Black Sox Park

All photos of Freeport Black Sox Classic available on Flickr.

Saturday was a whirlwind of a day and I learned that when it comes to Town Ball schedules, you have to be flexible and adapt.  I had planned to attend a game in St. Augusta which is about 20 minutes east of our house, but when I arrived a little after what was supposed to be first pitch, not a soul was to be found on the field.  I tried not to panic (admittedly difficult for me) and quickly turned down the next street to park and collect my thoughts, for a long enough period of time that the owner of the house I was in front of might have been suspicious of something nefarious going on.  Instead it was quite the opposite - I was scouring ball schedules on my phone.  I finally found another game occurring at Black Sox Park in Freeport, which was over a half-hour back in the opposite direction.  I hustled back west on I-94 as fast as I legally could and arrived at what the internet told me was the Freeport ballpark, but was actually just a playground.  By this point, I had been driving over an hour and my frustration was building, but I was also pot-committed and determined to watch ball somewhere, so I just started stubbornly driving around to other fields in Freeport I could find on Apple Maps, hoping that one of those was Black Sox Park.  Amazingly, this town of 675 people has 3 ball fields, and third time was a charm as they say.  This experience taught me two things.  #1 is that I always need to have a backup plan from now on, as it is not uncommon for these type of games to be cancelled with no warning or update whatsoever (the same thing happened to me in Luxemburg last year).  #2 is that many of these town ball parks have incorrect addresses or just no address at all, so just entering the name of the field on my phone is not always good enough.  Once I actually found the field and parked, I had a quiet chuckle about the ridiculous ordeal, and I couldn't help but think that Erik's "drive towards the light towers" method of navigation would have actually worked much better than an actual map in this case.

I got out of my car and laughed again when I saw the very address I was trying to locate was in large black letters on the roadside monument sign.  The field was empty but there was still a crowd of fans, so I thought maybe the game was over already but I was at least going to walk around and have a beer while I was out this far.  After snapping a few pictures, a team comprised of what looked to be younger players took the field for fungoes, so my next thought was maybe I missed the town ball game but there is some sort of junior game happening now.  I also noticed several other teams changing clothes and milling about.  I finally realized what was happening - I had stumbled upon a tournament!  Black Sox Park was hosting their annual Freeport Black Sox Classic for the entire weekend, and I happened to arrive there between games.  Eight teams are invited to played a double-elimination style tournament, and the game I was about to see was the Clearwater River Cats v. the Aitkin Steam - which explained why so many other teams were on the road today when I was looking at schedules.  I parked myself a couple rows from the top to witness some of the most regimented fielding practice I've seen in a long time.  A good round of fungoes is almost like watching a ballet or basketball passing drills where everyone is beautifully in sync with no wasted motion.

As for the ballpark itself, this was another impressive one, which was not overly surprising since they are a host site for a tournament.  On the player side, it had a very well maintained field with a nice symmetrical outfield fence, an above-average electronic scoreboard, a locker room/restroom building, ample space for batting cages, and quality masonry dugouts - all luxuries that are not a given at any particular town ball park.  The main structure as you approach the field from the parking lot is a 30+ foot tall rectangular building with equipment housed on ground level and the press box at the top, with a large canopy extending over 10 rows of bleachers between this building and the backstop.  To the right of the grandstand is a concessions building fairly close to the field.  These two structures really framed the seating area nice as in Spring Hill, but this site was a little more open and less closed in, with farmland as far as the eye can see to all sides.  The concession stand here was one of the more exceptional ones I've seen in town ball, featuring hamburgers with fried onions grilled fresh to order, various other meats from a local butcher, for some reason golf on a projector screen, and also a wide selection of team merchandise for sale, including cool Black Sox caps and bleacher back seats.  However, with this variety and menu comes higher prices.  The gold standard for town ball park prices seems to generally be $3 dogs and $25 12-packs of Busch Light, and in Freeport those are priced at $4 and $30 respectively - still not breaking the bank by any means, but worth mentioning.  Maybe the prices were just higher because it was a free tournament, which would make sense.  I liked the brick wainscot that tied all of the individual structures together and I thought it was a really comfortable and well composed park.  Most town ball parks seem to face the "incorrect" cardinal direction of west, so if you're lucky enough to find one with a covered grandstand like Freeport has, that will greatly impact your experience.

