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