Friday, May 3, 2024

Return to St. Paul

All photos of CHS Field available on Flickr.

My wife being out of town this past weekend presented a great opportunity to take the kids to their first ballgame of the season.  I decided on a St. Paul Saints game, which was their first visit to CHS Field, and my first visit since its inaugural season of 2015.  A lot has changed in those 9 years, for both myself and the Saints.  Megan and I were newly engaged at the time and living each day as it came to us.  Erik and his not-yet-wife were still living in Minneapolis.  All three of us had the free time to do something absurd like a Twin Cities doubleheader on the train.  And the Saints were still an independent league team in the American Association.  On Saturday's visit, there were now children involved - my two hyperactive children who spent most of the game eating and rolling down the berm, and the Saints as the "child" to its new parent club, the Minnesota Twins, dating back to the MiLB reorganization of 2021.  

We arrived just before a 1:07 first pitch of the first game of a doubleheader, and after a obligatory team store visit and wolfing down some dogs, made our way to our seats on the 1st base line.  My first natural inclination whenever I return to a park after a long layaway is to scan for anything that might have changed since my last visit.  By and large, the ballpark seems almost untouched, and frankly I don't think anything needed to be.  This was formerly my favorite indy park, and I'd still put it in the top 3 of all minor league parks now that it is a AAA affiliate.  It's just a really unique and thoughtfully designed ballpark that you can tell was not designed by a typical stadium architect, but still took the care to research what makes a good ballpark.  It's also very simple, well-organized yet not rigid, and really embraces its site, all of which are things you can ask any architect and they will say are crucial to a great outdoor space.  It feels like an extension of the city when you are inside and it feels like a ballpark that was built specifically for this one site in St. Paul, as opposed to so many parks that are plopped in a green site somewhere with no context.  The one notable addition to CHS Field since my last visit is the City of Baseball Museum near the Craft Beer Corner in left field (which is now operated by Summit Brewing).  This museum opened in 2019 as a repository to showcase the long history of baseball in Saint Paul, and also purposely doubling as a new group space for the stadium on its roof.  Unfortunately, I did not get to go inside with the kids in tow, but my office is only about 8 blocks from the ballpark, so I'm sure I will have many more opportunities to walk through it.  You don't see that many museums inside of ballparks, but when they're done right, they offer a unique opportunity and great use of space for a function that probably wouldn't generate a lot of revenue if it was a standalone building.

We were in our seats for about 3 innings and then meandered around the park, as one does at a minor league game.  We hit up the kids area for awhile (of course), and then settled in to the left field berm for the remainder of the 7-inning affair.  The kids did a great job and I actually got to watch most of the game, which the Saints dropped to the Rochester Red Wings by a 3-2 score.  They would go on to drop Game 2 of the twin bill after we left as well.  Both the Twins and the Red Wings parent Nationals are about middle-of-the-pack in their organization farm system rankings, but it seems like the teams are moving in opposite direction.  The Nats are in a rebuild and will likely continue to climb in terms of farm system depth, and their #2 overall prospect James Wood started in CF with an RBI single on the afternoon.  The Twins, on the other hand, have a lot of their better prospects either currently on the big league roster or in the lower levels at the moment.  Their highest ranked prospect in AAA is SS Brooks Lee, and he would probably also be in the bigs by now if he wasn't injured.  Louie Varland and Jhoan Duran are both in St. Paul right now on rehab assignments and both pitched in this game.  Varland got the start and gave up 1 run over 5, and Duran tossed a perfect 6th inning and has since been activated.  It was a pretty quick and uneventful game until the final inning.  Drew Millas homered and James Wood singled in another run in the top of the 7th for the Wings to break the tie at 3-1, and the Saints got one back in the bottom half with an RBI double by Alex Isola, but ultimately it was not enough for the victory.  As an aside, I got to see the Automatic Ball-Strike System (ABS) live in action for the first time in a game, and it will be long overdue when it is inevitably implemented by MLB.

