Black Sox Park

All photos of Freeport Black Sox Classic available on Flickr.

Saturday was a whirlwind of a day and I learned that when it comes to Town Ball schedules, you have to be flexible and adapt.  I had planned to attend a game in St. Augusta which is about 20 minutes east of our house, but when I arrived a little after what was supposed to be first pitch, not a soul was to be found on the field.  I tried not to panic (admittedly difficult for me) and quickly turned down the next street to park and collect my thoughts, for a long enough period of time that the owner of the house I was in front of might have been suspicious of something nefarious going on.  Instead it was quite the opposite - I was scouring ball schedules on my phone.  I finally found another game occurring at Black Sox Park in Freeport, which was over a half-hour back in the opposite direction.  I hustled back west on I-94 as fast as I legally could and arrived at what the internet told me was the Freeport ballpark, but was actually just a playground.  By this point, I had been driving over an hour and my frustration was building, but I was also pot-committed and determined to watch ball somewhere, so I just started stubbornly driving around to other fields in Freeport I could find on Apple Maps, hoping that one of those was Black Sox Park.  Amazingly, this town of 675 people has 3 ball fields, and third time was a charm as they say.  This experience taught me two things.  #1 is that I always need to have a backup plan from now on, as it is not uncommon for these type of games to be cancelled with no warning or update whatsoever (the same thing happened to me in Luxemburg last year).  #2 is that many of these town ball parks have incorrect addresses or just no address at all, so just entering the name of the field on my phone is not always good enough.  Once I actually found the field and parked, I had a quiet chuckle about the ridiculous ordeal, and I couldn't help but think that Erik's "drive towards the light towers" method of navigation would have actually worked much better than an actual map in this case.

I got out of my car and laughed again when I saw the very address I was trying to locate was in large black letters on the roadside monument sign.  The field was empty but there was still a crowd of fans, so I thought maybe the game was over already but I was at least going to walk around and have a beer while I was out this far.  After snapping a few pictures, a team comprised of what looked to be younger players took the field for fungoes, so my next thought was maybe I missed the town ball game but there is some sort of junior game happening now.  I also noticed several other teams changing clothes and milling about.  I finally realized what was happening - I had stumbled upon a tournament!  Black Sox Park was hosting their annual Freeport Black Sox Classic for the entire weekend, and I happened to arrive there between games.  Eight teams are invited to played a double-elimination style tournament, and the game I was about to see was the Clearwater River Cats v. the Aitkin Steam - which explained why so many other teams were on the road today when I was looking at schedules.  I parked myself a couple rows from the top to witness some of the most regimented fielding practice I've seen in a long time.  A good round of fungoes is almost like watching a ballet or basketball passing drills where everyone is beautifully in sync with no wasted motion.

As for the ballpark itself, this was another impressive one, which was not overly surprising since they are a host site for a tournament.  On the player side, it had a very well maintained field with a nice symmetrical outfield fence, an above-average electronic scoreboard, a locker room/restroom building, ample space for batting cages, and quality masonry dugouts - all luxuries that are not a given at any particular town ball park.  The main structure as you approach the field from the parking lot is a 30+ foot tall rectangular building with equipment housed on ground level and the press box at the top, with a large canopy extending over 10 rows of bleachers between this building and the backstop.  To the right of the grandstand is a concessions building fairly close to the field.  These two structures really framed the seating area nice as in Spring Hill, but this site was a little more open and less closed in, with farmland as far as the eye can see to all sides.  The concession stand here was one of the more exceptional ones I've seen in town ball, featuring hamburgers with fried onions grilled fresh to order, various other meats from a local butcher, for some reason golf on a projector screen, and also a wide selection of team merchandise for sale, including cool Black Sox caps and bleacher back seats.  However, with this variety and menu comes higher prices.  The gold standard for town ball park prices seems to generally be $3 dogs and $25 12-packs of Busch Light, and in Freeport those are priced at $4 and $30 respectively - still not breaking the bank by any means, but worth mentioning.  Maybe the prices were just higher because it was a free tournament, which would make sense.  I liked the brick wainscot that tied all of the individual structures together and I thought it was a really comfortable and well composed park.  Most town ball parks seem to face the "incorrect" cardinal direction of west, so if you're lucky enough to find one with a covered grandstand like Freeport has, that will greatly impact your experience.