As I mentioned earlier, I didn't actually see the Freeport Black Sox play, and it was a little disappointing because I was excited to see if they were wearing Field of Dreams style uniforms.  Between all of the driving around and the long warmup before the game, I also only stayed for a couple of innings.  These were two of the younger, more athletic teams I have seen at this level.  I'm accustomed to more of a bar-league softball level of talent, but Clearwater in particular had some good looking ballplayers, aside from the enormous first baseman who had a gut hanging over his belt and made other players go fetch bats for him.  It was another gorgeous day for baseball and I wish I could have stayed longer, but I left for a good reason - more ball!  After attending my first ever tripleheader just a couple months ago, Saturday would be another one for me as I saw parts of two more games in Cold Spring at their annual "Day at the Park" celebration.  This is an annual event consisting of the Springers, the Rockies, the local Legion team, and the senior team playing a quadruple header that culminates with live music after the final game.  It's the ballpark's main fundraising event of the year and one of the few games they actually charge admission to, and I was happy to finally get to go to this awesome community gathering.  Megan and the kids met me at the Cold Spring games, and I can't think of any way I'd rather spend Father's Day Weekend than watching ball with my family.

park rankings and statistics

(for purposes of amateur/town ball rankings, some categories are changed to just yes/no questions):
aesthetics - 7
views from park - 4
view to field - 6 (lots of foul ground)
surrounding area - 1
concessions - yes
nachos - no
beer - yes
vendor price - 8
ticket price - 10 (free)
atmosphere - 6
walk to park - 1
parking price/proximity - 10
concourses - 5
team shop - yes

kids area -  if you count the lone plastic slide, yes

best food - burger w/ onions
most unique stadium feature - concessions/team store combo stand
scoreboard - electronic

lights - yes

best between-inning feature - watching fungoes between games

field dimensions - 325/380/325
teams - Aitkin Steam v. Clearwater River Cats
time of game - unknown
attendance - there were more players there than fans
score - 6-2 Clearwater
Brewers score that day - 4-3 L

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 6/22/26:

Brewers 46-29, +5.0; 3 @ Reds, 3 v. Cubs, 4 v. Reds, 3 @ Diamondbacks

Twins 38-41, - 3.5, -1.0 WC; 3 v. Dodgers, 3 v. Rockies, 3 @ Astros, 3 @ Yankees

2026 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 3

Peter - 15

Charger Field

All photos of Charger Field available on Flickr.

My charting of rural Stearns County continued yesterday with an expedition to yet another ball field.  For this adventure, I braved further into the unknown wilderness of the county than ever before, with nearly a half-hour drive west to Spring Hill.  Coming in at a whopping 68 residents, it shockingly wasn't the smallest town I've been to thus far in my town ball travels, but it did feel the most remote, as I had to traverse many acres of farm land and several gravel roads to get there.  Spring Hill has the same ingredients that so many other towns of the area do: a single road lined with a couple dozen homes, a bar, a church, a ballfield, and ringed by farmland.  In fact, it looked eerily similar to a town I visited a couple years ago called Lake Henry which was only 5 minutes down Hwy 4.  And as I'll get in to, the ballpark was also as nice if not better than Lake Henry's as well.  I pulled into the lot off of Lake Henry Ave south of "downtown" at 1:30 just as the game was starting, and paid the customary town ball rate of $5 to the volunteer parking lot attendant.

