MoonDog Fever

I departed Minneopa State Park, where I spent the July 4th weekend camping, around 4:00 Sunday. I stopped at a Kwik Trip for a sandwich and a cold sparkling water. From there I drove to ISG Field, alternatively called Franklin Rogers Field, where I had a ticket to the 5:05 Mankato MoonDogs game against the St. Cloud Rox. I parked outside a shopping mall where I saw the St. Cloud Rox team bus, as well as other fans parking and congregating. I followed them into the stadium from the right field foul pole entrance. Inside the gates, I saw a Rox player giving a little boy a ball. I walked around the concourse to check out the digs before I found my seat under the covered section behind the backstop. The support beams that held up the roof I found delightful and nostalgic for they reminded me of Tiger Stadium. With the couple hundred others in attendance, I stood for the anthem and took photos of the field, where the teams stood in neat diagonal rows, the Rox in baby blue on the third baseline, the MoonDogs in black on the first baseline. 

The stadium played Springsteen's "Born to Run" as the MoonDog pitcher thew warm up pitches on a hot, muggy day. They smacked in the catchers' mitt. He threw hard but the Rox scored an early run in the top half of the first, giving the visitors a 1-0 lead they would cling to for much of the game. The number of Southern players on the Mankato roster surprised me. They used a lot of country music for their walkup songs. Batting leadoff for the Space Pups was Jojo Williamson, a second basemen for the Alabama Crimson Tide from Hartselle, Alabama, smaller in stature in the mold of Altuve. Batting in the two spot was Williamson's teammate from Alabama, big Andrew Purdy, a 6'2, 215 pounder from Cartersville, Georgia. Third in the lineup was Liam Ebbs, another big boy at 6'2, 220 pounds. From Atlanta and a member of the Wofford College baseball team, Ebbs played first base. Hitting cleanup was a kid out of the University of Hawaii. After that it was Anthony Avalos from Houston Christian University. The Moon Dogs' center fielder, Sam Erickson, was a native of Flower Mound, Texas, a Texas A&M Aggie who came to the plate while Alabama's "Dixieland Delight" played, reminding me of college fraternity nights. The song also blended well with the theme of the game -- America's 250th Birthday Bash -- and the small-town crowd. 

Fans wore a lot of red, white, and blue in the stands. Dads wore polos in the design of the American flag, with the stripes running vertically, and kids wore their little Old Navy tee shirts with the American flag on the front. A middle-aged couple in the second row even wore matching red, white, and blue generic football jerseys. The number on each jersey was 2, with a nameplate that read "AMENDMENT." Another solo fan I sat near wore jean shorts with his orange union shirt tucked into it, New Balance shoes, and a MoonDogs cap. Many fans, for that matter, owned and wore MoonDogs gear. With a name like that, can you blame them? Their appeared to be a lot of moms with tattoos, while a lot of the men looked like law enforcement types. One pretty blonde, who I estimated a player's girlfriend, disappeared after the first three outs. 

Undisputedly the star of the game was St. Cloud starting pitcher Manning West. The lanky (6'6, 235 pounds) Kansas Jayhawk, a native of Winder, Georgia, went 7 innings and allowed only one earned run, striking out 13 and hitting up to 91 on the radar gun. The Northwoods League named West its Pitcher of the Night for his performance. 

In the top half of the seventh, St. Cloud broke out for four runs, cushioning West's lead to 5-0. Then Mankato tried to rally. In the bottom of the 7th they scored two runs, forcing West to the dugout, and in the 8th they added another, but St. Cloud's bullpen slammed the door thereafter. The Rox won 5-3. 

St. Cloud, who clinched the first half title in the Great Plains West Division with a record of 24-12, has now won 3 straight and 7 of its last 10. Meanwhile Mankato, who started the year hot, drops its third straight and their 7th in the last 10. The MoonDogs are 16-24 at the All-Star Break, the Rox 28-14. 

I drove 169-North to Minneapolis Sunday night. The sun still hot, I listened to the Diamondbacks and Padres on Sunday Night Baseball, passing cornfield towns like Saint Peter, LeSeur, and Belle Plaine.