I had an absolute blast with Molly and Elliot and I can't wait to take them back to another game, hopefully with Megan along next time so that I actually have a free hand to hold a frosty beverage.  The Twins are frankly a waste of money with small children unless you have a lot of help, and the St. Cloud Rox park is a bit too small and cramped for running around, but the Saints were a perfect middle ground.

updated park rankings and statistics
(see original post from 6/8/15):
aesthetics - 9
views from park - improves to 7 (nothing has changed, just not sure why I ever had it that low - great view from outfield to the city)
view to field - 10
surrounding area - improves to 4
food variety - 10
nachos - 8
beer - 9
vendor price - 4
ticket price - improves to 4
atmosphere - 8
walk to park - 2
parking price/proximity - decreases to 3 ($10 for a shady lot under the freeway)
concourses - 10
team shop - 8
kids area - 7 (new category - great location in the ballpark)

best food - not sure if "The Dog Park" still exists but sausages are still best food
most unique stadium feature - use of materials, zero-waste features
best jumbotron feature - Pet of the Game
best between-inning feature - ball pig!

field dimensions - 330/405/320

starters - Thaddeus Ward (ROC) v. Louie Varland (STP)
opponent - Rochester Red Wings

time of game - 2:06 (game 1 of doubleheader)
attendance - 4334
score - 3-2 L (7)
Brewers score that day - 15-3 L

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 5/3/24:
Brewers 19-11, +1.0; 3 @ Cubs, 3 @ Royals, 4 v. Cardinals, 3 v. Pirates
Twins 17-13, -2.5; 3 v. Red Sox, 4 v. Mariners, 3 @ Blue Jays, 3 v. Yankees
Orioles 20-11, +1.0; 3 @ Reds, 2 @ Nationals, 3 v. Diamondbacks, 3 v. Blue Jays

2024 GAMES ATTENDED:
Erik - 1
Peter - 5

Friday, April 26, 2024

New Siebert Field

All photos of Siebert Field available on Flickr.

My April NCAA ballpark tour continued this week at Siebert Field in Minneapolis, home of the Minnesota Golden Gophers of the Big 10 Conference.  The ballpark takes its name from Dick Siebert, a former head coach who led the team to three national titles in the early 1960s during the program's heyday.  This is actually the 2nd iteration of Siebert Field that has existed at the same exact site, replacing the old facility in 2013.  Despite Erik moving to Minneapolis in the summer of 2004 and living there for the better part of a decade (while obtaining multiple degrees from the UofM nonetheless), I've somehow never made it to either of the Sieberts, but it certainly wasn't for lack of trying.  Towards the end of the O.G. Siebert's existence, it was becoming so dilapidated that the Gophers started playing almost exclusively at the old Metrodome.  I actually recall Erik going to many of those games when he was a Twins usher there.  And there was at least one time we tried going to the new park and the game was cancelled due to too much snow on the field.  We did make it out to see Goldy at their early season home of U.S. Bank Stadium in 2017, but I finally got to one of my white whales this past Tuesday.

I made the 15 minute drive from my office in St. Paul, and found some free street parking a couple blocks away from the park within what appeared to be a large off-campus housing area.  The ballpark is situated on the north end of campus, amongst the glut of their other athletic facilities.  It is oriented southeast and wedged between an active rail line to the north, the track & field stadium to the east, the softball stadium to the south, and Athletes Village to the west, which is another BWBR-designed project.  It seems like every single men's and women's sport has their own dedicated playing and practice facility in its own separate part of campus, and being my first time to this part of campus, it felt odd to me.  When I was at the University of Cincinnati, there was something special about the ceremony of at arriving to the football stadium in the center of campus and how buildings were arranged around that, instead of just stumbling upon this back baseball field next to a set of train tracks as in the case of Siebert Field.  Once I got inside it even felt cramped on the site.  I'm not complaining about the perils of an urban campus - density is a good thing - but the entire area could have just been organized and connected better with some sort of cohesive athletics master plan.  I did like how other buildings and infrastructure consciously make up some of the boundaries of the field.  The types of parks that do this are always the most intimate, unique, and memorable - Hadlock Field in Portland and Jackson Field in Lansing spring to mind as recent examples for me.  Aside from its position and location on campus, the rest of the ballpark was pretty status quo.  It has about 5 sections of fixed seats that are 15 rows deep, some bleacher sections above the dugouts, and then two small berms further down the lines adjacent to the bullpens.  It has an open concourse at the top row of seats with a concessions building behind home plate with press box above, a small outbuilding with bathrooms and I assume lockers down the 3rd base line, and an indoor batting cage and training building down the 1st base line.  I've implied that this field is shoehorned into its site, and that means the concourses basically stop at the foul poles and there is no access beyond the outfield fence.  It certainly wasn't horrible, but I was expecting a little bit more out of a Big 10 facility, particularly when compared to the beautiful D3 St. John's ballpark I was at a couple weeks ago.

