Goodbye Oakland, Hello Sacramento

(unofficial probably not real but maybe logo courtesy of Reddit)

We're already at the calendar midpoint of the season, and this is amazingly the first week I don't have a ballpark visit or baseball travel to report on.  So instead, I thought I'd write about a different sort of travel, and an all-too-familiar topic - the never-ending relocation saga of the A's.  Way back in early April, the Athletics officially answered the question of where they would be playing for the next 3+ years while their new stadium in Las Vegas is supposedly getting built, by announcing a move to their temporary home 90 miles up I-80 to Sacramento.  They will be taking up residency in Sutter Health Park, a minor league park that will be shared with the Sacramento River Cats of the Pacific Coast League, who are ironically a Giants affiliate but were formerly an A's affiliate for many years.  The stadium opened in 2000 and seats about 14,000 people.  The A's will play there through at least 2027 with an option for the 2028 season if (and when) the Vegas park has a delayed opening.  During that time, they've chosen to essentially be homeless, by having no mention of Sacramento anywhere on their uniforms or team logos, which is both horrible and completely on brand for the Athletics franchise.

In many ways, this move is completely an A's move - sticking it to Oakland seemingly out of spite, and somehow making a bad situation even worse for its players and staff.  But in many other ways, it's shocking and seems like a logistical nightmare that could have been avoided.  One of the few good things that came out of the hostile takeover of the minor leagues by MLB in 2021 was that it geographically aligned the leagues more sensibly and reduced travel by creating 6-game series with almost every Monday off.  That might be great for the River Cats, but that will make scheduling very challenging when trying to fold in the A's.  There may now be scenarios where one or both teams could have road trips spanning multiple weeks.  Another obvious deficiency is the capacity of the park and just the general facilities being less than or smaller than MLB standards.  One could argue that the park still has a capacity twice the size of a normal Athletics crowd in Oakland, and that I'm sure the team will be forced to pour in millions to upgrade the facility, but none of that replaces the stigma that these major league players now feel like they are playing in the minor leagues.  I'm sure A's players already feel embarrassed by their current playing situation, and the move to Sacramento is lateral at best.  The Blue Jays made this work admirably in Buffalo in 2020-21, but that was during the pandemic due to Canadian COVID restrictions, so it was a completely different situation.  There's also just the strain this must put on the players/employees and their families knowing this will be a temporary situation.  They'll have to find houses and schools knowing they won't be there for more than 3 or 4 years.  And what free agent would ever want to sign there?  This is going to tank the payroll and big league roster even more, and will be an awful product to watch for those dozens of Sacramento fans who are excited for a taste of the big leagues.  On the money side, I'd be curious to know what the revenue hit will be for that poor billionaire John Fisher.  Many thought the A's would work out a lease extension in Oakland merely to keep their lucrative TV contract and stay in the larger market for awhile, so there must be some sort of financial incentive for this move that we're not aware of.  As we've seen play out in the last quarter-century, money is at the heart of every single A's front office decision.

Let's get down to what I really care about - how does this affect me?  Erik and I will now likely be obligated to make Tour 2025 a trip centered around Sacramento.  It means that at the end of the 2024 season, I'll be back down to 29 current MLB ballparks attended, which is always a sad moment for me.  And lastly, I've lost my last chance to sit in the outfield of a football stadium for $5 in a cold August mist.  Ok, so maybe that last one I won't miss at all, but I do hope the "Fuckin' A's" van makes its way up to Sacramento (see photo on left from The Tour).

UPDATE: Erik and I are heading to Seattle bright and early tomorrow for Tour 2024!  Come back next week to read all about it!

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 6/27/24:

Brewers 48-33, +6.0; 3 v. Cubs, 4 @ Rockies

Twins 44-36, -8.0; 3 @ Mariners, 3 v. Tigers

Orioles 50-30, -1.0; 4 v. Rangers, 3 @ Mariners

2024 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 3

Peter - 15

Tour Molly 2024: Sioux Falls Stadium

All photos of Sioux Falls and Sioux Falls Stadium available on Flickr.

