MLB Expansion Talk Heating Up

Rob Manfred has publicly stated that two of his main goals before he reportedly ends his tenure as commissioner in January 2029 are to have the Athletics and Rays both in new much-needed ballparks, and to have the wheels in motion on league expansion (ka-ching).  The Athletics are *knock on wood* breaking ground on their extensively hyped Las Vegas ballpark next month.  They have all the necessary approvals, the design is nearly complete, demolition has occurred, permits are being pulled, and financing is about as much in place as it can be.  I won't believe it until I see it, but things are moving in the right direction on that front.  As for the Rays, I've covered them ad nauseum over the last couple of years, and at this point it seems likely that the team will either need to be sold or moved out of the Tampa Bay region sometime before their lease at Tropicana Field expires in 3 years, otherwise MLB may have no choice but to intervene.  Their ballpark situation may not be clearer anytime soon, but I do expect their franchise to have ownership stability and some sort of game plan before next season (I've been wrong before).  

Manfred has also stated that he does not want to start seriously entertaining expansion until the A's and Rays situations are resolved.  That could still be years from now, but until then, it sure is fun to speculate where two more teams could land.  The uncertainty of the A's and Rays has not deterred a cavalcade of prospective stadium plans, ownership groups, and municipalities from coming out of the woodwork.  Portland OR (rendering above), Salt Lake City (rendering on left), and Orlando (rendering below) have all established groups of investors and secured a variety of private and government financing for hypothetical ballparks just in the past year alone.  Orlando is very intriguing in particular of the three of these because (1) they could essentially capture the current Rays fanbase and market if they purchase the team in lieu of expansion, (2) they have a built-in plethora of temporary home options all over Florida as their stadium gets built, and (3) they seem to have a solid funding plan in place that does not utilize public money.  Nashville has long been considered a front-runner for a new team due to its market size and location, and they started the group Music City Baseball in 2019 to begin the process of searching for capital, land, and trademarking "Nashville Stars" in honor of the former Negro League team of the same name.  Montreal has perhaps been kicking the tires on a new team longer than anyone and would be desperate for another opportunity to showcase Major League Baseball, and one can only hope that would involve at least temporarily fixing up Olympic Stadium.  They are currently the largest North American city without an MLB team.  Sacramento is also in a unique position right now to be in an "audition phase" for a new team as the temporary home for the A's.  It's a very real possibility that either the Vegas ballpark falls through or gets delayed and they retain the A's, or that Vivek Ranadivè empties his pockets and woos Manfred for an expansion team.  Certainly at least one western US team will be a part of this expansion to even out the divisions, and Sacramento would seem to have the media market advantage over Portland or SLC.  Oakland has also been floated as potentially getting another crack at a team someday if they can ever replace the Coliseum, but after losing 3 major sports franchises in the last 5 years and also being in such close proximity to San Francisco, I don't see that ever happening.

It's way too early for me to put formal odds on any of these potential expansion cities, or to even be sure these proposals have a leg to stand on.  There may still even be more serious suitors to come - I have also heard San Antonio, Austin, and Charlotte thrown out there among others.  But in the interim, it's exciting to think about the two new cities Erik and I would get to visit (please God not Orlando), not to mention the likely need to add 8 new minor league teams to service the big league clubs.  That is, unless MiLB gets slashed again during the next CBA, which I wouldn't bet against.

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 5/5/25:

Brewers 17-18, -4.0; 3 v. Astros, 3 @ Rays, 3 @ Guardians, 3 v. Twins
Twins 15-20, -7.0; 3 v. Orioles, 3 v. Giants, 3 @ Orioles, 3 @ Brewers
Athletics 19-16, -2.0; 3 v. Mariners, 3 v. Yankees, 3 @ Dodgers, 3 @ Giants

2025 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 1
Peter - 4

Dick Putz Field

All photos of Dick Putz Field and Municipal Athletic Complex available on Flickr.