As I mentioned earlier, I didn't actually see the Freeport Black Sox play, and it was a little disappointing because I was excited to see if they were wearing Field of Dreams style uniforms.  Between all of the driving around and the long warmup before the game, I also only stayed for a couple of innings.  These were two of the younger, more athletic teams I have seen at this level.  I'm accustomed to more of a bar-league softball level of talent, but Clearwater in particular had some good looking ballplayers, aside from the enormous first baseman who had a gut hanging over his belt and made other players go fetch bats for him.  It was another gorgeous day for baseball and I wish I could have stayed longer, but I left for a good reason - more ball!  After attending my first ever tripleheader just a couple months ago, Saturday would be another one for me as I saw parts of two more games in Cold Spring at their annual "Day at the Park" celebration.  This is an annual event consisting of the Springers, the Rockies, the local Legion team, and the senior team playing a quadruple header that culminates with live music after the final game.  It's the ballpark's main fundraising event of the year and one of the few games they actually charge admission to, and I was happy to finally get to go to this awesome community gathering.  Megan and the kids met me at the Cold Spring games, and I can't think of any way I'd rather spend Father's Day Weekend than watching ball with my family.

park rankings and statistics

(for purposes of amateur/town ball rankings, some categories are changed to just yes/no questions):
aesthetics - 7
views from park - 4
view to field - 6 (lots of foul ground)
surrounding area - 1
concessions - yes
nachos - no
beer - yes
vendor price - 8
ticket price - 10 (free)
atmosphere - 6
walk to park - 1
parking price/proximity - 10
concourses - 5
team shop - yes

kids area -  if you count the lone plastic slide, yes

best food - burger w/ onions
most unique stadium feature - concessions/team store combo stand
scoreboard - electronic

lights - yes

best between-inning feature - watching fungoes between games

field dimensions - 325/380/325
teams - Aitkin Steam v. Clearwater River Cats
time of game - unknown
attendance - there were more players there than fans
score - 6-2 Clearwater
Brewers score that day - 4-3 L

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 6/22/26:

Brewers 46-29, +5.0; 3 @ Reds, 3 v. Cubs, 4 v. Reds, 3 @ Diamondbacks

Twins 38-41, - 3.5, -1.0 WC; 3 v. Dodgers, 3 v. Rockies, 3 @ Astros, 3 @ Yankees

2026 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 3

Peter - 15

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

Tour Molly 2026: Port Arthur Stadium

All photos of drive to Canada, Thunder Bay, and Port Arthur Stadium available on Flickr.

We hit the road around 7am Saturday for our busy day north of the border.  Not only was this Molly's first time out of the country, but it was also our first trip staying in multiple cities, and we had a 3:45 drive ahead of us plus a time change.  It was a gorgeous voyage up Hwy 61 along the lakeshore that culminated with a 15-minute line to get into Canada.  We had a very pleasant exchange with the border patrol about our travels, and Molly even made the customs agent a note that said "Thank you for letting us into Canada!"  It was super cute and the agent even laughed and said "you've gotta wait until I let you in before you give me this."  He promised Molly he would keep the note and we got through unscathed.  When you drive to Canada, it's almost immediately apparent you're in another country.  Signs start appearing in both English and French.  The speed limit changes to km/h.  And it's also hard not to notice the superior road quality.  We passed through 3 separate bridge projects in just the 45-minute remaining drive to Thunder Bay, and it was kind of sad to see more infrastructure repair work on a remote 2-lane highway in Canada than you see on many major roads in the US.