For somebody like me who's now been to a fair number of town ball parks, what struck me immediately upon arrival was the high quality of the facility in general.  I will continue to beat a dead horse by saying it's still impressive to me that any of these parks have little more than a chain link fence and a set of rusty bleachers, so I was awestruck by what I found in Spring Hill.  They had a covered grandstand that was honestly better than some minor league and collegiate ballparks I've been to (Concordia, Rochester, Pohlman Field...I could go on).  It consisted of eight rows of metal bleachers with backs that were clearly new and/or very well maintained, and the entirety of it was covered by a metal sided canopy, including the front aisle.  Normally on a hot summer day this would have been a fantastic area of respite, but on this upper-60s afternoon it was so well covered that it was almost chilly.  The bleachers were backed by a sided wall as well with some apertures for light and breeze, so it was a really cozy enclosed area.  You could easily fit the entire town in just that grandstand, but if that wasn't enough, there was also an additional small section of bleachers by each dugout, and a wonderful little pavilion along the 3rd base side with another bench of seating along the fence and some standing height tables as well.  Every town ball park I've been to so far has a small concessions building with restrooms and usually at least a partially covered area for picnic type seating, but in many parks it is just kind of off to the side and does not have a very good view to the field.  In many town ball parks, the concessions area serves double duty with a neighboring park and is not really intended to be a true seating area for a ballgame even if it's used as such.  In Spring Hill however, all that is at this site is the ball field, so this concessions/pavilion area is pushed right up against the backstop and was very intentional in how it was positioned, and it was a popular standing room and community hangout spot for the entirety of the game.  Nothing at this park felt like it was done on the cheap or like they cut corners in any way.  It was not extravagant by any means - let's be honest it was still metal building siding - but like I alluded to earlier, just the general quality of construction and craftsmanship was very noticeable.  Nothing was rusting or fading or cracked, everything was tied together nicely with the team maroon and gray colors, and it was a very clean and well maintained facility that Spring Hill should be very proud of.  Even the bathrooms and dugouts which are usually some of the roughest parts of these fields were very professionally built.  Not even Cold Spring's park has helmet racks and Sloan faucets.  It's hard to find super picturesque views at any of these fields that are in the middle of corn country, but Spring Hill even managed to pull that off with a very crisp clean fence backed by a row of evergreen trees and a pretty decent electronic scoreboard.  This was the only town ball park I've been to aside from Cold Spring's that actually felt like a true ballpark and not just a community field, and to say I was amazed would be an understatement.  It really proved to me that you can't go to any of these parks with any preconceived notions based on the Google aerial view; a lot of them will surprise you.

I was one of what would estimate was at least 150 people in attendance to witness the Chargers fall to the Elrosa Saints by a score of 2-1 in a brisk 1:54 game time.  I would guess over half the fans were there to cheer on the visitors, which made it arguably even more impressive.  It was by far the most crowded and liveliest town ball game I've been to, as evidenced by the umpire yelling at the Elrosa dugout and fans to stop the heckling at one point.  I watched about 6 innings from the grandstand behind home plate and the last few innings standing along the fence near the right field pole in the sun.  If you're paying attention enough, it's usually pretty easy to spot the one college player allocated to the towns this small, and it was clearly #12 in Elrosa's case.  He received the first intentional walk I've ever witnessed in town ball, and he also came in from the field to pick up the save.  Most half-innings took under 10 pitches and it was a very fast moving game, aside from the 1st when Elrosa scored both of its runs, and in the 8th when they loaded the bases on a walk, hit, and a dropped pop up.  After the conclusion of the game, I was seemingly the only person to leave.  The game went so fast that most folks still had a few Busch Lattes left to polish off from the 12-packs they bought at the concession stand, and a good time was surely had by all.