This past weekend was Year 4 of "Tour Molly" in lovely Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which at about 200,000 people is the largest city in the state and also the largest city of our daddy-daughter trips thus far.  It was my first time ever visiting or even driving through South Dakota and became the 34th state I've seen a ballgame in.  It was a mere 3-hour drive from our house in Cold Spring, which was nothing compared to the 6+ hour trek to Lansing, Michigan last year.  Our trips from Milwaukee were certainly starting to test the limits of how long I could keep a small child in a car and still make it worth it, and we likely would have been exploring obscure Illinois or Indiana towns for the foreseeable future if we were still living there, so from a strictly ballpark travel perspective, the timing of our move to Minnesota couldn't have been better.  We now have an untapped swath of travel options to our west and north that I likely would have never been able to reach before, so I'm excited for what the future holds for Molly and I.  But for this year, it was Sioux Falls, and I must say my first impression of South Dakota got off to a rocky start when the freeway speed limit immediately changed to 80 mph upon entering the state.  But that would quickly change when we arrived at beautiful Falls Park around noon.  We had lunch and played games at Severance Brewing across the street and then walked around the falls for awhile, and I was completely awestruck by it.  There's just something about the sight and sound of rushing water that draws you in and instantly calms you, and it really helped ground me and clear my mind for the start of the weekend.  I also learned from visiting Falls Park that some rivers can naturally flow north, which I never knew!  There was a lot more around the park that we would explore on Saturday, but for now it was off to the hotel to do the one thing Molly always cares about most - swimming in the hotel pool.  I was originally going to take her out to dinner Friday night and do the ballgame on Saturday, but I flipped those because of the weather forecast, so we were off to the park by about 5:45 for a 7:05 first pitch.

There is conflicting information on when this park actually opened for business.  Wikipedia and several various ballpark websites give the date of 1941, but the team's own website says 1964.  In either case, the main point here is it's an old stadium that has not been renovated in over 20 years, and it shows.  Approaching from the parking lot, there is not even really a "facade" to the stadium, and you basically just see the exposed concrete structure/seating bowl and inner workings of the concourse.  Based on this unapologetic brutalist expression, I'm more inclined to believe that the current form of the stadium is a 1960s era construction.  Nothing at this ballpark is hidden from view behind drywall or cladding or ceilings of any kind and it is just out for the world to see - which might have been cool whenever it was built and I certainly find the simplicity interesting as an architect, but that also means you're seeing all of the park's flaws too.  All of the concrete that is stained or chipping, the rusting exposed rebar, and the peeling paint are on full display.  It would be completely expected for a 60-80 year old park to have these issues, and there are certainly many instances of ballparks that have exposed structure, but here at "The Birdcage" as it is affectionately referred to, there is also nothing to distract you from it either.  There's very little in the way of signage, plaques, or interesting aesthetic features, or a glob of concession stands, or even a pop of color to draw your eye aside from the canary-yellow beer ads.  It's a very gray and drab park with lots of tall open space that seemed mostly empty.  It felt more of the scale of a football stadium given its height and openness.  When you have the type of ballpark where the main circulation is under the seating bowl, you really need to put some thought into the visual aspect of the concourse, and the Canaries just clearly did not.  You can get away with a lot more when the concourse is on top of a seating bowl and most people are just looking towards the field as they walk.  The ballpark was also only at about 50% capacity and there were only 2 or 3 concession stands open, which only further contributed to the empty and cold feeling.  I just did not feel welcomed at any point during our visit.  There was only one concession stand open when the gates opened and it did not have any food yet - they literally make the food somewhere else in the stadium and two kids run it over to the concession stand on mobile carts.  There was no staff near the children's area which made me very uncomfortable.  I was sold a $23 obstructed view ticket without any warning, and I could not find one usher to complain to about it.  I know South Dakota is big on personal freedom and no rules, but I would have appreciated a little effort in any aspect of our time there.  However, even at the worst parks, you can always find something enjoyable, so I will say that there were ample alcohol stands with a decent variety, including a nice little right field pavilion and a frozen daiquiri stand that seemed very popular, and I also appreciated the lack of protective netting in a day and age that it's getting out of hand at a lot of parks.  Unfortunately, as I mentioned, we just happened to be sold seats that were behind one of the few giant posts holding the small amount of netting there was, so Molly and I moved a few sections over and settled in for an evening of independent league baseball.

