Thursday, August 14, 2008

St. Paul Saints


I have never had more fun at a baseball game than I did watching the St. Paul Saints. I am not exaggerating. I have been to the World Series to watch the Angels. I've gone to a game at Dodger Stadium on my birthday with a dozen friends. I took my then-4-year-old cousin to his first baseball game at Coors Field and after two innings when the score was 8-7, he asked me whether there was more scoring in baseball or basketball. But the St. Paul Saints tops all of that.
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The entire game was like a street carnival, and indeed their stadium is called Midway Stadium. I went with two friends, we had cheap tickets in the upper level out by the ends (this was a Saturday night game and those were the only tickets available.) When we walked in we saw a patio with everyone sitting at tables drinking beer. My buddy asked an usher who gets to sit at those tables. The usher said "anyone." So we sat at a table drinking beer all game just a few yards from the field.
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At a table next to us, people who had won a contest were served food from an Italian restaurant all night long. Gorgeous women sat in a hot tub beyond center field watching the game. Behind home plate, fans rotated sitting in a chair and getting a haircut. And when the umpire ran out of baseballs, a little pig ran out to him with a pink bag full of baseballs tied to his back (see the last picture.)
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Several years ago I went to a Twins game at the Metrodome. The stadium was cold, grey concrete, like a hospital or airport. The balls bounced thirty feet high off a turf that looked like rubber. The fans - and there weren't many - seemed to be there only for the $1 slices of pizza. It was the worst baseball experience ever. St. Paul, just a few miles away, is the opposite of that.

3 comments:

Cutts said...

That was a fantastic game and night. I particularly liked the guy sitting on some contraption up on the wall in right field. I think he got some prize if he caught (or was hit by) a home run.

Anonymous said...

After reading about the bad q in NE Mpls, I was going to suggest that you come out for a Saints game to make up for it. :) Glad to see you already had!

JustinM said...

Well, my friends figured out that there are lots of good places around Minneapolis to eat. They just didn't know any that first weekend and we had some really lousy meals. So if I make it back there, it will be a much better culinary trip. And I will definitely go to a Saints game again.