Overall, I'd put Charger Field all the way up at #2 in my rankings right behind Cold Spring.  Normally I'd say something like "this is definitely a park I'd visit again," but with the dozens I have left to get to and the finest park in the league a half-mile from my house, I think I will settle for one relaxing Sunday afternoon in Spring Hill.  

park rankings and statistics

(for purposes of amateur/town ball rankings, some categories are changed to just yes/no questions):
aesthetics - 8
views from park - 7
view to field - 8
surrounding area - 1
concessions - yes
nachos - no
beer - yes
vendor price - 10
ticket price - 9 ($5)
atmosphere - 9
walk to park - 1
parking price/proximity - 10
concourses - 8
team shop - no

kids area -  no

best food - as always, hot dog
most unique stadium feature - concessions pavilion and general construction quality
scoreboard - electronic

lights - no

best between-inning feature - Elrosa lettin' the ump have it

field dimensions - 310/365/310
teams - Elrosa Saints v. Spring Hill Chargers
time of game - 1:54
attendance - I counted about 150
score - 2-1 L
Brewers score that day - 4-0 W

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 6/15/26:

Brewers 43-26, +5.0; 3 v. Guardians, 3 @ Braves

Twins 33-40, - 6.5, -3.0 WC; 3 @ Rangers, 3 @ Diamondbacks

2026 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 3

Peter - 12

Luxemburg Legion Baseball Park

All photos of Luxemburg Legion Baseball Park available on Flickr.

Memorial Day marks the unofficial start to summer for many, and for me that also means that the baseball season is in full swing.  Summer collegiate leagues and independent leagues are starting, the NCAA tournament field is being announced, and towns all across Minnesota are awakening from their winter hibernation to welcome locals to the ballpark.  I couldn't have asked for better weather for my first town ball game of the year - 80 degrees, a steady breeze blowing in, and just enough clouds to feel comfortable.  I had Molly and Elliot in tow with me on this holiday excursion to Luxemburg for a 1pm first pitch.

The drive to the park is always half the adventure of going to a town ball game, and Luxemburg was no different.  They play behind St. Wendelin's School on Hwy 15 just south of Hwy 47, and it was one of the more difficult town ball parks to locate that I've been to thus far.  For some context, Minnesota is geographically divided into a grid of over 1,800 townships, most of which are about 6 x 6 miles, and basically everyone not living within a city falls under the administrative rule of these various townships.  So you can imagine my confusion when the unincorporated community of Luxemburg did not reside within the township of the same name.  The town of Luxemburg actually has St. Augusta and St. Cloud addresses and is nowhere near Luxemburg Township, about 10 miles east as the crow flies.  It has something to do with St. Augusta breaking off from its own township in the year 2000, but I'm not going to dive any deeper than that and pretend I understand any of this.  All this to say - it made it unnecessarily complicated to map directions to the park, and being behind a school with no signs and no direct access from the road did not make it any easier.  I actually tried to go to this park last summer and unbeknownst to me the game was cancelled, so had I not already stumbled upon it once, I might have spent my day looking for it.  Once I did finally locate the parking lot, I paid a nice gentleman volunteer $5 to park on the lawn behind the grandstand, and we arrived just before the 1pm first pitch.

One of the many things I love about town ball is most of the diamonds are part of a community park or school, which means most of them have playgrounds - which means I can take the kids and they can have a blast while I watch the game in peace.  I grabbed some pine right behind home plate, and Molly and Elliot played their hearts out not more than 100 feet to my right behind the first base dugout.  I had to throw some snacks and water at them once in awhile and keep alert for any foul balls hit their way, but for the most part it was a nice relaxing day at the ballpark.  Just as I can remember mundane details of all the parks I go to, the kids always remember the details of each playground when I take them along, and I think it's kind of cool that we all have our own independent experiences.  It just further reinforces the fact that you don't necessarily have to pay attention at a baseball game to have a great time.  I would venture to guess that that playground cost almost as much to build as the ballfield structures themselves.  It was a pretty barebones and standard setup for town ball - two at-grade wood and CMU dugouts, chain link backstop, a few small sections of bleachers, a small inning tally scoreboard in the outfield, and a park pavilion building with concessions and some covered picnic seating.  There was also a nice view of the church and school beyond the right field fence - another staple of a good town ball field.  This park didn't have a PA announcer and instead featured the home team playing classic rock hits between batters, at a volume level that was clearly meant for only themselves to enjoy.  The only feature I would say that gives this park any distinction beyond a generic community park diamond is the hand painted word "BREWERS" on the backside of the home dugout.  That's right, I've kind of buried the lead here - the Luxemburg team name is the Brewers!  A lot of town ball teams "borrow" major league team names and logos, and the L-Crew's logo is actually pretty creative as far as copyright infringement goes, incorporating the abbreviation "LUX" in place of the "m" part of the ball and glove logo.

