Kevin Luckow

Calling all Baseball Fans! Summer need not be over. This weekend in Kansas City, the Twins are playing out the string and the Royals have had a terrible season, but if you head west on I-70 about 25 miles, the St. Paul Saints will battle the Kansas City T-Bones in the American Association Championship Series.The first two games were played at CHS Field on Tuesday and Wednesday night, with the T-Bones taking Game One by an 11-4 score. Wednesday night, behind a clutch pitching performance by staff ace Eddie Medina, the Saints evened the series at a game apiece. Heading into the sixth with a 2-0, Zach Walters hit a two-run home run to give the Saints a 4-0 lead and Dante Bichette Jr. followed immediately with a long home run to make it 5-0. Medina went eight shutout innings allowing three hits, striking out five and only walking two. The Saints won Game Two 6-0. Friday night the scene shifts to Kansas City where the T-Bones throw ace pitcher Tommy Collier with the Saints starter to be announced. Game Four is slated for a 7:05 pm on Saturday while a deciding Game Five, if necessary, will be at 1:05 on Sunday afternoon. A little background on T-Bones Stadium: the ballpark opened in 2003 when John Ehlert relocated the Duluth Superior Dukes from the Twin Ports. It is located near Legends Outlets which developed as the T-Bones became a fixture in Kansas City. Kansas Speedway is also located nearby. This weekend the Speedway is hosting the American Royal World Series of Barbeque, rendering all hotels in the Legends area unavailable. Tailgating just like at Kauffman Stadium is allowed. Although it's not like St. Paul, it is an option for pregame fun. If that's not your speed, there are plenty of bars and restaurants near the ballpark within walking range. Parking, unlike most minor or major league ballparks, is free. Tickets for this weekend's games are only $8, with beers and hot dogs going for only $1.50. If you're looking to mix the Twins and Saints into a trip, the Twins begin a four-game series at Kauffman Stadium on Thursday with games on Friday and Saturday nights and a day game on Sunday. Unfortunately all games have the same start times that the Saints games do in Kansas. I would recommend staying in Overland Park. Located south of Kansas City, Overland Park is equidistant to T-Bones Stadium and Kauffman Stadium with plenty of 2 1/2 to 3 star hotels currently available on Priceline for $75 or less. You could run into Saints staff at the hotel as many of them are also staying in Overland Park, following the Saints to cheer them on this weekend. Looking for something to do as eating BBQ can only take so much time out of the day? The Negro Leagues Hall of Fame Museum is located in Kansas City. Currently on Groupon there is a deal where two people can get in to the Museum for only $12.50. You just never know who you may run into there. So before putting the shorts and T-shirts away and digging your favorite hoodie out of the closet, take one last summer trip to see some baseball. Our St. Paul Saints would greatly appreciate your support as they try to bring an American Association championship to St. Paul. Click here to view the article

Guys, a little error in paragraph one. The Saints had won two of three championships. not three of four going into 1996. Though they did win it all in 1996 after a so so second half. Late additions of ex big leaguers Glenn Davis, Hector Villanueva, and John Burgos came up huge in the playoffs.