The Sioux Falls Canaries play in the West Division of the American Association and took on the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks on this night.  Molly was completely gassed so we only made it 5 innings, but we did manage to be in our seats that entire time, and got to see a well-pitched game for the half that we saw.  In indy ball, you never really know if you're seeing good pitching or just bad hitting, or vice versa, but the score was 1-0 Sioux Falls when we left.  Both starters ended up going 7 innings.  As a game is prone to do when you leave early, the score would not remain that way, and the Red Hawks ended up exploding for 7 unanswered runs to win the game 7-1.  Ismael Alcantara was by far the most impressive position player on the field.  He went 2-3 with 2 walks, an RBI, and 4 stolen bases for Fargo, raising his average to .357 in the process and giving him a total of 28 steals on the season.  Looks like he was a Dodgers international signing back in 2017 and was demoted to A-ball last year before being released, so this is his first foray into independent baseball.  Usually in these games you'll see a name and have an "oh yeah I remember him" moment, but the only name I recognized was Jordan Barth for the Canaries, and the only reason I knew him was because he played for the Cold Spring Springers for a number of years.  He was 0-4 on the day but played a good game defensively at shortstop.  Before retiring to the hotel for the evening, we made our customary visit to the team store, at which I had to explain to Molly she could only buy one thing.  She chose a foam canary hand, which she proudly wore for most of the weekend.

For as disappointing as Sioux Falls Stadium was, I was equally surprised and impressed with Sioux Falls as a city.  We started our day on Saturday back at the Falls Park area, where we visited the Stockyards AG Experience, which was a sort of agricultural history museum of the area, and then had lunch at Overlook Cafe, which was a former hydroelectric plant that was converted into a grab-and-go cafe.  We also went up to the top of an observation tower in the Sioux Falls visitor center, also within Falls Park, and enjoyed the beautiful view of the falls from up top for a while.  The bulk of our afternoon was spent at Washington Pavilion, a hodgepodge sort of building featuring a planetarium, science/kids museum, several theaters, and an art gallery.  There is more than enough at this place to keep a family occupied for an entire day, but we were primarily in the science/kids portion of the building.  There was one floor dedicated to space exploration and also had a water play room, one floor dedicated to dinosaurs and agriculture and South Dakota in general, and the top floor was mostly about the human body.  It was very interactive and it was fun even for me; I would highly recommend for anybody with kids visiting Sioux Falls.  From there, daddy needed a beer after 4+ hours of learnin' stuff, so I found a brewery that had lots of outdoor games to keep Molly occupied, and she was completely enthralled watching people play pickleball and cheering them on with her foam hand.  The place was called Remedy Brewing and it was one of my favorite parts of the trip.  We concluded our long day with dinner at Mackenzie River Pizza Pub.

Again, I was so amazed by Sioux Falls, and it's definitely high up there in terms of my "best ballpark cities."  Right or wrong, the Dakotas never really acknowledged the COVID outbreak, and as a result, the Sioux Falls downtown has a pre-2020 vibrancy that is uncommon in cities these days.  It was hard to find a storefront that was empty, or a bar or store that wasn't full, and I was not expecting the city to be as crowded, energetic, historical, or cultural as it was.  Molly and I had the best time, and I would love to go back someday.  Every year, Molly can do a little bit more and conversate a little more meaningfully, and I am trying to cherish these trips for as long as she'll let me, before she starts middle school and inevitably wants nothing to do with me.

park rankings and statistics: 
aesthetics - 2
views from park – 2
view to field - 5 (good down the lines with no netting, many are obstructed by poles behind the netting)
surrounding area – 6 (convention center, stadiums, airport, Terrace Park - 5 min from downtown)
food variety - 2
nachos - 9 (nacho bar)
beer - 7 ($9 for 16oz, decent variety)
vendor price - 8
ticket price - 1 ($35 behind home plate for indy ball!)
atmosphere - 3
walk to park – 3
parking price/proximity - 10 (adjacent lot for free)
concourses - 2
team shop - 6
kids area - 7 (a good variety but not supervised)

best food – adult frozen cocktail stand
most unique stadium feature – turf infield and grass outfield
best jumbotron feature – Harry Canary runs through promos for upcoming homestand
best between-inning feature – kids Ketchup & Mustard Race

field dimensions – 313/410/312

starters – Davis Feldman (FM) v. Ty Culbreth (SXF)
opponent – Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks
time of game – 3:02
attendance – 2712
score – 7-1 L
Brewers score that day – 6-5 L

