Parade Stadium

All photos of Parade Stadium and Walker Sculpture Garden available on Flickr.

Sometimes I seek out items on my baseball bucket list, and sometimes an unexpected one finds me.  Yesterday I went to my first ever tripleheader, which was (mostly) unplanned.  I woke up on Friday thinking I was going to be seeing two entirely different games on an entirely different day, but with college baseball in Minnesota, you have to be prepared for the weather to change your itinerary at a moment's notice.  After a few postponements and cancellations, I shuffled the deck for a Sunday outing, which afforded me the opportunity to see portions of 3 games in one afternoon if the timing worked out perfectly.  The main ballpark I wanted to see and one that always remained a part of my plans was Parade Stadium, and I started my afternoon there.

If you don't know the history of the stadium or anything about Minneapolis geography, Parade Stadium probably doesn't seem worth a visit on its surface.  It's about 35 years old and is nothing more than an ivy-swarmed chain link fence, three sections of metal bleachers that seat about 1,000 fans, and a wood shanty press box, all nestled within a city park.  But it's the history of that park and its location that make Parade Stadium so locally renowned.  Formerly known simply as "The Parade," the park dates back to the turn of the 20th century and used to host everything from concerts, NFL football games, festivals, tennis, and even a campaign speech by Woodrow Wilson according to Wikipedia.  And it's a Minnesota park, so there is of course an ice rink component as well, on which part of the original Mighty Ducks movie was filmed.  A lot has changed on the site in the last century-plus, including the replacement of the football field with what the site is most well-known for today - the Walker Art Center Sculpture Garden.  If you've ever seen or heard of that statue of a giant cherry sitting on spoon, that's the Walker Sculpture Garden.  Thousands of visitors flood this site every year just to see that, but on this day, I was obviously also there for baseball.  When the sculpture garden was commissioned, it displaced a lot of the old playing fields that were there, but one of the ones that got rebuilt was a baseball diamond which Augsburg University has called home since the 1990s.  I spent about 20 minutes walking through the garden before the game, and even more amazing than the art was the gorgeous backdrop of the Minneapolis skyline and St. Mary's Basilica, which is the other thing that Parade Stadium is famous for.  It's not hyperbole to say that this tiny ballfield that cost under a million dollars to build boasts the best view of any ballpark in Minnesota.  I chose to sit along the 1st base line so that I could be in the sun on the 45° day, but I found myself craning my neck to the right between almost every pitch to take in the view and to remind myself what tall buildings look like.

A trip to this park solely for the art and the panorama will not disappoint and is a great way to spend an afternoon, and the baseball was really just the cherry on top (pun intended).  I saw the first 3 innings of what would be Augsburg's 5th win of the season, in game 1 of a doubleheader they swept against Concordia Moorhead.  In the brief time I was there, I saw the Auggies score three runs on two errors including a 2-run bunt.  They would go on to tack on one more and win by a 4-1 score in 7 innings.  Looks like both starters went 6 innings and the Auggies starter Austin Lang threw an astounding 121 pitches.  You'd think a 7-inning game with only 3 total pitchers would go really fast but it was still nearly 2 hours.  I was impressed with the quality of the playing surface and the care taken with the deep outfield ivy fence, and it was one of my better D3 experiences.  My favorite part of the ballpark besides the view was the bathroom/locker room building that was just a simple rectangular box clad in shiny reflective metal panels on all sides with no openings, almost to become sort of a sculpture of its own adjacent to the garden.

Children aside, there are very few acceptable reasons that Erik and I will allow for leaving a game early, but leaving to get to another game is one of those reasons.  I left about 1:45pm for game #2 of the day - to be continued on my next post.

park rankings and statistics:

aesthetics - 4
views from park - 10
view to field - 5 (fence instead of nets)
surrounding area - 9 (Parade Park + Walker Sculpture Garden)
food variety - n/a
nachos - n/a
beer - n/a
vendor price - n/a
ticket price - 10 (free)
atmosphere - 4
walk to park - 8 (through garden)
parking price/proximity - 7 (adjacent city lot $5)
concourses - 1
team shop - n/a

kids area - 3 (if you count the surrounding park as such)

best food - n/a
most unique stadium feature - view, adjacent sculpture garden
best jumbotron feature - n/a

best between-inning feature - fans invited to express themselves however they choose for National Anthem in acknowledgement of inequality

field dimensions - 336/422/340

starters - Brayden Wolfgram (CM) v. Austin Lang (AUG)
opponent - Concordia Moorhead Cobbers
time of game - 1:54
attendance - about 100
score - 4-1 W

Brewers score that day - 5-3 L

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 4/20/26:

Brewers 12-9; 3 @ Tigers, 3 v. Pirates, 3 v. Diamondbacks, 3 @ Nationals

Twins 11-11; 3 @ Mets, 3 @ Rays, 3 v. Mariners, 4 v. Blue Jays

2026 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 1
Peter - 4