It was spring of 1996. The St. Paul Saints were on top of the Independent Baseball world, with three Northern League Championships in the first four years of the league. Darryl Strawberry, coming off a MLB suspension, was signed in April by the Saints. A fledgling cable network, FX,was sending a crew to follow the Saints all summer. If that wasn't enough, 1991 World Series MVP and St. Paul native Jack Morris decided to try a comeback with his hometown club at the age of 41. As a huge Saints fan and an even bigger fan of Jack Morris, this 26-year-old Saints fan was excited the most to see Morris take the mound at Midway Stadium.Morris got the start in a Saints preseason game. Morris got his work in, but the results were not pretty. The split finger fastball that Morris was renowned for was bouncing in front of the plate and after five runs in his inning of work, the night was over for Morris. The first regular season start for Morris on May 31 went slightly better, he gave up only two runs but only went 3.2 innings, giving up eight hits in a no-decision versus the Duluth Superior Dukes at Wade Stadium. Novice fans were concerned but fans that knew pitchers were creatures of habit, knew that Morris was still in spring training mode. It took until June 17, but Morris found his groove pitching seven shutout innings in Sioux City in a 5-2 Saints victory. Morris took off from there. Highlights included a complete game three-hitter at Midway Stadium on July 3. The effort by Morris was overshadowed by the announcement after the game that Strawberry was signed by the Yankees. On July 13, with the Saints struggling to keep the first half lead in the East division, Morris threw a complete game five-hitter in a 5-2 victory over Fargo Moorhead. With the Saints and Madison Black Wolf tied for the Eastern Division lead after the first half, a one game playoff was to be played and Morris took the mound for the Saints. Fans were flashing to five years earlier when Morris pitched in a do-or-die game on the other side of the Mississippi River. It did not start well as Morris gave up five runs in the first four innings. The Saints found themselves trailing 5-4 but Morris, much like in 1991, refused to back down, giving up only one more run in six additional innings of work as the Saints came back to tie the game and go into extra innings. Unlike 1991, Morris wasn't allowed to finish what he started, yielding to closer Paul Romanoli. The Saints scored the winning run in the eleventh inning and won the first half. Folks would talk afterwards of the gutty ten-inning effort by Jack Morris. After finishing the first half of the season with a 5-1 record and a 2.61 ERA in 72 innings, Morris had an offer to sign with the Yankees but the Yankees wanted Morris to start three games in AAA before deciding whether to give him a shot in the majors. Morris declined the offer and retired quietly with little fanfare. Morris was a good mentor to the younger Saints pitchers while with the Saints. He was shown on FX reality show Baseball Minnesota talking to the pitching staff, giving simple but sage advice such as “The best pitch you can throw is strike one.” Morris did not “big league” the Saints as some veteran players in Independent Leagues have done in the past. Morris was accessible to autograph seekers and had no problem with making the late night bus trips with the rest of the team. The time Jack Morris spent with the St. Paul Saints was short and sometimes upstaged by Darryl Strawberry. It was a nice nostalgic trip for us fans who remember Morris as a dominant major league starter, a World Series MVP for his home state in 1991 and now a Hall of Famer. (Morris is the third Hall of Famer to play independent baseball along with Tim Raines and Rickey Henderson). As far as the current Saints club goes, after being one of the best road teams in the league, the Saints dropped six in a row on the road before winning on Wednesday night. The Saints currently find themselves in third place, two and a half games back of division leading Gary SouthShore and one and a half games behind second place Fargo Moorhead. Keep in mind that the top two teams in the North Divsion make the Amercian Association playoffs. The Saints come back to CHS Field for a three game homestand versus the Kansas City T-Bones. Friday night is a celebration of International Beer Day. The Xcel Energy Friday night fireworks will feature beer drinking songs. Also Terry L. Wetzel (long time scout for Kansas City, Colorado and Washington) will be inducted into the Killebrew Root Beer Scouts Hall of Fame in a pregame ceremony, held outside the main gate of CHS Field. Saturday night's promotion is 150 years of helium; attendance numbers that night may be inflated. The series finale is on Sunday. It's the annual peanut-free day. No peanuts will be sold or consumed in CHS Field so that attendees with peanut allergies can attend. The first 1500 fans receive the 2018 Saints card set. After a brief road trip to Sioux Falls early next week to battle the Canaries, the Saints come home for four more games versus one of the teams they are chasing, the Gary SouthShore Railcats, followed by a visit by the Canaries for four games and a brief two game set with the Fargo Moorhead RedHawks. Call 651-644-6659 for tickets or buy online and check out upcoming game promotions on http://saintsbaseball.com. Click here to view the article

Good question. Such a good question I turned it into a blog where I kind of answered it. http://10thinningstretch.blogspot.com/2018/07/your-attendance-please.html

