Fr. Nicholas Donnay Park

All photos of Fr. Nicholas Donnay Park available on Flickr.

Back to reality from my wonderful time in the Pacific Northwest means back to watching town ball in the boonies.  On Sunday, I made it out to my 4th different Town Ball park of the year in the miniscule unincorporated community of St. Nicholas.  Remember what I said about Lake Henry - that there's always somewhere smaller and more remote you can go?  Well, St. Nick made Lake Henry look like Minneapolis.  It's so small that it hasn't even been visited by the Google Street View car.  This community literally consists of one intersection at County Roads 21 & 165, around which are situated a couple of farms, about a dozen houses, and - you guessed it - St. Nicholas Church.  Behind this church is School Lake, which features lovely St. Nik's Park along its southern shore.  This park consists of two playing fields, one of which hosts the St. Nicholas Nicks.  There was already a haphazard array of vehicles filling the grass and gravel parking lot when I arrived, and I managed to wedge my car precariously between two trucks at the top of a drainage ditch, just barely out of reach of any errant foul balls.  I had Molly in tow with me once again on this adventure, as well as a couple of lawn chairs and a bag full of snacks and water bottles per usual.

The MBA website tells me that the Nicks' playing field is named in memoriam of a former priest at the parish down the road, and whose support was instrumental in the construction and improvement of this park.  The parking lot for the most part is positioned directly behind home plate, and the ballpark is wide open to that parking lot with the exception of a puny 4-row bleacher section, so you get a very clear view of the field when you approach from your car.  Honestly, we probably could have seen more of the field from the parking lot than from where we sat inside.  It was so unencumbered that I was shocked people did not park their cars directly behind home plate and watch, as people are apt to do at town ball games.  Instead, select patrons chose the left field corner as the designated "watch ball from your truck" zone.  This left field area also contained a very odd hay wagon with a ladder that was either a sorry excuse for a party deck, or equally likely, somebody just towed it there themselves to watch from.  Moving around to the outfield is a hand-operated inning tally.  Like clockwork, at the end of every inning, a guy on an ATV would ride out to the scoreboard and post the top and bottom half numbers, and then disappear down a hill beyond, almost as if he was listening to the game somewhere else on some weirdly low-bandwidth radio station.  The two permanent structures for the ballpark flanked either side of home plate, next to the dugouts.  The building next to the 3rd base dugout was your typical storage/clubhouse building, and the building next to the 1st base dugout was the concession stand, which featured a very nice and much appreciated covered pavilion.  This is where almost every fan sat, minus the hay wagon folks and a few brave fans baking on the metal bleachers.  The mercury got close to 90°F on Sunday, so we gladly sacrificed a view of half of the field in order to sit in the shade and closer to the guy selling ice cold beer and 25-cent freeze pops.  This pavilion featured half a dozen picnic tables and a couple standing rails in lieu of traditional seating, and really reinforced that town ball experience that is more of a community gathering than actually caring what is happening in the game.  There was also a small playground area near the bullpen in right field which Molly obviously loved.  Between chasing after foul balls to exchange for free freeze pops, sliding down the slide, running around on the adjacent field, and talking to the players in the dugout five feet away from us, it felt like there was more to entertain her here than at most other games we've been to at a fraction of the cost, and I loved that.  I'll also add that Fr. Donnay Park sold the same delicious hot dogs and $25 twelve-packs of beer that still always surprises me, but at the same time, I'm also growing to expect at every town ball park.

St. Nicholas is a part of Luxemburg Township, and that's who they happened to play on this day, so it was kind of a rivalry game of sorts.  These teams play in the same league and there was actually a far larger contingent of Luxemburg fans there than St. Nick's fans.  Even the guy running the concession stand seemed to be friends with some of the Luxemburg players and ran into their dugout a few times for high fives.  This is the 3rd or 4th time I've seen Luxemburg play, and I've sort of adopted them as my favorite town ball team outside of Cold Spring since they are called the Brewers and very clearly ripped off Milwaukee's ball-and-glove logo.  Completely by accident, I always seem to be wearing a Brewers cap whenever I go to a game that they're playing, so people assume I'm a fan and I just go with it.  The final score was a 5-1 victory for the Nicks over the Brewers, and as usual I can't tell you many specifics I remember, nor do they exist on the internet.  It was hard enough to keep track of the number of outs let alone what was happening in the game.  There wasn't even a PA guy.  I do vividly recall the Luxemburg pitcher gutting out about 6 or 7 innings with a severe limp, and also had a hit in the game, and I will always remember seeing the St. Nick's first baseman that weighed at least 300 pounds and got "courtesy run" for every time he reached base.  Let's just say the tight horizontal striped uniform was not flattering on him.

The town ball regular season is wrapping up in the next couple of weeks, and this was likely my last new town ball park of the year.  It has been so fun exploring these surrounding towns, particularly with Molly, and it's been one of the highlights of my first full summer as a Minnesotan.

park rankings and statistics

(for purposes of amateur/town ball rankings, some categories are changed to just yes/no questions):
aesthetics - 2
views from park - 4 (would be nice if you could see the lake behind the trees)
view to field - 1 (could only see half the field from where I sat)
surrounding area - 1 (unincorporated community)
concessions - yes
nachos - no
beer - yes
vendor price - 10
ticket price - 9 ($5)
atmosphere - 8
walk to park - 5
parking price/proximity - 10
concourses - 3
team shop - no

kids area -  yes

best food - 25-cent freeze pops
most unique stadium feature - covered pavilion
scoreboard - yes (manual inning tally only)

lights - no

best between-inning feature - chasing down foul balls earns you a quarter

field dimensions - 305/358/338
teams - Luxemburg Brewers v. St. Nicholas Nicks
time of game - 2:10-ish
attendance - 40-ish
score - 5-1 W 
Brewers score that day - 9-3 W

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 7/19/24:

Brewers 55-42, +4.5; 2 @ Twins, 3 @ Cubs, 3 v. Marlins, 3 v. Braves

Twins 54-42, -4.5, +0.5 WC; 2 v. Brewers, 3 v. Phillies, 3 @ Tigers, 3 @ Mets

Orioles 58-38, +1.0; 3 @ Rangers, 3 @ Marlins, 3 v. Padres, 4 v. Blue Jays

2024 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 7

Peter - 25