Roscoe Baseball Field

All photos of Roscoe Baseball Field available on Flickr.

My first new Town Ball park of 2025 took me to bustling Roscoe, which is two towns west of Cold Spring and boasts a population of just over 100.  It was about a 10-minute drive, and then tack on another 5 minutes to find a parking spot that I felt confident enough wouldn't result in me getting boxed in nor pummeled with foul balls.  Roscoe was of the "drive your vehicle up to the fence and watch from the front seat" variety, so I found a nice spot in the right field corner that was shielded by a drive-in row of trucks.  This was Elliot's first town ball experience and I had Molly along for the ride as well.  However, I don't think either of them cared or even knew they were at a baseball game.  After assessing the snack situation immediately upon arrival, they made a bee-line for one of the two playgrounds available at Roscoe Baseball Field.  They were conveniently located far enough away to be out of danger from the field of play, but close enough that I could keep an eye on them while watching the game.  A guy I bowl with was riding the pine for the Rangers and I chatted with him for a bit before settling into my lawn chair for a lovely afternoon of baseball.  As an aside - kind of scary to think that I've been in the boonies long enough that I already run into people I know, and in a neighboring town no less.

Cold Spring still remains in a class and style of its own, but most other parks including this one feature a small set of bleachers down each line, a covered grandstand/concessions area behind home plate, and then a press box on a second level either above a concessions building or a dugout, the latter of which being the case here in Roscoe.  This park was probably on the lower end in terms of seating capacity compared to the other five I've been to - but again, I will continue to drive home the point that it's remarkable that teams in towns this size even draw at all.  I'd place the attendance in the 75-100 range and I'm guessing the park could hold about twice that much, but most people were sitting in lawn chairs or their cars so it was hard to tell.  This was one of the better composed ballparks I've visited so far, and by that I mean its layout had purpose and it felt like a ballpark.  Some parks like St. Nick or Richmond are really just a conglomeration of out-buildings and rickety bleachers with no real order or hierarchy and feel more like just a baseball diamond in a city park, but the Roscoe field felt like it could have hosted low-level college ball if it was a little bigger (and, you know, in a real city).  Roscoe Baseball Field had the standard concessions fare you'll find at most town ball parks - dogs, chips, candy, and 12-packs of Busch Light.  There were 4 guys standing next to me smoking and polishing off their 2nd pack when we left and were very clearly enjoying their Sunday.  It was very evident the pride and care that goes into this field and that is an invaluable community asset.  The playing surface, fencing, and structures were all maintained decently, the tally scoreboard was pretty fancy and in pristine condition, there was a nice little league diamond behind the left field fence, and the aforementioned multiple playgrounds were a huge plus.  Aesthetically speaking, the white metal siding adorned with chunky red text felt very farmhouse and appropriate in context with the dozens of grain silos and barns behind the parking lot.  The main playground situated just in front of the tall row of rusty silos was probably my favorite part of the park, and one of the more memorable town ball stadium views.

We made it through 7 innings and left with the Rangers leading 6-0 over the visiting Lake Henry Lakers, and they would hold on to win by a 6-2 final score.  The Rangers starter Bryce VanderBeek was dominant, tossing 7 scoreless innings.  I'm perusing their roster and it looks like his dad is also on the team, which seems wild but I'm sure is a common occurrence in town ball.  We actually left in the middle of the 7th, but I made a point to pull the car up to to an empty spot along the fence to watch leadoff batter Max Athmann hit one last time for the Rangers.  He crushed two laser beam home runs over the left field wall and chipped in two singles as well, including the single we witnessed from our car.  I mentioned in my last post that Town Ball rules limit the number of players on your team that can have college experience unless they live in your town, and sure enough I checked the roster and Max is the only Ranger player assigned a point value.  Granted, this was one of the smallest fields I have ever been to at 320 down the lines and 350 to center, but it was still an impressive day at the plate.

The game flew by fast with the kids fully entertained by themselves, and we seemed to be out of Roscoe just as quickly.  In the blink of an eye we drove past the town bar, church, and lone controlled intersection, and yet another town ball experience was in the rear view mirror.

park rankings and statistics

(for purposes of amateur/town ball rankings, some categories are changed to just yes/no questions):
aesthetics - 4
views from park - 8 (pretty cool view of silos)
view to field - 6 (home plate blocked by press box above dugout down left field line)
surrounding area - 2
concessions - yes
nachos - yes
beer - yes
vendor price - 9
ticket price - 10 (free)
atmosphere - 5
walk to park - 2
parking price/proximity - 10
concourses - 2
team shop - no

kids area -  yes

best food - you guessed it...hot dogs
most unique stadium feature - setting amongst silos/barns
scoreboard - yes

lights - no

best between-inning feature - scoreboard operator could not be bothered to keep track of hits and errors, only runs

field dimensions - 320/350/320
teams - Lake Henry Lakers v. Roscoe Rangers
time of game - unknown
attendance - 80-ish
score - 6-2 W
Brewers score that day - 5-2 W

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 5/27/25:

Brewers 27-28, -6.5; 3 v. Red Sox, 3 @ Phillies

Twins 29-24, -5.0; 3 @ Rays, 3 @ Mariners
Athletics 23-31, -7.0; 2 @ Astros, 4 @ Blue Jays

2025 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 1
Peter - 7