And when I say "remote" highway, that's not an exaggeration.  Thunder Bay is one of the most remote 100,000+ population cities you'll find anywhere.  Duluth is the closest major city to it, and it's about 8 hours to the nearest Canadian cities of Winnipeg and Sault Ste. Marie.  No major highways serve the area - it is all 2-lane provincial highways - and it's incredibly expensive to fly there.  Thunder Bay also lies within the Canadian Shield and the Empty Belt, which basically means it's surrounded for thousands of kilometers by sparsely populated unbuildable land with little to no paved roads.  The reason the city even exists at all (as we would learn later on a tour) is that early 19th century European settlers and indigenous natives needed a rendezvous point between the major economic capital of Montreal and the vast wilderness to the west to meet for trading, so Fort William was built on the Kaministiquia River off of Lake Superior, which eventually urbanized and became modern-day Thunder Bay in 1970.  It is still a major freighter and rail hub today and is a very industrial blue-collar city, and is nothing like the other more cosmopolitan cities I've been to in Canada.  The fact that it is also a relatively new incorporated city gives it a very unique feel with distinct neighborhoods.  We spent most of our time in the Port Arthur section of the city, which is the more picturesque central business district area, as opposed to the original Fort William that is more industrial in nature.  Our first stop of the day was at Wacky's for lunch, which was kind of like a Buffalo Wild Wings with a giant arcade.  Molly loved it, especially the candy toilet she got as a prize.  From there, we toured Fort William Historical Park, which is actually a historically accurate recreation of the original fort I mentioned earlier.  We learned so many cool facts here and it was really interesting to see what life was like 200 years ago.  Molly had tons of questions and the actors were all super knowledgeable, and I would highly recommend this tour for any visitors.  After a brief check-in at the hotel, our last stop before the ballgame was at the Canada Games Complex, which conveniently shared a parking lot with Port Arthur Stadium across the street.  This facility opened in 1981 to host all the aquatic events of the Canada Summer Games, which is kind of like a Canada-only Olympics held every 4 years.  It still operates today as a giant public pool complete with water slides, diving boards, and lane swimming, and we spent close to two hours there but I'm sure Molly will tell you she could have spent the whole day there.  I managed to drag her away and we walked across the street to the ballpark for another 6:35pm first pitch.

Port Arthur Stadium has a lot of similarities to Wade Stadium in Duluth and it was fun comparing the two.  They both have a similar age - Port Arthur is 10 years younger - and both have the same "bunker style" setup where you enter into a masonry cavern below the grandstand.  The difference in Thunder Bay is that it is far more disjointed, with sort of "pockets" of space below the grandstand that are accessed by individual openings, rather than a continuous concourse, sort of like in Wausau or Alexandria.  Between that and the very beat up concrete walkways and ramps, it made it a difficult stadium to navigate, especially for a first-time goer.  Even though the main entrance was behind home plate, we had to go out to the left field corner to buy tickets and then walk back.  Port Arthur Stadium had tiered pricing based on your age, which is something you rarely see at a ballpark and I thought was a revolutionary concept.  Sometimes you will see discounted rates for college students or military, but this stadium had child and senior pricing like you might see at an amusement park, and children under 2 I believe even got in for free.  It just makes a lot of sense that Molly should not have to pay the same as an adult when she is only there for playing and food.  It was $20 CAD for me and $7 CAD for her which comes out to under $20 USD, very reasonable.  The other major difference between the Thunder Bay and Duluth ballparks that you notice on the exterior is obviously the color.  Port Arthur Stadium is primarily a concrete shell painted in Canadian white and red, and a little color goes a long way in dressing up an otherwise drab windowless exterior.  Both stadiums have the same covered grandstand with a press box on the roof and apertures at the top of the seating bowl, but in Thunder Bay every single seat is a bucket seat with a back, which looked to be if not original to the stadium then very close to it.  We sat at the top row and it was a pretty clear day, so we could just barely see Lake Superior on the horizon.  Definitely sit in the top row or a party deck if you ever visit this stadium as the breeze and views are much better the higher up you go.  The party decks here are on top of two concessions out-buildings, one by the left field pole and one behind the 1st base dugout.  We got another "fan upgrade" of sorts at this park as they announced during the game that those decks were not sold out so they were open to all fans to enjoy.  Molly and I took advantage of this and made our way to the 1st base one in the 4th inning.  We sat in a little covered shanty that clearly would have been the bar setup had this section sold any tickets and it was a really unique experience.  This deck is also adjacent to one of the saddest excuses for a kids area I've seen at a park, which was basically just a lawn area behind the bleachers with a small netted enclosure that looks like at one time it might have hosted a speed pitch but now is just sad and empty.  Molly still made the most of it by tossing around a ball we got at the team store and climbing the trees.  Overall I would say this park was in a lot rougher shape than Wade Stadium, but it's hard not to enjoy baseball in an old ballpark in another country.  Historically, the Border Cats are about middle of the pack in Northwoods League attendance rankings despite having the 2nd largest market size, so when you couple that with the city's remoteness and their 3-year COVID hiatus, it's hard to understand how this team has lasted 23+ years, but I think its importance to the league as a team servicing Canadian collegiate ballplayers probably has a lot to do with that.