I was definitely spoiled by the mild weather I experienced in Omaha and Collegeville earlier this month, because this game was a harsh reminder as if to say "hey, it's still April."  It had just stopped raining when I got to the park which pushed back first pitch about 20 minutes, and after that rain ceased it cooled considerably, dropping down into the low 40s by the time I left.  Minnesota would go on to defeat intercity rival St. Thomas by a 7-6 score in 11 innings.  My joints were literally freezing stiff by the end of the 7th, and I also had an 80-mile drive ahead of me back home, so I did not get to see the thrilling conclusion, but there was plenty of action in the 7 innings I saw.  The Tommies jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the 4th, and the Gophers scratched and clawed back the rest of the way, ultimately winning on a walk-off single by 2B Brady Counsell in the 11th, who you can probably guess is the son of former Brewers manager and noted traitor Craig Counsell.  The other exciting name in the game was Jack Spanier, mainly because he is from Cold Spring and was ROCORI's starting quarterback a couple years ago (no, I am not into local small town high school football now...yet).  He went 2-5 with 2 RBI starting at SS in the 9-hole.  Both starting pitchers were pretty awful.  Walker Retz for St. Thomas walked 5 over 4 innings with only 1 strikeout, and Nick Argento for Minnesota gave up 4 runs in just 2.1 with a walk and 3 hit batsmen.  He was also just as wild off the mound, as 2 of his runs were unearned due to an errant throw from him to first base.  As an aside, I've always felt that if a pitcher commits an error that leads to a run scoring, that the run should be earned and charged to him - he's the one that made his own mistake!

With the college baseball regular season wrapping up in the next couple of weeks, I am eagerly awaiting the start of the town ball and Northwoods League calendar!

park rankings and statistics:
aesthetics - 4
views from park - 6
view to field - 8
surrounding area - 5 (student housing and other athletic facilities)
food variety - 5
nachos - 5 (cheese was ok, good ratio, points deducted for bag of chips)
beer - n/a
vendor price - 8 ($2 Tuesday)
ticket price - 9 ($10 behind home plate)
atmosphere - 4
walk to park - 6
parking price/proximity - 7 (free street parking 2 blocks away)
concourses - 4
team shop - 4 (good amount of stuff but it was a stand not a shop)
kids area - n/a

best food - nachos
most unique stadium feature - site/campus location
best jumbotron feature - Categories game
best between-inning feature - Guess the Stretch

field dimensions - 330/390/330

starters - Walker Retz (STT) v. Nick Argento (UMN)
opponent - St. Thomas Tommies

time of game - 3:59
attendance - 501
score - 7-6 W (11)
Brewers score that day - 2-1 L

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 4/26/24:
Brewers 16-8, +0.5; 3 v. Yankees, 3 v. Rays
Twins 11-13, -6.5; 3 @ Angels, 3 @ White Sox
Orioles 16-8, --; 3 v. Athletics, 4 v. Yankees

2024 GAMES ATTENDED:
Erik - 1
Peter - 4

Friday, April 19, 2024

Becker Park

All photos of Becker Park available on Flickr.