As I continue to cast a wider and wider net to capture all of the available ball options around me, I found myself attending a junior college game a couple of weeks ago on an unseasonably mild April Saturday.  The St. Cloud Technical & Community College (SCTCC) Cyclones play their home games at Dick Putz Field, which is a part of the Municipal Athletic Complex in St. Cloud (yes, that is the real name of the field).  I arrived just before first pitch at 1pm and entered into an unassuming concrete building, where I was shocked and appalled to be greeted by a man collecting $10 admission for this game.  I begrudgingly got out my wallet and handed him the money, while looking around at the 50+ year old cinder block dungeon with dingy tile ceiling and wondering exactly where all that money went.  I made my way past the intimidating security gate and dark windowless metal doors to the concrete ramp up to the seating bowl, and I parked myself on 3rd row metal bleacher, just behind an iPhone hogtied to the net behind home plate that was recording the game.

I'm not exactly painting a pretty picture here, but this is not out of the ordinary for baseball parks of this level, particularly during the early spring when the cool weather and dormant grass tend to make everything feel a little more drab than it really is.  You can also throw in the thick swath of dead ivy lining the outfield fence and the vast expanse of cold sandblasted concrete that contributed to the overall feel of the park on this day.  It's a very nuts and bolts park - quite literally, as you do see a lot of exposed nuts and bolts.  And as I eluded to earlier, if they're going to go to the effort of collecting admission, it would be nice to see some sort of tangible return on that investment in the form of repairs, such replacing the fluorescent lighting in the entry, or the PA sound system, or the hole in the net that allowed a foul ball to fall through right next to me.  Part of the reason things may seem in need of some TLC at Dick Putz Field is probably due to be it being a part of such a large complex, which is honestly the coolest part of going here.  The Municipal Athletic Complex or "MAC" also includes adjacent Joe Faber Field which you may remember as the home of the Northwoods League Rox, a golf course, and not one but two hockey arenas.  You actually have to go into the hockey arena building (which shares its entry with Dick Putz) and walk behind the boards and up to the top of the seating bowl to purchase concessions, and while that was a little awkward and inconvenient, it certainly makes the experience memorable.  How many times do you get to watch a hockey practice while you're buying a hot dog at a baseball game?  There were many more people in this frigid arena watching children play hockey than there were at the Cyclones baseball game, and it was a blunt reminder of how big hockey is in Minnesota.  

I grabbed a dog at what I thought was a good time in the top of the 5th inning, but I forgot about the slaughter rule in college, so I only had a couple of outs to crush it upon my return to my seat for the conclusion of the bloodbath.  SCTCC laid the wood to M State by a final score of 16-1 in 5 innings.  The game started off inconspicuously with a meager single run in the first, but then the flood gates opened as the 'Clones plated 6 in the 2nd and another 9 in the 3rd.  Hayden Frank and Kinnick Christensen both homered for St. Cloud Tech and drove in a combined 8 of their 16 runs, but it was actually CF Devan Meran who impressed me the most.  For some reason a really fast and athletic kid from Miami plays at a random junior college in Central Minnesota, I'm not sure what his story is but he seemed too good to be playing in this game.  He was 2-2 with a walk, a steal, and 2 RBI, and made some aggressive baserunning decisions as well that won't show up in the box score.  As of this post he has a .989 OPS and 20 RBI in just 30 games and I'll be interested to keep tabs on him next year or see if he pops up in the Northwoods League anywhere.  Griffin Dosan tossed a 5-inning complete game for the Cyclones, giving up only 1 run.  Not much good to report for the MCCTC Spartans.  They mustered just 3 hits and their starter was charged with 7 of the 16 runs, all earned.

I'm now in that part of the season where I'm just waiting for the weather to warm up a bit and for Town Ball and the Northwoods League to get going, but it's always nice to get to a college ballgame on any decent day we can get up here.

park rankings and statistics:

aesthetics - 2
views from park - 2
view to field - 3 (lots of netting and fencing obstructions)
surrounding area - 7 (Municipal Athletic Complex)
food variety - 4
nachos - 4
beer - n/a
vendor price - 9
ticket price - 3 ($10 for a Minnesota junior college game!)
atmosphere - 4 (there are some points in this category for being adjacent to hockey practice)
walk to park - 3
parking price/proximity - 10 (adjacent lot for free)
concourses - 4 (there are points in this category for uniqueness and sharing an entry with hockey arenas)
team shop - n/a

kids area - n/a

best food - hot dog
most unique stadium feature - shared entry/complex with hockey arenas
best jumbotron feature - n/a

best between-inning feature - walking into the hockey arena for concessions

field dimensions - 323/380/323

starters - Carson Bevill (MCCTC) v. Griffin Dosan (SCTCC)
opponent - Minnesota State Community and Technical College-Fergus Falls
time of game - 1:50-ish
attendance - I counted about 40
score - 16-1 W (F/5)