There were about 800 in attendance on Saturday to witness the Border Cats defeat the Rochester Honkers by a score of 6 to 4.  Thunder Bay doesn't seem to have the same rich baseball history that a lot of cities with older ballparks do, but it was a very active lively crowd for the time we were there.  Starting pitcher Luke Bryant was from Ohio University, but about half of the roster was comprised of native Canadians.  Bryant gave up 4 runs over 5 with 3 walks and 3 strikeouts, which was a very similar line to his counterpart Payne Lochridge who lasted only 1/3 inning longer.  CF Sam Harry was the offensive star of the day, going 3-4 with 2 bombs out of the leadoff spot for Honky.  After another long day of travel, we left in the 7th inning with the B-Cats up 5-4 and they would hold on for the victory.

Molly and I had an absolute blast and she thoroughly enjoyed her first trip to Canada.  It was a long 6-hour drive home, but also very scenic and well worth it.  As opposed to our relatively long line getting into Canada, nobody was eager to visit the United States as we were the only ones at the station.  I was fully expecting to enjoy Thunder Bay more just knowing how much I love Canada, but I came away from the trip with a greater appreciation for Duluth and wanting to return as soon as possible to explore more.  Both cities were great and it was so nice to get a taste of cooler temps before the wretchedly hot and humid summer rolls into central Minnesota.  My wife and son are starting to get more and more jealous of these trips - and quite frankly we miss them - so I think this may have been the last year of just Molly & I doing this.  That in and of itself will always make this particular adventure extra special as potentially our last daddy-daughter version.

park stats and rankings:

aesthetics - 5
views from park - 8 (on a clear day you can see Lake Superior and Sleeping Giant Mountain from the top row, but also net and pole obstructions)
view to field - 4
surrounding area - 6 (Canada Games Complex across the street, on major arterial...feels like Kenosha)
food variety - 6 (bonus point for poutine)
nachos - 5
beer - 8 (bonus points for Molson and cost but low craft variety)
vendor price - 8
ticket price - 9 (bonus points for tiered pricing by age)
atmosphere - 7
walk to park - 5
parking price/proximity - 10 (across the street for free)
concourses - 1
team shop - 3 (points deducted for no team logo baseballs!)
kids area - 1 (just a lawn I wouldn't even call it a kids area)

best food - I didn't try it but I'm going to say the poutine
most unique stadium feature - covered grandstand with individual plastic seats
best jumbotron feature - music video of TCB featuring Thunder Bay's own Paul Shaffer
best between-inning feature - school dance troupes

field dimensions - 320/385/320
starters - Payne Lochridge (ROC) v. Luke Bryant (TB) 
opponent - Rochester Honkers
time of game - 2:39
attendance - 805
score - 6-4 W
Brewers score that day - 7-1 W

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 - 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

Northwoods League Opening Week 2026

All photos of Willmar Stingers 2026 Home Opener available on Flickr.

Megan and I attended our first Northwoods League Opening Day in the state of Minnesota this past Wednesday!  After the luster of MLB Opening Day wears off, it's generally still cold and dreary and frankly a little quiet until NCAA Regionals and summer collegiate leagues start.  So when you couple that with the fact that the Northwoods League historically opens their season in a holiday week when school is ending, this is always a really exciting time of year for me.  We opted for Willmar over St. Cloud just due to how the schedules worked out and it was only about a 15-minute extra drive.  We arrived at what we thought was right before first pitch, but it turned out that the home opener was pushed back to a 7:05pm start, so we had some time to walk around, and by walk around I mean more beer time.  