The American Association season hits the halfway point next week. The St. Paul Saints are in the thick of the North Division race, tied for first place with the Gary SouthShore Railcats with a 22-19 record going into Sunday's games. It's been a challenging first half for manager George Tsamis. In what has become a trend, the Saints have had to retool the team. The Saints are a popular target for MLB and Mexican League scouts to boost their rosters and this year that has been the case again. Here are some highlights from the first half the season.Moving On Up Three Saints have had their contracts purchased so far in the 2018 season. Vinny Nitolli, starting for the first time in his career, got off to a great start. In five starts, Nitolli went 3-2, with a 3.21 ERA before getting his contract purchased by Saltillo of the Mexican League on June 12. Josh Allen, a star second baseman in the Frontier League hit safely in his last 14 games to bump his average up to .344 before the New York Mets took notice, signing and assigning him to AA Hartford of the Eastern League. And Saints closer and former major leaguer Tom Wilhelmsen had his contract purchased by Tijuana of the Mexican League on June 26. While with the Saints, Wilhelmsen recorded seven saves and a 2.89 ERA. Shoemaker The Runmaker After the Saints’ 2017 second half collapse, much of the roster changed. One person that Tsamis brought back was the 2017 Saints Offensive Player of the Year, Brady Shoemaker. Shoemaker was the Pointstreak and the Minor League Sports Report American Association Offensive Player of the Week for the week of June 18-24. For the season, he is hitting .329 in 38 games, driving in 30 runs, with an on-base percentage of .422. In an offense that has been productive but prolific at leaving runners on base, Shoemaker has been the clutch hitter on whom the Saints have relied. He’s has had 13 multiple-hit games including two four-hit games. Shoemaker's power numbers are down from the 21 home runs that he hit in 2017, but with the acquisition of slugger Burt Reynolds, Shoemaker may start seeing more pitches to hit. Ed-die, Ed-die, Ed-die Right handed starter Eddie Medina was a late signing made by Tsamis. Medina is no stranger to the American Association, pitching the last three seasons for the Wichita Wingnuts. Currently Medina is in the middle of a 21-inning stretch of scoreless baseball, shutting down strong lineups from Winnipeg and Lincoln. For the season, Medina has started eight games pitching 49.1 innings, with a 3-2 record and a 2.00 ERA. Medina had to miss a start with a recurring back issue; his health will go a long way towards determining the Saints fortunes in the second half of the season. Late Inning Magic The Saints have shown fans why you should stick around until the end of the game. In the span of three games against the Texas AirHogs, the Saints scored six runs in the ninth inning to win 11-6, scored three runs in the 11th inning to win 3-0, and won 7-4 in ten innings in the third game of the series. In what became the 1000th win for manager George Tsamis, the Saints scored three runs in the eighth and shut the door on the Fargo Moorhead RedHawks. In their latest rallies, the Saints overcame a 5-0 deficit with a two-run rally in the ninth inning of a tie game versus rival Winnipeg. Two nights later, the Saints turned a 2-0 lead into a 4-2 deficit and once again came back in the ninth tying the game before outlasting the Goldeyes winning 6-5 in 12 innings. Mr. 1000 George Tsamis joined an elite group of Independent League Baseball managers in the 1000-win club on June 12. He joins current American Associations skippers Greg Tagert and Butch Hobson, former Atlantic League manager Sparky Lyle and longtime Fargo Moorhead manager Doug Simunic. In typical Saints fashion, Tsamis won his milestone game while wearing a Charlie Brown Saints jersey on Charlie Brown night at CHS Field. And a Tommie Shall Lead Them Facing a sweep at the hands of arch rival Winnipeg, the Saints turned to rookie Ryan Zimmerman from St. Thomas to solve a Goldeyes lineup that had scored 34 runs in the first three games of a weekend series. Zimmerman was not scared off by the prospect and shut down the Goldeyes giving up no runs in 6.2 innings, recording his first professional victory in his first ever start at CHS Field. St. Paul Raccoons In response to the raccoon that stole news headlines (on the night Tsamis won his 1000th game) by crawling up the side of a downtown St. Paul building, the Saints became the St. Paul Raccoons for a night on June 26th. Along with having a raccoon mascot that climbed up the batter's eye in the third inning, the Saints wore special St. Paul Raccoons jerseys that were auctioned off. Proceeds from the auction benefitted the Minnesota Wildlife Foundation. No, Not That Burt Reynolds On June 27, the Saints signed veteran American Association slugger Burt Reynolds. Although the Saints have had a good offense, the long ball has been missing from their game. Reynolds, released from Sioux Falls, provided immediate dividends in his second game hitting two home runs and knocking in five runs in a win at Winnipeg. The Greatest Fans in the American Association Often when a new ballpark opens, there is the first season buzz when fans want to check out the new digs. This happened in 2015 when CHS Field opened to rave reviews and Lowertown St. Paul became the hip place to be in the Twin Cities. In the second season teams get a share of fans that haven't been to the ballpark yet, so they get a bump from those curiosity seekers. The third season is often when reality sets in, but the Saints were aggressive in planning several promotional giveaways to commemorate their 25th season. The fourth season is the toughest; the newness is gone. Over at Target Field, the Twins teased their fans with a postseason game while the Saints missed the playoffs for the first time in their CHS Field history. Even with all that, the Saints are still by far the class of the American Association when it comes to fans flocking to the ballpark. In 19 home games, the Saints have drawn 154,692 fans for an average of 8,142 fans with a season high 9,791 last Sunday taking in the Saints 1-0 victory over Winnipeg. To put the attendance in perspective, the Saints hosted Sioux City for three games this week. The three games drew over 21,000 fans, Sioux City in 15 home dates has drawn 18,187 fans for a team that is considered the best in the league. The Saints are close to averaging as many fans per game as the second and third teams in the league, Winnipeg and Kansas City, have combined. Attendance will only pick up during the last half of the season as July is a good drawing month and the Saints are home for four of the last five weekends of the 2018 season. Home Again The Saints return home for a single game versus Fargo Moorhead on Monday night. It's the Independence Day Fireworks spectacular with a Food Truck Rally. Take note of the starting time as first pitch is at 6:05. Following that will be a weekend homestand with the Lincoln Saltdogs visiting. Friday night fireworks will feature the music of ABBA and on Sunday the first 1500 fans get a free replica Saints jersey. Saints tickets can be found at Saintsbaseball.com or by calling 651-644-6659. Remember, 200 berm tickets go on sale at 9 am on game days and if all else fails, roaming tickets are available for $8 that get you in the door and allow you to enjoy the game from wherever you please. Click here to view the article