Brewers score that day - 5-4 L

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 4/21/25:

Brewers 12-10, -1.0; 4 @ Giants, 3 @ Cardinals, 3 @ White Sox, 3 v. Cubs
Twins 7-15, -6.0; 3 v. White Sox, 3 v. Angels, 4 @ Guardians, 3 @ Red Sox
Athletics 10-12, -3.0; 3 v. Rangers, 3 v. White Sox, 4 @ Rangers, 3 @ Marlins

2025 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 0
Peter - 3

Koch Diamond

All photos of University of St. Thomas and Koch Diamond available on Flickr.

There's arguably never been an easier time to be a baseball fan due to the overabundance of analysis, data, and streaming options available, and it's this media saturation that has allowed me to get into college baseball these last few years.  I would say even as recently as 10 years ago, I would have found college ball to be pretty inaccessible outside of the College World Series, at least in this part of the country.  It's with this newfound fervor in mind that I have really started to look forward to my first live college game and ballpark every spring after the adrenaline rush of Opening Day has worn off.  A couple of weekends ago, I took the kids down to St. Paul for the day, and our first stop was to watch a few innings of a St. Thomas Tommies game.  We arrived just before first pitch, and had some trouble locating how to get to the ballpark on foot since the campus is so dense and the ball field is in the middle of a block.  Molly and Elliot were troopers as I dragged them around seemingly the entire field looking for a way in, which we finally found in the form of a parking lot wedged between two dorm towers.  Koch Diamond was nestled just beyond that parking lot, and we grabbed a picnic table in the sliver of sun we could find on a cold day where almost all seating areas were completely blanketed in shadows.

St. Thomas' athletic claim to fame occurred in 2021 when they became the only university in the history of the NCAA to jump directly from Division III to Division I.  In doing so, the Tommies became just the second D1 baseball team in the entire state of Minnesota, so I knew I had to get down there at some point if only for posterity's sake.  This sudden jump is certainly noticeable in their athletic facilities.  I would have considered Koch Diamond to be a more than adequate D3-level field, but it now pales in comparison to a place like Siebert Field or any other D1 field.  St. Thomas is in the process of constructing a new hockey arena and I'm sure in time the baseball program and other sports will follow as the university and recruitment grows, but for now, the appeal of going to a St. Thomas game is really just an excuse to watch ball and to see a beautiful Collegiate Gothic campus.  The park has 250 fixed purple seats spread between 3 small grandstand sections which are shoehorned between a couple of dorm buildings as I eluded to earlier.  This site positioning results in a unique leftover plaza space where the kids and I sat that is flanked by a couple of 10-story buildings, the field on its third side, and the parking lot on its fourth side, so had the weather been a bit nicer it would have been a really cozy little enclave.  There was a constant flux of students popping in and out as they passed by and even some watching from their dorm windows, so it was pretty active considering it was early April and so tucked away.  Every foul ball was also an adventure is this silo-like space, and the kids and I got a kick of trying to chase down every ball that careened off of walls and windows behind us.  We eventually got a ball and the kids kept themselves occupied playing catch in the back corner of the plaza, while Dad watched a few innings next to the radio guy calling the game from a folding table.

We only made it into the 4th inning and St. Thomas was losing 2-1 at that time.  The box score tells me that they ended up coming back for a 5-3 victory in just a shade over 2 hours.  Starting pitcher Walker Retz did not have stuff that will wow any scouts, but he gutted out 7 innings of 3-run ball in one of his better outings of the year.  Anyone who comes to this park will immediately notice the 465' dimension to centerfield, and I was expecting to see a lot more doubles and triples due to that anomaly, but there were only 4 total extra-base hits in the game.  Incidentally, that is the deepest centerfield dimension in all of college baseball, but it did not tire out CF Joe Vos of the Tommies, as he went 3-3 on the day with 2 doubles, 2 RBI, and a stolen base, and not to mention the go-ahead RBI bunt single in the 6th.  Trevor Landen struck out 3 over 5 for Northern Colorado and was in line for the win until the bullpen surrendered 4 runs in the final 3 frames.

