachers were backed by a sided wall as well with some apertures for light and breeze, so it was a really cozy enclosed area.  You could easily fit the entire town in just that grandstand, but if that wasn't enough, there was also an additional small section of bleachers by each dugout, and a wonderful little pavilion along the 3rd base side with another bench of seating along the fence and some standing height tables as well.  Every town ball park I've been to so far has a small concessions building with restrooms and usually at least a partially covered area for picnic type seating, but in many parks it is just kind of off to the side and does not have a very good view to the field.  In many town ball parks, the concessions area serves double duty with a neighboring park and is not really intended to be a true seating area for a ballgame even if it's used as such.  In Spring Hill however, all that is at this site is the ball field, so this concessions/pavilion area is pushed right up against the backstop and was very intentional in how it was positioned, and it was a popular standing room and community hangout spot for the entirety of the game.  Nothing at this park felt like it was done on the cheap or like they cut corners in any way.  It was not extravagant by any means - let's be honest it was still metal building siding - but like I alluded to earlier, just the general quality of construction and craftsmanship was very noticeable.  Nothing was rusting or fading or cracked, everything was tied together nicely with the team maroon and gray colors, and it was a very clean and well maintained facility that Spring Hill should be very proud of.  Even the bathrooms and dugouts which are usually some of the roughest parts of these fields were very professionally built.  Not even Cold Spring's park has helmet racks and Sloan faucets.  It's hard to find super picturesque views at any of these fields that are in the middle of corn country, but Spring Hill even managed to pull that off with a very crisp clean fence backed by a row of evergreen trees and a pretty decent electronic scoreboard.  This was the only town ball park I've been to aside from Cold Spring's that actually felt like a true ballpark and not just a community field, and to say I was amazed would be an understatement.  It really proved to me that you can't go to any of these parks with any preconceived notions based on the Google aerial view; a lot of them will surprise you.

I was one of what would estimate was at least 150 people in attendance to witness the Chargers fall to the Elrosa Saints by a score of 2-1 in a brisk 1:54 game time.  I would guess over half the fans were there to cheer on the visitors, which made it arguably even more impressive.  It was by far the most crowded and liveliest town ball game I've been to, as evidenced by the umpire yelling at the Elrosa dugout and fans to stop the heckling at one point.  I watched about 6 innings from the grandstand behind home plate and the last few innings standing along the fence near the right field pole in the sun.  If you're paying attention enough, it's usually pretty easy to spot the one college player allocated to the towns this small, and it was clearly #12 in Elrosa's case.  He received the first intentional walk I've ever witnessed in town ball, and he also came in from the field to pick up the save.  Most half-innings took under 10 pitches and it was a very fast moving game, aside from the 1st when Elrosa scored both of its runs, and in the 8th when they loaded the bases on a walk, hit, and a dropped pop up.  After the conclusion of the game, I was seemingly the only person to leave.  The game went so fast that most folks still had a few Busch Lattes left to polish off from the 12-packs they bought at the concession stand, and a good time was surely had by all.

Overall, I'd put Charger Field all the way up at #2 in my rankings right behind Cold Spring.  Normally I'd say something like "this is definitely a park I'd visit again," but with the dozens I have left to get to and the finest park in the league a half-mile from my house, I think I will settle for one relaxing Sunday afternoon in Spring Hill.  

park rankings and statistics

(for purposes of amateur/town ball rankings, some categories are changed to just yes/no questions):
aesthetics - 8
views from park - 7
view to field - 8
surrounding area - 1
concessions - yes
nachos - no
beer - yes
vendor price - 10
ticket price - 9 ($5)
atmosphere - 9
walk to park - 1
parking price/proximity - 10
concourses - 8
team shop - no

kids area -  no

best food - as always, hot dog
most unique stadium feature - concessions pavilion and general construction quality
scoreboard - electronic

lights - no

best between-inning feature - Elrosa lettin' the ump have it

field dimensions - 310/365/310
teams - Elrosa Saints v. Spring Hill Chargers
time of game - 1:54
attendance - I counted about 150
score - 2-1 L
Brewers score that day - 4-0 W

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 6/15/26:

Brewers 43-26, +5.0; 3 v. Guardians, 3 @ Braves

Twins 33-40, - 6.5, -3.0 WC; 3 @ Rangers, 3 @ Diamondbacks

2026 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 3

Peter - 12