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 6/17/24:

Brewers 42-29, +6.5; 3 @ Angels, 4 @ Padres, 3 v. Rangers

Twins 40-33, -5.5; 3 v. Rays, 3 @ Athletics, 3 @ Diamondbacks

Orioles 47-24, -1.5; 3 @ Yankees, 3 @ Astros, 3 v. Guardians

2024 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 3

Peter - 14

Laker Park

All photos of Laker Park available on Flickr.

"Small" and "Large" are very relative terms for cities depending on where you live and what you're used to.  You all know that I lived in Milwaukee for most of my life, which has around 600,000 people, and I qualify that a large city.  However, when I go to Chicago or New York, they kind of laugh that we think of ourselves as big.  I have also lived in Waterloo, Iowa which is 1/10th that size, and although it felt so small to me, by comparison most people in Iowa regard that as one of the largest metro areas in the state.  Now I live in Cold Spring, Minnesota - population 4,200 - which I consider a small town and refuse to refer to as a "city," and I am still grappling with how quiet and isolated it is.  But in the 10 months I've lived here and become a little more familiar with the surrounding area, it's very evident that there are even smaller towns that rely upon the "Big City" of Cold Spring for commerce, employment, schools, medical care, etc.  This is all a longwinded lead in to say: no matter where you are, there is always someplace smaller and more remote to go, and I spent 3 hours on Sunday in just about the tiniest incorporated place I have ever been, and certainly the smallest town I have ever seen a ballgame.  Lake Henry and seemingly all of its whopping 72 residents joined me at Laker Park for a town ball matchup against rival Greenwald.  Lake Henry is situated along a one-mile stretch of State Hwy 4, and like many towns of this size in Minnesota, it consists primarily of 3 things: a Catholic Church and cemetery, one bar, and a ballpark.  It's definitely one of those rural towns on an arterial road you typically drive through mindlessly and if you blink you'll miss it, so I was fortunate that the ballpark was directly off MN-4 and the first thing I saw upon entering the city limits.  I was with my father-in-law on this adventure, and we decided to park a whole block away to avoid errant foul balls.  But as usual, cars and trucks were just driving right up to the fence anyways and watching from their vehicles.  There was even one old lady that literally pulled in just to the left of home plate and parked between two sets of bleachers in the grandstand for the entire game (see photo above).  Greg and I set our lawn chairs between the home dugout and a Chevy Suburban and settled in for another gorgeous day for matinee baseball.

I mentioned in the last paragraph that it seemed like the entire town was at this game, and that is something that continually impresses me about these town ball experiences.  I'm sure some of the roughly 75-100 in attendance were Greenwald fans or yahoos like us, but the fact that places this small get the support they do is nothing short of remarkable, and it's one of the reasons I keep coming back for more.  I've definitely been to minor league games and college games that had fewer people and less energy than were at Laker Park on Sunday.  The two main structures surrounding the ballpark were a tall covered grandstand, and a 2-story building that housed concessions on ground level, and I assume the announcer/scoreboard operator on the 2nd level.  There were two additional standalone sections of bleachers on either side of the covered section, with covered dugout structures beyond those.  The 3rd base visitor dugout had sort of a storage/clubhouse building behind it, and the 1st base home dugout had the all-too-familiar party deck on top of it.  I actually went up there for a half-inning and it was a really cool view to such a small field and got some great pictures.  All of the structures had matching red siding with white trim and gabled roofs, giving it a very appropriate farm aesthetic.  Overall I was very impressed with the quality, care, and upkeep of - and this can't be emphasized enough - a ballpark in a town of 72 people.  We were surprisingly not charged admission, so I have no idea how this field can even be logistically maintained to the level it is.  Concessions were more than adequate here just as they've been in Cold Spring, Richmond, and Eden Valley, but sadly no cases of beer for sale at Laker Park.  It's going to be tough to ever top Cold Spring Baseball Park, but I'd put this one at a solid #2.