This is normally the part of my ballpark reviews where I talk about the game, but as anybody familiar with this blog or Town Ball knows by now, there is not much I can report on as they do not keep very accurate or timely box scores.  The visiting Cold Spring Rockies' catcher #23 appeared to be the one real athlete of the game.  He batted cleanup and looked like he knew what he was doing at the plate and behind the dish.  He actually wore protective batting gear and was ready to step into one of the Luxemburg pitcher's 70mph heaters, but instead settled for at least 3 walks on the day by my count.  The game was 1-0 Brewers when I left after the 8th, with the L-Crew scoring their lone run on a wild pitch.  I was proud to wear my Milwaukee Brewers cap and be amongst my people for an afternoon, and it was a long overdue visit.

park rankings and statistics

(for purposes of amateur/town ball rankings, some categories are changed to just yes/no questions):
aesthetics - 5
views from park - 7
view to field - 6
surrounding area - 3 (per usual, adjacent to church and bar)
concessions - yes
nachos - no
beer - yes
vendor price - 10
ticket price - 9 ($5)
atmosphere - 5
walk to park - 3
parking price/proximity - 10
concourses - 4
team shop - no

kids area -  yes

best food - hot dog
most unique stadium feature - hand painted Brewers dugout
scoreboard - electronic

lights - no

best between-inning feature - Brewers dugout playing tunes just for themselves

field dimensions - unknown (there was a fence but no numbers posted)
teams - Cold Spring Rockies v. Luxemburg Brewers
time of game - 2 hours-ish
attendance - I counted about 50
score - unknown (Luxemburg was up 1-0 in the 8th when I left)
Brewers score that day - 5-1 W

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 5/26/26:

Brewers 31-20, +2.5; 3 v. Cardinals, 3 @ Astros

Twins 26-28, - 5.0, -- WC; 4 @ White Sox, 3 @ Pirates

2026 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 2
Peter - 7

Martin Schmitt Memorial Park

All photos of Martin Schmitt Memorial Park available on Flickr.

Yesterday was another unseasonably warm day which afforded me the opportunity to visit another Town Ball park, this time in the small unincorporated village of Marty.  It was a quick 12-minute jaunt down Highway 23 and County Road 8, past Grand and Mud Lakes, and farmland as far as the eye could see in all directions.  When I stopped at the intersection of Cty Rds 8 & 48, I no longer required the use of my map, as the ballpark literally unveiled itself right before me at the southeast corner.  The field faces northwest towards this corner and is unencumbered by fencing of any kind besides a chain link backstop.  I took a left towards the grassy parking area abutting the local cemetery, and gave the nice old man $5 admission.  I was pleased to see some very nice wood benches built into a gentle slope towards the field, so I left my chair in the car and settled in right behind the home dugout for the afternoon's action.