An unseasonably mild April afternoon afforded me the opportunity to cross a local collegiate field off my list this past Saturday.  I've been excited to go to Becker Park since I moved out here, not only because it's the only major collegiate ballpark in the area I haven't been to yet (St. Cloud State shares a ballpark with the Rox Northwoods team), but because I've heard how stunningly beautiful Saint John's campus is from numerous people.  St. John's is a private liberal arts college that was founded by Benedictine monks in 1857, making it the oldest college in the state of Minnesota.  It is closely affiliated with the nearby women's College of St. Benedict, and both still offer theological and divinity study programs.  When you combine these facts with its location nestled amongst 3 lakes in a heavily wooded and secluded area, one can imagine how idyllic the setting and architecture are on campus.  There's really only one way into campus, which gives anyone driving there a very tranquil arrival experience that only further emphasizes how remote it is.  The athletic facilities are mostly globbed together on the north side of campus, and all are relatively new when juxtaposed with all the century-plus old academic buildings.  The baseball field is sandwiched between a brand new tennis facility and the inflatable Skalicky football dome, and I got to walk past an ongoing tennis match on my way from the parking lot to the ballgame.

Haugen Field at Becker Park opened for business in 2013.  It's fairly common nowadays for a team to name the playing field and the ballpark separately as St. John's has, but normally I don't care to acknowledge the field naming aspect as usually it's nothing more than a money grab.  But in this case, it's definitely worth mentioning the namesake for Haugen Field.  Jerry Haugen is the current manager for the St. John's Johnnies, as he has been for each of the past 47 seasons.  With 935 victories as of the start of 2024, that places him in the top 15 for winningest active D3 baseball coaches, to go along with 3 conference championships during his tenure.  Perhaps more astonishing than his 935 wins is the fact that there are 14 active managers ahead of him somehow.  A man for all seasons, he's also coached basketball, hockey, and football for St. John's as well, and the 100% synthetic field was dedicated to him in 2017.  It's common for managers to also double as the 3rd base coach at this level as well, and his 3rd base coaching box even has his number in it.  Aside from no longer being too swift on his feet at his age, he seemed as energetic and passionate as ever, yelling words of encouragement and direction to his players in the 3rd base dugout throughout the game.  

That 3rd base dugout is situated below and within one of the other reasons I went to see this ballpark - the brand new clubhouse designed by the firm I work for, BWBR.  It formally opened this season and houses some much needed locker rooms, indoor training facilities, and a rooftop deck that is occupiable for viewing the game.  Prior to this addition, players had to dress and shower at the football field up the hill and walk down to the ballpark, so it was long overdue.  Of course I am biased, but I think it is a very aesthetically pleasing building that blends in with the stadium architecture very well, and the rooftop deck space was a great space to watch a ballgame, unencumbered by nets and within spitting distance of the players below.  Overall I was very surprised with how nice the ballpark was for a D3 level facility at a small private college.  The entry portal into the inner courtyard of the ballpark, while not glamorous, was very functional and provided a welcoming entry sequence.  This "portal" also housed some storage, restrooms, and the main concession stand, which was another welcome surprise. The grandstand was very well thought out with a nice press box and a large shade canopy, and I loved the extra wide aisles down the lines where the bleacher seating was.  The bleachers had a nice detail where the bench was installed level with the walking aisle of the row behind, which gave these sections a very open feel.  On top of all that, I was shocked to see the park had a jumbotron as well.  It was a very comfortable, scenic, intimate, and well-intentioned place to watch a game, and that's all you can really ask for at a D3 ball field.  And certainly crushing a $1 dog on an 80° April day didn't hurt either.

The Johnnies won 13-8 as a part of an offensive barrage on the day.  I only stayed for the first game of a doubleheader against Carleton College, but the Johnnies also won game 2 by a score of 20-9.  And mind you, these were only 7 inning games.  After a quiet 1st inning, the floodgates opened, and there was at least one run scored in every subsequent inning.  The Knights jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the 3rd thanks to a couple of 2-run singles, but the Johnnies would score 12 unanswered over the next 4 frames for the victory.  There were 4 total homeruns in the game, 3 of which were by the home team, and one of those by 3B Joe Becker, who I can only assume is part of the Becker family for whom the stadium is named.  Owen Dauk was the offensive star of the day for St. John's, and Ryan Chang for the Knights.  Each of them had a homer and 5 RBI apiece in the game.  Despite the high score, Connor Hartley managed to toss a complete game win for the Johnnies.  His final line was 8 runs on 11 hits with 6 Ks, but it looks worse than he really pitched as there were 3 garbage runs scored by Carleton in the 7th with Haugen trying to preserve the bullpen for Game 2.  I certainly was not expecting to see a D3 game with 25 total hits and 4 long balls, but you never know what you're going to see on any given day at the ballpark.