The other reason we opted for Willmar over St. Cloud is it was getting increasingly more intolerable to sit in the horrendously uncomfortable seats at Joe Faber Field, so much so that we cancelled our 7-packs for this year.  At Bill Taunton Stadium, we enjoyed spacious box seats in the 3rd row right behind home plate, and it was the most relaxing experience I've had at a Northwoods game in quite some time.  The first batter of the game ended up being named the Miller Lite Beer Batter and he promptly struck out, so we were already two deep at 5 minutes into the game and we knew it was going to be a fun night.  Later in the evening, a fan succeeded at a between innings game that for some reason won the entire stadium free beer, so between the 2 of us, we had 6 tall boys for a total of about $20.  We always find it amusing when my parents go to a ballgame, and if we ask how it was, the answer inevitably starts with how little they paid for drinks, so we had a good time laughing at ourselves for doing the same thing.  Other than getting up to go to the beer line and concessions area, we really didn't explore much else of the park.  The stadium is set up kind of odd where the concessions and bathrooms are all up on grandstand level behind the 3rd base dugout, so once you get to your seat there is really no reason to go down the ramp to the rest of the park, which makes it a ballpark that is not super conducive to exploring or circumnavigating.  I don't necessarily have any complaints about that, it's just unusual, and I kind of like the compactness and choppiness.  It makes the grandstand very active with people moving around and it keeps everyone in the seating bowl area, which only helps the atmosphere.  There were a few new lackluster fried food items on the menu, but otherwise nothing stood out as new or updated from our last visit three years ago.  We thoroughly enjoy Willmar more than St. Cloud and are always willing to make the longer drive out there, much like we enjoyed Kenosha over Mequon when we lived in Milwaukee.  It's a covered grandstand with comfortable seats and cheap beer that is very close to the seating bowl, which is all you really need on a hot summer day.  To be fair, the one big check mark I will give St. Cloud over Willmar is that they have an all-you-can-eat section with $3 beers that sells individual tickets, sort of like the Duck Blind in Madison.  Willmar's social areas are entirely reserved for groups only and are not accessible to the "regular" fan, which is a sad reality that should be remedied because they do have some very unique sections including a couple of on-field suites.  We'll be going to a game in St. Cloud in August in this section and it is pretty much the only place I will sit there from now on.

The Stingers defeated the Minot Hot Tots by a 1-0 score in just a shade over 2 hours.  The box score might imply that it was a game dominated by pitching, but the Stingers definitely could have piled it on the Tots' starter a little more, as they had multiple baserunners in just about every inning during his 4 2/3 of work.  On the other hand, Willmar's starter was in fact dominant.  Gannon Reidinger of Minnesota State was masterful, giving up just 1 hit with no walks and striking out 7 in 7 innings of work.  He did not throw especially hard or seem to have elite movement on his pitches, but he knew what he was doing on the mound.  Parker Barraza closed the door and completed the shutout with 4 Ks over the final 2.

Happy Northwoods League Opening Day, and stay tuned next week for posts from my 6th Annual Tour Molly trip to a couple more Northwoods League ballparks!

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 6/1/26:

Brewers 35-21, +4.5; 4 v. Giants, 3 @ Rockies

Twins 26-28, - 6.5, -2.0 WC; 3 v. White Sox, 4 v. Royals

2026 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 2

Peter - 8

Luxemburg Legion Baseball Park

All photos of Luxemburg Legion Baseball Park available on Flickr.

Memorial Day marks the unofficial start to summer for many, and for me that also means that the baseball season is in full swing.  Summer collegiate leagues and independent leagues are starting, the NCAA tournament field is being announced, and towns all across Minnesota are awakening from their winter hibernation to welcome locals to the ballpark.  I couldn't have asked for better weather for my first town ball game of the year - 80 degrees, a steady breeze blowing in, and just enough clouds to feel comfortable.  I had Molly and Elliot in tow with me on this holiday excursion to Luxemburg for a 1pm first pitch.

