Return to Willmar

All photos of Bill Taunton Stadium available on Flickr.

Our whirlwind 2-week family visit to Minnesota of course concluded with another ballgame, this time in Willmar, which is about 50 miles southwest of my wife's parents' house in Cold Spring.  Willmar is home to the Stingers of the Northwoods League, which Erik and I visited way back in their inaugural season of 2010 as a part of our Target Field/Northwoods League trip.  We ended up having to take back county roads most of the way due to the major construction project on MN-23, so normally a drive that is a straight shot in 45 minutes took us about an hour, but it was very scenic past many farms and lakes.

We had the entire family in tow for this trip and got to the park around 4:30 for a 5:05 first pitch.  I'm always excited to see what has changed in a ballpark I have not been back to in that long, particularly one in this league that is constantly adapting, and was eager to walk around before we got to our seats.  And by walk around, mostly I just mean immediately and repeatedly taking my daughter to the bounce house.  From what I did see and from what I can gather when comparing to my 2010 photos, quite a bit has changed at Bill Taunton Stadium.  There was a pretty major renovation done 6 years ago that greatly enhanced the fan experience.  A picnic area was added at the main entry, a couple of new concessions tents/shacks were added, and a large beach area for private parties was added down the left field line.  The rickety standalone bleacher section that Erik and I sat in 13 years ago was replaced by a raised, shaded pavilion, and the ad-hoc bar rail along the left field line was refreshed with a whole new bar and stools.  As is pretty standard in the Northwoods League, the first few rows behind home plate were blow out and replaced with 4-top tables with waitstaff club service.  But perhaps the coolest addition were a couple of dugout suites, one at each dugout.  There is a small "enclave" for lack of a better term on the home-plate side of each dugout that was carved out and fenced off for use as a small suite, appearing to hold around 10 people each.  At first they seemed a little dangerous just seeing their proximity to the field, but they are protected well and really in an area that it would be pretty difficult to hit a foul ball, and certainly a risk I would be willing to take for that unique vantage point that is basically right on the field.  While I was very pleased with all of the upgrades (including the aforementioned bounce house that my daughter spent a considerable amount of time in), the major deficiency of this ballpark has unfortunately not yet been addressed, which is that there is only one concession area and one set of bathrooms, both of which are together in a very odd space adjacent to the grandstand, elevated behind the 3rd base dugout.  I'm guessing this park has been globbed onto and remodeled so many times throughout the years that this is just the original location of the concessions and bathrooms from when the park was much smaller and have never moved, but they definitely have the space to add at least a beer cart and a couple of Port-A-Johns on the opposite side of the field.  It wasn't too bad at the game we were at, but I can only imagine how awful the congestion is at the concessions area for a packed house at a local tournament or something.

We chose to sit in the 1st row of the 200 section on the 1st base side of the grandstand, and they proved to be the perfect seats for a couple of small kids and an old man with a back problem, with a wide unobstructed aisleway directly in front of us.  It was super easy to get in and out of our seats, with plenty of space for the kids to jump around and harass the mascot as he/she/it walked back and forth down the aisle.  We took in a great Father's Day matchup between the Stingers and the Mankato MoonDogs.  It was a back and forth affair for the entire game, with at least one team scratching out a run in every inning except the 3rd and the 5th.  The Stingers got a big game-tying homer in the 4th inning by their DH and Rainbow Warrior Sean Rimmer, and a monster 2-run shot by Gabe Swansen in the 8th that gave Willmar the lead for good.  Tyler Bryan tossed a 1-2-3 9th inning for the save in a brisk game of just over 2 hours (I will record this game using the box score time of 2:29 but that is wildly inaccurate).  Both starting pitchers fared well, going 5 and 6 innings respectively.  Overall it was one of the better quality baseball games I have seen in this league - good pitching, good situational hitting, a surprising amount of power, and stellar defense.

We spent one more night in Cold Spring and headed back to Wisconsin the following day, having notched another 4 ballgames during our time in Minnesota.

park rankings and statistics

(see original post and rankings from 07/31/2010):
aesthetics - 6
views from park - 5
view to field - improves to 8
surrounding area - improves to 4 (there is now a waterpark next door)
food variety - improves to 5
nachos - improves to 6
beer - 5
vendor price - 9
ticket price - decreases to 7
atmosphere - 7
walk to park - 3
parking price/proximity - 10
concourses - 4
team shop - 5

kids area - 4 (new category)

best food - Minnesota Wild Rice Brat
most unique stadium feature - dugout suites
best jumbotron feature - n/a

best between-inning feature - Culver's Food Race beyond outfield wall

field dimensions - 326/373/324

starters - RJ Elmore (MAN) v. Mitch Gutknecht (WIL)
opponent - Mankato MoonDogs
time of game - 2:29
attendance - 950
score - 5-3 W
Brewers score that day - 5-2 W

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 6/22/23:

Brewers 38-36, -1.5; 3 @ Guardians, 4 @ Mets

Twins 37-38, +1.0; 3 @ Tigers, 3 @ Braves

2023 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 1

Peter - 10