Martin Schmitt Memorial Park is home to the Pearl Lake Lakers in the Central Valley League, and it is a very charming ballfield.  Not because it has any memorable structures or physical features of any kind, but mainly because of its idyllic setting.  This is exactly the type of setting I was expecting to find when I started exploring town ball fields a couple years ago.  I've definitely been spoiled and surprised by the likes of my home Cold Spring Baseball Park and some of the other town ball parks I've been to, but for baseball at this level, all you really need to enjoy a game is a place to sit, a cold beverage, and a lively crowd.  Pearl Lake did also offer the standard small concessions building with a nice little covered area - clad in Laker Blue metal siding - which offered some respite from the sun on this hot day.  I watched an inning from this area against a barrel that was being repurposed as a table, and this was definitely the area where all the locals were gathering to talk about the team and their chances for the year, and just to shoot the breeze and gossip in general as small town folk are apt to do.  The community is what makes these games so fun and how even the smallest of places is so invested in their team, as I've said over and over again.  I've definitely been to minor league games with 10x as many people that did not have the energy as some of the amateur games I've been to with just a few dozen people, this one included.  The town ball park often serves as the local hang-out and is an important gathering place for folks to run into each other and catch up, in communities where houses might be separated by miles of pasture.  That could not be more apparent than in a place like Marty, which is no less a village than it is dot on a map with a few houses, a lakeside lodge, and a church.  One of the few houses in the area was unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your perspective) only about 30 feet behind the visiting dugout, and by the looks of the fence, that property has seen a lifetime of foul balls.  I was definitely picturing a Sandlot-type situation with a junkyard dog burying all the balls that come their way behind the tattered fence.  

But no balls ended up in their lot in this game, as many of them were hit foul into trees, or pulverized towards the county roads.  The score was 15-12 by the time I left the barnburner in the 6th inning.  It did not start off well for the Lakers, as Kimball put up an 8-spot in the first, but the home team slowly crawled back and never gave in, despite their pitching staff's complete ineptitude.  This game was on a pace to be called due to darkness and was over 2 hours long by that point, so I decided to pack it up early and get into my air conditioned car.  I can't tell you the final score since it's not up on their website, I can't tell you how many hits there were because the manual scoreboard operator only kept track of runs, and I can't even tell you anybody's name since there was no PA announcer.  But what I can tell you is there were a ton of homeruns and hit batsmen.  I counted 5 homers and the hit batter total was well into the double digits.  The combination of awful pitching and tiny park dimensions all contributed to an offensive barrage the likes of which I have never seen in town ball.  As I mentioned earlier, there was no outfield fence, but if I had to guess based on how the ball was flying, it couldn't have been much more than 300 down the lines.  The ground rules seemed to be that if a ball landed in or beyond the road on a fly it was called a home run, and if a ball hit the berm or culvert and rolled into the street, it was a ground-rule double.  And I can attest to the fact that every single ball that went past the road was retrieved by somebody and returned to the umpire, whether that be by a child, volunteer, or in some cases even a player.  The constant action and lively crowd made this one of the more enjoyable games I've been to in this league and I was glad I went.

Update: Erik and I leave on Wednesday for our Tour 2025 trip to NoCal, including a stop to see the not-called-Sacramento A's to get us back into the 30-ballpark club.  Check back for our reviews next week!

park rankings and statistics

(for purposes of amateur/town ball rankings, some categories are changed to just yes/no questions):
aesthetics - 6 (points for idyllic setting not the park itself)
views from park - 8 (open view to road and intersection)
view to field - 3 (pretty significant fence and dugout obstructions...could not see right side of infield)
surrounding area - 5 (Pearl Lake and lodge)
concessions - yes
nachos - yes
beer - yes
vendor price - 10
ticket price - 9 ($5)
atmosphere - 6
walk to park - 3
parking price/proximity - 10
concourses - 5 (bleachers built into hillside)
team shop - no

kids area -  no

best food - Von Hanson's pretzels
most unique stadium feature - no outfield fence; Cty Rds 8 & 48 serve as the outfield boundaries
scoreboard - manual

lights - no

best between-inning feature - scoreboard operator goes to concession stand every half inning to grab a number to manually add to the scoreboard inning tally

field dimensions - unknown (no fence)
teams - Kimball Express v. Pearl Lake Lakers
time of game - unknown
attendance - 75-ish
score - unknown (Kimball was up 15-12 in the 6th when I left)
Brewers score that day - 5-2 W

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 6/2/25:

Brewers 32-28, -5.5; 3 @ Reds, 3 v. Padres

Twins 31-27, -7.0; 4 @ Athletics, 3 v. Blue Jays
Athletics 23-37, -10.0; 4 v. Twins, 3 v. Orioles

2025 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 1
Peter - 9

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