The drive to the park is always half the adventure of going to a town ball game, and Luxemburg was no different.  They play behind St. Wendelin's School on Hwy 15 just south of Hwy 47, and it was one of the more difficult town ball parks to locate that I've been to thus far.  For some context, Minnesota is geographically divided into a grid of over 1,800 townships, most of which are about 6 x 6 miles, and basically everyone not living within a city falls under the administrative rule of these various townships.  So you can imagine my confusion when the unincorporated community of Luxemburg did not reside within the township of the same name.  The town of Luxemburg actually has St. Augusta and St. Cloud addresses and is nowhere near Luxemburg Township, about 10 miles east as the crow flies.  It has something to do with St. Augusta breaking off from its own township in the year 2000, but I'm not going to dive any deeper than that and pretend I understand any of this.  All this to say - it made it unnecessarily complicated to map directions to the park, and being behind a school with no signs and no direct access from the road did not make it any easier.  I actually tried to go to this park last summer and unbeknownst to me the game was cancelled, so had I not already stumbled upon it once, I might have spent my day looking for it.  Once I did finally locate the parking lot, I paid a nice gentleman volunteer $5 to park on the lawn behind the grandstand, and we arrived just before the 1pm first pitch.

One of the many things I love about town ball is most of the diamonds are part of a community park or school, which means most of them have playgrounds - which means I can take the kids and they can have a blast while I watch the game in peace.  I grabbed some pine right behind home plate, and Molly and Elliot played their hearts out not more than 100 feet to my right behind the first base dugout.  I had to throw some snacks and water at them once in awhile and keep alert for any foul balls hit their way, but for the most part it was a nice relaxing day at the ballpark.  Just as I can remember mundane details of all the parks I go to, the kids always remember the details of each playground when I take them along, and I think it's kind of cool that we all have our own independent experiences.  It just further reinforces the fact that you don't necessarily have to pay attention at a baseball game to have a great time.  I would venture to guess that that playground cost almost as much to build as the ballfield structures themselves.  It was a pretty barebones and standard setup for town ball - two at-grade wood and CMU dugouts, chain link backstop, a few small sections of bleachers, a small inning tally scoreboard in the outfield, and a park pavilion building with concessions and some covered picnic seating.  There was also a nice view of the church and school beyond the right field fence - another staple of a good town ball field.  This park didn't have a PA announcer and instead featured the home team playing classic rock hits between batters, at a volume level that was clearly meant for only themselves to enjoy.  The only feature I would say that gives this park any distinction beyond a generic community park diamond is the hand painted word "BREWERS" on the backside of the home dugout.  That's right, I've kind of buried the lead here - the Luxemburg team name is the Brewers!  A lot of town ball teams "borrow" major league team names and logos, and the L-Crew's logo is actually pretty creative as far as copyright infringement goes, incorporating the abbreviation "LUX" in place of the "m" part of the ball and glove logo.

This is normally the part of my ballpark reviews where I talk about the game, but as anybody familiar with this blog or Town Ball knows by now, there is not much I can report on as they do not keep very accurate or timely box scores.  The visiting Cold Spring Rockies' catcher #23 appeared to be the one real athlete of the game.  He batted cleanup and looked like he knew what he was doing at the plate and behind the dish.  He actually wore protective batting gear and was ready to step into one of the Luxemburg pitcher's 70mph heaters, but instead settled for at least 3 walks on the day by my count.  The game was 1-0 Brewers when I left after the 8th, with the L-Crew scoring their lone run on a wild pitch.  I was proud to wear my Milwaukee Brewers cap and be amongst my people for an afternoon, and it was a long overdue visit.

park rankings and statistics

(for purposes of amateur/town ball rankings, some categories are changed to just yes/no questions):
aesthetics - 5
views from park - 7
view to field - 6
surrounding area - 3 (per usual, adjacent to church and bar)
concessions - yes
nachos - no
beer - yes
vendor price - 10
ticket price - 9 ($5)
atmosphere - 5
walk to park - 3
parking price/proximity - 10
concourses - 4
team shop - no

kids area -  yes

best food - hot dog
most unique stadium feature - hand painted Brewers dugout
scoreboard - electronic

lights - no

best between-inning feature - Brewers dugout playing tunes just for themselves

field dimensions - unknown (there was a fence but no numbers posted)
teams - Cold Spring Rockies v. Luxemburg Brewers
time of game - 2 hours-ish
attendance - I counted about 50
score - unknown (Luxemburg was up 1-0 in the 8th when I left)
Brewers score that day - 5-1 W

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 5/26/26:

Brewers 31-20, +2.5; 3 v. Cardinals, 3 @ Astros

Twins 26-28, - 5.0, -- WC; 4 @ White Sox, 3 @ Pirates

2026 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 2
Peter - 7