Most of the time when I'm going to these smaller Midwestern collegiate fields in March and April, honestly I'm just going to add a ballpark to my tally, and/or as an excuse to enjoy a nice spring day, but Becker Park is definitely a field I will be returning to in the future.

park rankings and statistics:
aesthetics - 8
views from park - 8
view to field - 9
surrounding area - 5 (beautiful campus!)
food variety - 2
nachos - n/a
beer - n/a
vendor price - 10 (most things were a dollar)
ticket price - 10 (free)
atmosphere - 7 (much better than I was expecting)
walk to park - 6 (past tennis courts)
parking price/proximity - 9 (adjacent lot for free)
concourses - 2 (there isn't really a concourse)
team shop - n/a
kids area - n/a

best food - dollar dog (note: seeds and peanuts not allowed!)
most unique stadium feature - new clubhouse designed by my firm, honorable mention to the eagles nest platform on one of the light standards
best jumbotron feature - player graphics
best between-inning feature - employee appreciation day raffle

field dimensions - 330/395/330

starters - Ananth Iyer (CAR) v. Connor Hartley (SJU)
opponent - Carleton College Knights

time of game - 2:01 (game 1 of doubleheader)
attendance - 456 (not sure how they came up with an attendance with no gate but this felt accurate)
score - 13-8 W
Brewers score that day - 11-5 W

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 4/19/24:
Brewers 11-6, +0.5; 3 @ Cardinals, 4 @ Pirates
Twins 6-11, -6.0; 3 v. Tigers, 4 v. White Sox
Orioles 12-6, -0.5; 3 @ Royals, 3 @ Angels

2024 GAMES ATTENDED:
Erik - 1
Peter - 3

Friday, April 12, 2024

Tal Anderson Field

All photos of Tal Anderson Field available on Flickr.

Anybody who's followed this blog for awhile might remember all the work trips I had to make to Omaha at my previous job.  I probably went there close to 20 times in a span from 2016-2019.  So I could not help but laugh when I started with a new firm a few years ago that happens to have an Omaha office.  I immediately knew that at some point, I was going to be on a project with that office in some capacity, and my lifetime of visiting The Big O would never end.  Sure enough, a couple years ago I started working on a large college STEM building in nearby Lincoln, and I've been back to Nebraska several more times since.  To this point, due to stupid meetings and general bad timing, it's never worked out where I could see a game while I've been back, but I was finally able to sneak in a University of Nebraska-Omaha game this week while in town for a construction site visit, and in doing so tallied my first new ballpark of 2024.  The UNO campus is in the Aksarben Village neighborhood which is kind of smack-dab in the middle of the enormous swath of land that is Omaha, and I attended a Tuesday evening game at their brand new baseball facility, Tal Anderson Field.

The University of Nebraska-Omaha is a fairly large public university that plays in Division I, but their athletics program has really only exploded in the last decade or so as their campus has grown.  Their major D1 sport for the longest time was hockey and were the first program to build a new facility on campus in 2015 (also built with major financial contribution from alumnus and local business owner Tal Anderson), and their baseball and softball programs followed with their own dedicated fields in 2021.  Before Tal Anderson Field opened, the baseball program was Division II and essentially nomadic, playing at a combination of various high school and city fields around town.  There are certainly a lot of instances where college programs say they "need" a new facility for recruiting or to attract donors or for a litany of financial reasons, but UNO literally just needed a home, and it is a very nice home.  The field is just west of the aforementioned hockey arena, and it actually shares a concourse with Connie Claussen Field, a softball field that was built as part of the project.  This provides a very unique setup where restrooms, concessions, entry point, and even some of the viewing and staff areas on the 2nd level are shared between fields.  I thought this was an ingenious use of land and space and frankly I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.  It still gives each team and field its own distinctive and separate seating bowl and allows for games to be played at the same time, so nothing is compromised in that regard.  You enter both parks from the east and Tal Anderson Field is situated to face northeast, and the softball diamond to face southeast, with the west-east corridor shared cutting across the two.  If you were to take this shared facility concept away, nothing else would really stand out for the stadium, but again I'm sure Omaha is more than happy to just have a nice permanent home.  There are fixed seats from dugout to dugout, with lawn areas down the lines, a perfectly symmetrical outfield wall, and a videoboard in right-center.  As has been the trend just about everywhere at fields of this size, the playing surface is 100% artificial turf including the "dirt" and the mound.  The ballpark holds about 1500 people, and I was pleasantly surprised to be a part of a near-capacity crowd for a weeknight game against intercity rival Creighton University.

