Tour Molly 2026: Wade Stadium

All photos of Duluth and Wade Stadium available on Flickr.

Baseball Roadtrip Season officially kicked off this past weekend with my daughter Molly!  After journeying west the last two years to a couple of states I'd never been to, we ventured north this year to the Lake Superior area.  Our first stop was the beautiful city of Duluth, which is about 2.5 hours northeast of us at the mouth of the lake.  It's been a long time since I've been to Duluth, but the descent down I-35 towards the city and the entanglement of bridges over the freeway was exactly as I remembered.  We exited onto one of these bridges and of course started our trip with lunch at a brewery - Ursa Minor, in the Craft District of Duluth.  Yes, the name "Craft District" is an obvious reference to the craft breweries in the neighborhood, but also all of the industrial and artisanal goods makers as well.  It's got a NE Minneapolis vibe to it and was a pretty cool area to walk around in for a bit, and not to mention the brewery was delicious and very kid friendly.  We were then shot down from going to the Children's Museum as it was closed due to a power outage, so we pivoted and went to the Great Lakes Aquarium instead, which was arguably the better choice to begin with so we were kind of fortunate the museum was closed.  It's an expansive 2-story space right on the harbor that had lots of windows and balconies overlooking the lift bridge and the docks.  This aquarium was not just a repository of fish found in the Great Lakes, but also a museum dedicated to global lake basin ecosystems in general.  I learned that Lake Superior is the 2nd largest lake in the world behind the Caspian Sea, but only the 40th deepest at just over 1,300 feet, and there were some staggering exhibits about how much some lakes have dried up due to climate change, industrialization, and the growing demands of man-made irrigation.  We got to touch a sturgeon and watch a giant turtle get fed and it was really cool.  From there, we continued the water theme of the day by checking into the hotel and swimming and then walking down to the famous lift bridge.  On the way to the bridge, we stopped at the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center and got to see a lot of cool displays and artifacts about the history of freight shipping in the area, including the tragic sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.  We of course also walked across the lift bridge and down the pier and were lucky enough to get to witness the bridge in action.  Even though we were sad that the water slide was closed at the hotel pool, we didn't let that put a damper on any of our pre-game activities, and I loved witnessing Molly's thirst for knowledge at each stop we made.

From the lift bridge, we made our way back southwest to Wade Stadium for a 6:35pm game versus the Eau Claire Express.  We parked on the east side and entered from behind home plate just like I did 16 years ago on my last visit, and aside from a repainted sign, not a thing has changed on the exterior.  Wade Stadium is a WPA gem that opened in 1941 in a residential area of Duluth, and has pretty much been suspended in time ever since.  There have been some repairs and upgrades on the inside - new field turf playing surface, new enclosed bullpens, and a new scoreboard to name a few - but pretty much if you went to a Duluth-Superior Dukes game 60 years ago and a Huskies game today, you wouldn't be able to tell much of a difference to the ballpark structure.  The concourse of the stadium is of the masonry bunker variety, which was typical for this era, as is the fine masonry craftsmanship on the exterior.  Being the architecture nerd that I am, I probably commented on my last visit on how the brick exterior, although imposing, is so meticulously crafted that it gives the stadium a scale and beauty that will never exist again in a modern ballpark.  However, what I didn't know then that I learned now is that all the bricks used to build the stadium were repurposed from Grand Avenue in downtown Duluth, which completely explains the rugged nature of the brick.  There are even still some palettes of extra loose bricks just sitting inside the stadium and I was tempted to steal one.  It's hard to explain what that intangible quality is in old ballparks that makes most of them charming, but Wade Stadium is definitely a feast for the eyes and immediately transports you back to a bygone era.