I actually remembered to write down that the final score of this game was a 4-2 victory for the Greenwald Cubs in about 2 hours and 15 minutes.  I also actually remembered a particular player which was #5 for the Lakers.  He tossed the first 7 innings or so and gave up 4 runs, and then shifted over to 3rd base for the remainder of the game.  But I don't remember him for his two-way prowess, but rather his raw power (aka big fat guy).  He launched 2 or 3 balls to the warning track but unfortunately had nothing to show for it.  He was also the first pitcher I've ever seen successfully complete a 3-1 putout at first base in a town ball game.  Outside of a few neck-high strikes, it was a decently umpired game with above-average defense that the Greenwald manager took way too seriously.  I think he had emptied the dugout with pinch runners and pinch hitters by the end of the game.  As an aside, the Cubs very clearly just ripped off the Chicago Cubs logo and just changed the color to green.  This is not the first such instance of plagiarism I've seen in town ball and there are probably many more, and I'm not sure how copyright laws allow this to happen, but now there are two Cubs teams I can hate. 

I'm about to get into the meat of my ballpark travel schedule for the season.  Tour Molly commences this weekend in Sioux Falls, and Tour 2024 in Seattle with Erik is only 2 short weeks away!

park rankings and statistics

(for purposes of amateur/town ball rankings, some categories are changed to just yes/no questions):
aesthetics - 6
views from park - 4 (rolling pastures)
view to field - 3 (the fences here are pretty obstructive)
surrounding area - 1 (VERY small town)
concessions - yes
nachos - yes
beer - yes
vendor price - 10
ticket price - 10 (free)
atmosphere - 7
walk to park - 4
parking price/proximity - 10 (could literally park in foul territory)
concourses - 3
team shop - no

best food - wide candy selection
most unique stadium feature - ballpark address is just "1 Ball Park"
scoreboard - yes

lights - no

best between-inning feature - car honks horn in enjoyment after good plays

field dimensions - unknown, but based on fence height and balls hit to fence, I'm guessing short
teams - Greenwald Cubs v. Lake Henry Lakers
time of game - 2:15-ish
attendance - 80-ish
score - 4-2 L 
Brewers score that day - 10-2 L

Return to St. Cloud

All photos of Joe Faber Field available on Flickr.

The title of this post is a little misleading as I now live 20 minutes from St. Cloud, but nonetheless, Megan and I attended our first St. Cloud Rox game in nearly 9 years this past Friday.  This was the first game of our first 7-pack as residents, and I am elated to be a Northwoods League ticket package holder once again.  We started our day with an 8-hour drive back from a week in Milwaukee and literally planned our arrival just so we could attend this game.  So, after dragging all of our luggage inside and getting the kids fed, we tagged in Grandma and Grandpa and headed to the yard for a 7:05 first pitch.