Two things I certainly was not prepared for when I walked into the ballpark that night: 1) more than 100 people there on a Tuesday, and 2) to witness one of the longest 9-inning games of my life.  I still distinctly remember a 9-inning Red Sox-Angels affair in Anaheim on the Tour that was in excess of 4 hours, but aside from that, this had to be up near the top for me, clocking in at 3 hours and 47 minutes.  Concession lines were long for most of the game on a $2 Tuesday (which certainly padded that attendance figure) and I would not be shocked if the ballpark ran out of Busch Light at this long of a game.  I had a seat 8 rows directly behind home plate for $12, within the demilitarized zone between Creighton fans to my left and Omaha fans to my right.  The Blue Jays pulled all the way out to a 7-1 lead by the 8th inning and this was when most people left, but the Mavericks made a game of it, tallying 3 in their half of the 8th and 2 in the 9th to nearly complete the comeback, but ultimately falling 7-6.  It was a very sloppily pitched game with a lot of deep counts, mound visits, umpire reviews, and pitching changes, all of which contributed heavily to the long game time.  In total, there were 420 pitches, 16 walks, and 7 hit batsmen, thrown by 14 total pitchers.  Blue Jay leadoff hitter Nolan Sailors was actually plunked 3 times and somehow refrained from charging the mound.  The most impressive hitter of the night for me was Henry Zipay (pronounced ZOO-pay) of the Omaha Mavericks.  He was a shortstop hitting out of the 9-hole so more than likely I just saw a good game from him and not an accurate representation of his talent, but he smoked the ball 3 times, including a hard-hit single through the right side to bring the Mavs within 1 in the 9th.  First baseman Will MacLean of Creighton and LF Drew Lechnir of Omaha each contributed 2 doubles respectively into the spacious power alleys of this ballpark.  The only decent pitcher of the night was a diminutive sidewinder for the Blue Jays named Tommy Lamb.  He struck out all 7 batters he faced in middle relief.

Excluding cities of residence, Omaha is probably in the top 3 of places I've visited most, and it's a city I've grown quite fond of and familiar with.  There are certainly worse places to have work travel, and especially given the fact that I live in the middle of nowhere now, I relish any opportunity to be in any urban area for a couple of days.  I'm hoping I can make it back out for another game in Lincoln or Omaha in the late summer for my project's punchlist.

park rankings and statistics:
aesthetics - 6
views from park - 4
view to field - 9
surrounding area - 3 (UNO athletic facilities)
food variety - 2
nachos - 2 (bag o' chips 'n' cheese)
beer - 8 ($2 but points deducted for Busch)
vendor price - 9
ticket price - 8
atmosphere - 7 (much better than I was expecting)
walk to park - 4
parking price/proximity - 10 (adjacent lot for free)
concourses - 6 (the one shared side was cool)
team shop - n/a
kids area - n/a

best food - hot dog
most unique stadium feature - shared concourse with neighboring softball field
best jumbotron feature - sponsor of the game
best between-inning feature - Quality Brands Maverick Stampede

field dimensions - 330/410/330

starters - Shea Wendt (CRE) v. Carter Navin (UNO)
opponent - Creighton Blue Jays

time of game - 3:47
attendance - 1278
score - 7-6 L
Brewers score that day - 9-5 W

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 4/12/24:
Brewers 8-3, --; 3 @ Orioles, 3 v. Padres
Twins 4-6, -4.0; 4 @ Tigers, 3 @ Orioles
Orioles 8-4, -1.5; 3 v. Brewers, 3 v. Twins

2024 GAMES ATTENDED:
Erik - 0
Peter - 2