Another thing that transported me to the past were the concession prices, all of which were very fair.  The concessions stands are all under the grandstand bunker and are actually fairly easy to access, which is not always the case in old ballparks.  The seating area was exactly how I remember it, and looking through old photos confirms my memory.  Even the mascot Harley looks exactly the same in the same uniform, that for some reason says "06" even though the team was founded in 2003.  Besides the player amenities, the one major change I did notice was in the left field corner where we spent about half of the game.  This was formerly a private party deck called the "Kennel Klub" and is now just an open expanse of concrete open to all ticketed fans with kids games, picnic tables, and the visiting bullpens.  You know that I'm always all for giving private areas back to the plebeians so I loved this gesture, but I will say that it is also so big that it probably could have been both.  There was plenty of room here to have both a private party deck AND a kids/standing room area, rather than having it just feel like a leftover space like it is now.  Nevertheless, Molly and I had a great time out there, all while Dad was able to still easily see the field.  Our ticketed seats were actually in the covered grandstand, and in the bottom of the 1st we were selected as the seat upgrade fans of the game!  This got us access to a VIP area right below the press box at the top of the grandstand, and by "VIP area" I mean a couple of La-Z-Boys on a plywood platform.  While it was nothing fancy, we enjoyed it immensely, and it was a very relaxing vantage point to watch for a few innings before Molly got too hopped up on cotton candy and lemonade and needed to run around.  The selection process for the Seat Upgrade was also quite interesting.  There was a completely empty box in a quiet corner of the concourse with a sign advertising 2 free luxury seats for the winning entry.  The sign very much made it seem like you'd be winning tickets for a future game, and I kind of just threw my name in as a joke since it was empty, even though we obviously don't live in Duluth, and it ended up being for the seat upgrade.  So a tip for anybody visiting Wade Stadium or any other stadium for that matter - always sign up to win free shit at non-MLB games.

The game itself was very slow moving and by 9pm it was only the 6th inning so we called it a little early, but when we left it was tied at 3.  The Express would go on to win 8-3 due in large part to a 4-run 8th.  Neither starting pitcher was very good, but the visiting Express pitcher Mason Kinchen in particular really struggled, surrendering 6 walks in 1.2 innings of work.  The score was actually 2-0 Duluth on no hits when he left the game, and the Huskies didn't end up getting a hit until the 5th inning.  There were a total of 20 walks and 3 errors in the game which greatly contributed to the long game time.  Turns out you don't need to hit much when you draw that many walks, but DH Hollon Brock did go 4-5 for Eau Claire and was batting .441 on the young season as of Friday.  Brock goes to a very small college in Alabama and the fun fact in his player profile is "my favorite Gatorade flavor is blue," so hopefully he keeps raking because baseball is clearly all he will ever know how to do.  The weather was perfect in the 70s, and our perfect evening ended with Molly participating in an All Kids Race the Mascot event on the field after the 6th inning.  She didn't win, but at least this time she didn't get trampled by a giant fat kid like she did in Kalamazoo a few years ago.

This was a long overdue return to Duluth for me.  I hadn't been there since 2010 and had almost forgotten how breathtaking a city it is.  It just has such a cool vibe and topography, and I'll stack it up against just about any other US city to visit in the summertime.  The drive east from our hotel early morning on Saturday descending the steep hillside towards the lake is one of my most vivid memories of the trip, and it was a perfect encapsulation of Duluth.  We continued that drive east and north to our next stop of the trip - Thunder Bay, Canada!

park stats and rankings

(see original post from 7/28/10):

aesthetics - 7
views from park - 4
view to field - improves to 5 (the netting has improved but still far from field with pole obstructions)
surrounding area - 3
food variety - decreases to 5
nachos - 6
beer - 9
vendor price - 9
ticket price - decreases to 8 ($14 grandstand)
atmosphere - 8
walk to park - 5
parking price/proximity - 9
concourses - 3
team shop - 5
kids area - 6 (added category - points for openness, proximity/visibility to field, and catering towards older kids)

best food - cheeseburger
most unique stadium feature - exterior walls
best jumbotron feature - n/a
best between-inning feature - kids race Harley on field featuring Molly

field dimensions - 340/380/340
starters - Mason Kinchen (EC) v. Cale Haugen (DUL)
opponent - Eau Claire Express
time of game - 3:31
attendance - 812
score - 8-3 L
Brewers score that day - 9-7 W

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 6/8/26:

Brewers 40-23, +5.0; 3 @ Athletics (Las Vegas), 3 v. Phillies

Twins 30-37, - 7.0, -3.0 WC; 3 @ Tigers, 3 v. Cardinals

2026 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 3

Peter - 10