Our last ticket package was a couple years with the Kenosha Kingfish in 2016-17, and the setup in St. Cloud for season seat holders was pretty similar.  There is a ballpark foods buffet included with our tickets that starts when the gates open until an hour after first pitch, featuring standard fare such as dogs, burgers, chips, and soda (or "pop" as Minnesotans say).  The buffet was set up near the kids area behind the 3rd base dugout, which was an area that was unnecessary for us to visit way back in 2015.  We also get 10% off at the team store for the entire year which I stupidly forgot to use when I purchased probably my one team store item of the season.  Lastly, we got a "free" t-shirt for our efforts.  It was fun when we got to our 4th row seats and got to sit amongst the sea of other ticket package holders wearing the same shirt.  It felt like we were part of a fraternity and it was a cool feeling to be just another step further entrenched in this community.  Beyond the experience of now being a season seat holder, I'm comparing pictures from our last visit and honestly the most notable change is Chisel's mascot costume becoming way worse.  He's supposed to look like a human miner, but a lady sitting in front of us put it best when she noted that he looks like some sort of demented Lorax type creature now.  Kids love fuzzy soft things to hug I guess, I don't know.  No physical aspect of the stadium has been altered however.  Sponsors change and signs get moved or added as always, but the same party decks and overall setup remain the same.  It is a pretty unique entry in that you enter the stadium into an enclosed room that almost feels like you're entering an arena.  I believe it may connect with the neighboring hockey which may be part of the reasoning, but it is an odd sensation for entering a baseball stadium.  It has a drop ceiling with the lone concession stand and team store directly in front of you when you walk in, and then there are enclosed cinder block tunnels on either side that ramp up to the concourse.  It's certainly the most memorable part of the ballpark as I even remembered that from 9 years ago.  This setup pushes the main concourse within the seating bowl and pulls all of the seats up higher so that the entry can fit below them, and when that is all coupled with the large expanse of foul ground, you're about as far away from the field of play here as you can be for a park this size.  The Rox attempt to make up for this with inherently less protective netting, but it's still not the most pleasant park to watch a game in the league by any stretch.  The seats are also 100% bleachers which are quite narrow and difficult to sit in for 3 hours.  Joe Faber Field is certainly near the bottom for me in the Northwoods League along with Mayo Field in Rochester - which is the main reason I had not come back until I became a local - but much like Erik and I did with the old Metrodome, in time I think I will grow a soft spot for all of its idiosyncrasies and deficiencies.  This is the closest ballpark in my favorite league, and I have to make the best out of what I have.

As you can probably imagine, we were completely exhausted before the game even started due to our long day of travel.  We powered through 6 innings and a frosty Premium, but unfortunately we did not get to see the majority of the bloodbath.  It was a meager 1-1 score when we left, but both teams decided to wake up the minute we stepped into the parking lot, and St. Cloud ended up winning by a score of 13-3.  I've said it many times and I'll say it again - you always miss something when you leave a game early, so it's hard to be upset about breaking my own rule.  The visiting Minot Hot Tots grabbed the lead immediately after we left in the 7th, but the Rox took it right back in the bottom half as part an onslaught of 12 unanswered runs to close out the game.  Both starters were outstanding, both going 5 innings.  The Rox pitcher Brigden Parker must have had a nasty slider or cutter in his repertoire, because Tots hitters were bailing out of the box all night only to have the pitch move back over the plate for a called strike.  The chalk outline of the batters box was just completely obliterated by the 3rd inning as well, so that just allowed the batters to crowd the plate even more than they already were.  Sawyer Smith was the most impressive position player on the field for me.  He went 3-4 with 2 RBI out of the 2-hole for the Rox and played a more than adequate shortstop.  He is a Junior at the University of Kansas and this is his 3rd year in the league, and he is also listed as a two-way player.  If it's his 3rd year that means he got to play with Charlie Condon in 2022, which I'm sad I missed.  He is the general consensus #1 overall draft prospect this year out of Georgia, and he made a splash in one season with the Rox before raising his game to new heights in college.

We've got another 6 games this year in our ticket package within the short 12-week window of the Northwoods League, and I'm super excited to be establishing the Rox as my home team.

updated park rankings and statistics
(see original post from 6/29/15): 
aesthetics - 3
views from park – 6
view to field - decreases to 3 (not sure why I ever had it that high - seats very far away)
surrounding area – 3
food variety - 2
nachos - 2
beer - 4
vendor price - decreases to 9
ticket price - 5
atmosphere - 6
walk to park – 5
parking price/proximity - 8
concourses - 1
team shop - 5
kids area - 3 (new category)

best food – kosher hot dog
most unique stadium feature – entry sequence
best jumbotron feature – Roto Rooter memory game
best between-inning feature – Corburn's Chip to Win

field dimensions – 315/401/325

starters – Hudson Yarbrough (MOT) v. Brigden Parker (STC)
opponent – Minot Hot Tots
time of game – 3:22
attendance – 1721
score – 13-3 W
Brewers score that day – 10-0 W

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 6/10/24:

Brewers 38-27, +6.5; 3 v. Blue Jays, 3 v. Reds

Twins 34-31, -8.5; 3 v. Rockies, 4 v. Athletics

Orioles 42-22, -2.5; 3 v. Braves, 3 v. Phillies

2024 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 2

Peter - 13