After leaving the game, we spent the afternoon at the Science Museum (which was the main reason for our excursion to the Cities), but I was grateful as always to tally another ballpark and to share my love of baseball with Molly and Elliot for a short while.

park rankings and statistics:

aesthetics - 1
views from park - 4 (residential)
view to field - 2 (really difficult to see from anywhere outside bowl, lots of obstructions and pinched)
surrounding area - 9 (beautiful campus!)
food variety - n/a
nachos - n/a
beer - n/a
vendor price - n/a
ticket price - 10 (free)
atmosphere - 5 (unique shoehorn site created opportunities for passersby and to watch game from other buildings)
walk to park - 8 (through campus and football field)
parking price/proximity - 7 (adjacent street for free but kind of a hoof)
concourses - 3 (there isn't really a concourse but I appreciated the picnic table area)
team shop - n/a

kids area - n/a

best food - n/a
most unique stadium feature - shoehorn site, deepest centerfield in all of NCAA
best jumbotron feature - n/a

best between-inning feature - playing catch with my kids with the foul ball we caught

field dimensions - 320/465/320

starters - Trevor Landen (UNCO) v. Walker Retz (UST)
opponent - Northern Colorado Bears
time of game - 2:12
attendance - 250
score - 5-3 W

Brewers score that day - 11-7 L

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 4/14/25:
Brewers 8-8, -2.0; 3 v. Tigers, 3 v. Athletics
Twins 5-11, -4.5; 4 v. Mets, 3 @ Braves
Athletics 6-10, -3.5; 3 @ White Sox, 3 @ Brewers

2025 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 0
Peter - 3

My First Twins Home Opener!

All photos of 2025 Twins Home Opener available on Flickr.

I didn't want to admit it at the time, but part of me always knew when we moved to Minnesota that at some point it would no longer be feasible to make it back to Milwaukee for Opening Day every year.  We made it work last season since it lined up so perfectly with Easter, but schools don't really have a Spring Break where we live, and the weather is always so unpredictable in March and April, so I mentally prepared myself that 2024 may have been my last Brewers opener for awhile.  Sure enough, it just wasn't in the cards this year with how the schedules lined up.  However, I did manage to keep my streak of 16 consecutive non-Covid home openers alive this past Thursday by attending the Twins opener at Target Field.  The weather was not that different in Minneapolis than most openers were in Milwaukee in all the years since 2008 - the temp was 42° at first pitch with partly cloudy skies.  Megan and I arrived downtown bundled in layers around 1:30pm for a 3:10pm first pitch, and were greeted by something unfamiliar to a couple of AmFam Field veterans - completely sold out parking lots.  The 3 main ramps that service Target Field were full, as was my usual "secret hack" spot by the library, so we snagged the first available spot we could find in a garage for $38.  I've always found the parking situation to be atrocious at Target Field, but I wasn't about to let that get me down on Opening Day.  We still arrived in plenty of time to procure some beverages and take a lap around the stadium before settling in to our usual favorite standing room bar area.

