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