When Megan and I go to Twins games, we generally just buy the cheapest tickets available and spend time at various bars and social spaces or just walking around, and Opening Day was no different.  We made a bee-line for what was formerly the Summit Brewing Pub on the 2nd level in the left field corner, only to find it had been renamed the "Surfside Iced Tea & Vodka" bar for this year.  After the initial shock of Miller Park becoming American Family Field wore off, I've learned to not get too attached to corporate sponsorships, so this didn't really faze me so long as they still sold Summit beer, which they did - and now with the added bonus of hoagie-sized cans of Surfside for sale, for which we had to procure a special larger sized can koozie.  The other very welcome part of being up on this level was all the heat lamps suspended from the ceiling and structure above.  They had these strewn about on the 1st level as well, but they really had a tangible impact up in the tighter quarters of this level.  I'm not sure if these are new or if I just never noticed them before, but they were amazing and the Brewers should absolutely install these in the concourses.  Despite the 40-degree temps and not wearing a jacket, between the heat lamps and the direct sunshine, very rarely did I feel cold unless I purposely chose to be in an area without these two things.  I was expecting to see more of a standing patio heater situation, but these lamps were a much more efficient way to heat while not taking up precious aisle space at a park that is already quite congested.  The third of what I would call "new things" at Target Field that we experienced (or at least new to us) was the Cutwater Cocktail Bar, which is located in dead center directly above the batter's eye and the Delta Airlines suite.  This reminded me a lot of the center field bar that Erik and I were at last year in Seattle (T-Mobile 'Pen), except it's a level above the field so the vantage point is much better.  There was a Red Cow burger stand, a Pizza Luce stand, and of course the cocktail bar in this area, along with a variety of seating types and drink rails, all open to and facing the field.  I'm not a big fan of the Cutwater canned cocktails, but that aside, I liked this bar even better than the Summit/Surfside bar.  We crushed some pie here and had a couple drinks, and this was the closest we came to actually being able to watch the game in the near-capacity crowd.  The pizza stand we ate at here sold a new pizza slice featured at the park this year that has pickles on it, which sounds super weird but don't knock it 'til you try it.

The attendance was just shy of a sellout at 36,783.  It's very foreign to me that a team would not sell out a home opener, but it was still an impressive total given the weather.  A packed and loud house witnessed the Twins drop their opener to the Astros by a score of 5-2, which put their record at 2-5 and dead last in the AL Central as of that game (they have since crawled above the lowly White Sox).  The game got off to a promising start in the bottom of the 1st, when Matt Wallner crushed the 4th pitch of a game for a triple and came around to score on a Carlos Correa ground out, followed by Trevor Larnach singling in Byron Buxton later in the inning for a 2-0 lead.  That lead was short-lived, however, despite the excitement from my father-in-law watching at home on a tape delay.  The Astros would tie the game in the top of the 2nd with back-to-back homers from Christian Walker and Jeremy Pena, and then take the lead in the 4th and never look back.  Joe Ryan was about as serviceable as you can be for an April start, giving up 4 over 5 and striking out 6.  Former Brewer Josh Hader nailed down the save with just 13 pitches to seal the victory.

It was not quite the same energy as a Brewers home opener, but nothing beats Opening day no matter where it is, and Megan and I had a fantastic time as always.  Game #1 of the season in the books!

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 4/7/25 (this year's over/under pari du jour is the A's):
Brewers 5-5, -1.0; 3 @ Rockies, 3 @ Diamondbacks
Twins 3-6, -2.0; 4 @ Royals, 3 v. Tigers
Athletics 4-6, -4.0; 3 v. Padres, 3 v. Mets

2025 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 0
Peter - 2

Does Anybody Want the Rays?

(photo credit: CNN)

Happy sort-of Opening Day!  The 2025 MLB season officially kicked off in Tokyo today, and natural order has been restored as the Cubs are already in last place.  This season is particularly exciting because two new ballparks are supposedly breaking ground for the Athletics and Rays.  The A's are always clouded in mystery, but all signs and government approvals are so far pointing to them having shovels in the ground by around the time Erik and I are in Sacramento in June.  However, the Rays are a completely different story.  Remember in August of last year when I reported that their new stadium deal was officially approved?  And remember when I boldly predicted they were "99% likely" to be playing in a new ballpark by January 2029?  Well, a lot has changed in the last 6 months.  Two devastating hurricanes in October, a changing of the guard in the November elections, and a few delayed votes later, coupled with that word "inflation" we'd all like to stop thinking about, and all of a sudden, the Rays find themselves playing out of a minor league stadium for the 2025 season, and potentially homeless soon after that.  The team made known that they have no intention of honoring the terms of the public financing commitment that was formerly approved in December but has stated they are open to continued negotiations.  In other words - they want even more money.

Tropicana Field will supposedly be repaired in time for the 2026 season after being ravaged by Hurricane Milton (see photo above), but even that is not a guarantee and has not been formally approved yet.  It is a situation nobody really wants, but St. Petersburg is contractually obligated to do so, and the Rays don't really have a choice as they need somewhere to play and continuing in minor league parks for additional seasons would be untenable and unprofitable.  With the Rays now backing out of the new stadium deal, both sides are playing hardball and doing a lot of finger pointing, and St. Petersburg will certainly be in no rush to complete repairs if at all, as all it would do is continue extending the Rays lease the longer they wait (currently extended by one year already through the 2028 season).  It's become clear through various reports that there is a lot of lingering bitterness and passive-aggressiveness between the parties to this deal, and that they never seemed to want to work with each other to begin with.  Any path forward with this current ownership group now seems near impossible.  Nobody seems to want the Rays to even exist at all - not even God himself by the looks of the hurricane aftermath photos - and that has been the story of this franchise nearly since its inception.  It is looking more and more by the day that principal owner Stuart Sternberg will have to dupe someone into buying this team, cut his losses, and leave town (and by losses I mean a meager $1.3B and 20 years of profit sharing).  Regardless of how he may feel privately, Manfred is going to continue to say publicly that Tampa is a great baseball market and that the team should stay there regardless of ownership, but there is soon going to come a time where the other 29 owners will have to intervene and put their proverbial foot down.  Perhaps a new ownership group would want to continue to try to make baseball work in the region and deal with the uncertainty of the Trop, but I don't see why any investor who values their time and money would want to do so, particularly when there are plenty of other eager cities and states out there ready to play ball.

You'd think I'd have learned my lesson by now to never trust these new ballpark situations with any degree of certainty, but the pretty renderings distracted me!  I promise that I will not be using the phrase "done deal" to describe the Rays (or A's) ever again, and I will try not to report any more on these situations until there are literal shovels in the ground, or one of the teams has been sold.  But don't trust me on that.

Tour 2025

Tomorrow kicks off the Caribbean Series in Mexicali!  This annual event always comes with a high amount of anticipation for me, as it usually marks the first live ballgames I will watch of the year and my own sort of unofficial start to the baseball calendar.  Serie del Caribe is certainly on our our list for a future trip, but for now, it seems as ceremonial a time as any to announce our Tour 2025 ball trip to Sacramento and Northern California.  Single game ticket presale for the A's starts today and we're pumped!

There are some years where we may sift through the bucket list to decide where to go, or we may revisit an old favorite as we did with last year's trip to Seattle.  But there are also years like 2025 when an MLB team moves or builds a new stadium and it makes our decision easy.  When the Athletics announced last year that 2024 would be their final season in Oakland, and that they would move to West Sacramento while awaiting their supposed new Vegas stadium, we knew we had no choice but to fly out to Sactown to see regular season major league baseball at a minor league ballpark.  The most important trips for Erik and I are the ones that get us back into that elite 30-ballpark club, no matter where they may take us or how temporary the situation may be (this may also mean we need to get out to frickin' Florida again if the Trop does not get fixed, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it).  The crux of our trip will be centered around a game or two at Sutter Health Park.  This park will be shared with the AAA Sacramento River Cats, so I'm actually kind of excited to be in such an intimate setting for a real major league game in what should be a launching pad for the Swingin' A's.  We also can't fly all that way without revisiting revered Oracle Park in San Francisco.  Our last game there together was in 2007 the day before Barry Bonds broke the career homerun record so that will be hard to top, but it'll be fun to get back there and see what's changed in the last 18 years.  There are also many California League, Pecos League, and Pioneer League teams dotting this area that we will undoubtedly fit into this trip, which will hopefully include a stop to see the Nuts in their 80th and final season in Modesto.

As for the rest of the 2025 ball trip calendar, the 5th year of Tour Molly should be taking us out to Fargo, North Dakota, to see the RedHawks and to cross another state off my and our list.  My son Elliot is still not quite at the age where I think he could be attentive and relatively calm for an entire weekend trip, but maybe I'll try getting him out to some Town Ball games this year as a test run.  Other than heaps of local Minnesota baseball, I've got no other big travel planned for the year.

Megan and I have tickets for our first-ever Minnesota Twins home opener, so check back in early April for a report from under the patio heaters at Target Field!