A trip to Minneapolis-St. Paul delivers fun for the casual or serious baseball fan

“Is that a live pig on the field?”

We were heading into just the second inning of my inaugural St. Paul Saints baseball game, so I didn’t know any better when I wondered aloud what I was seeing between innings.

A man was walking a pretty good sized pig on a leash. The pig was waddling toward home plate and had a satchel draped over its back.

By the end of the night, I’d figured out what was obvious to regulars at CHS Field in St. Paul, Minnesota: that was Space Ham — the team’s ball pig — and this wasn’t an ordinary minor league baseball game.

If I had done any research on the team or arrived early enough to explore the in-park museum and concourse displays, I would have realized the team is known for its fun atmosphere, quirky promotions and overall edgy attitude. Sure, a lot of teams say that, but the Saints’ antics have been featured on “60 Minutes” and they have a dang pig who carries baseballs and water out to the umpire.

When we found out Wichita’s new minor league baseball team would be the Double-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, we decided it was time for a return visit to Minneapolis. The last time we were there, the Twins were playing at the Metrodome and they’ve played at Target Field since 2010.

Now that my husband has visited a Major League Baseball ballpark in every city with a team, he’s set his sights on returning to those with new stadiums since his last visit while also adding nearby minor league parks. Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport has daily nonstop flights to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and a road trip there is about nine hours via I-35.

He found a week in September when we could catch home games to see his favorite Kansas City Royals play the Twins and the Royals’ Triple-A Omaha Storm Chasers play the Saints. Baseball isn’t the only reason to visit, of course. The Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area has nearly 4 million people and is a hub for arts, culture and outdoor spaces among the Land of 10,000 Lakes. I wrote about our outdoor activities last fall.

We stayed downtown at Loews Minneapolis Hotel, which offers a baseball package that includes a room, a $25 food and beverage credit, late checkout (based on availability) and two Twins game tickets.

Ask for a room high enough and on the same side as the stadium and you might get one that overlooks the open-air ballpark. Besides that view, we loved being able to walk two blocks to the stadium.

Before lunch on the same day we had tickets to a game, we took a guided tour of Target Field. It was a great way to see the vantage points from nearly every part of the ballpark. We also got to see areas our game ticket wouldn’t normally allow us to go, including the press box, the luxury suite level and the Delta SKY360° Club.

I enjoyed hearing trivia about the design of the $545 million stadium, including environmentally friendly features, and our guide pointing out elements that I likely wouldn’t have noticed on my own, including the celebration sign in center field. The neon sign features one character from Minneapolis (“Minnie”) and one from St. Paul (“Paul”) who become animated when a Twins player hits a home run, making it look like they are shaking hands across the Mississippi River.

My husband liked the history of the franchise and players the guide shared as well as seeing memorabilia not always viewable to the general public, including a display dedicated to Kirby Puckett, a National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee who played his entire career for the Twins.

There are game day and non game day guided tours, as well as tours outside the baseball season. During the season, options include a basic tour, a VIP tour that takes you onto the field, a pre-game tour that usually includes watching batting practice from the Champions Club behind home plate. Check the team’s website for prices and schedule.

We returned that night for the baseball game after spending the afternoon exploring downtown Minneapolis by foot and via the city’s bike-share program. We purposefully waited to have dinner at the ballpark because they had several local favorites, from slices of Pizza Lucé to Kramarczuk’s sausages and Blue Door Pub’s Cease & Desist burger, a version of a juicy lucy burger with cheese stuffed inside the patty.

CHS Field in St. Paul is about a 12-mile drive from Target Field, or also reachable via an 11-mile light rail transit line that connects the two downtowns.

I knew nothing about the St. Paul Saints before our visit other than they were a long-time independent baseball team that had bumped up to become the Triple-A affiliate of the Twins in 2021. As a hardcore baseball fan, my husband knew that among the team’s owners was actor and comedian Bill Murray and Mike Veeck, whose family has long been associated with MLB as well as zany promotions.

Since our visit was near the end of the regular season, we saw a number of players on the field for the Saints that night who had moved up to Triple-A after playing earlier in the season in Wichita. As of April, the team’s roster included at least 10 players who came through Wichita last season.

One of the first things we noticed during the game — besides the live pig on the field — was the sarcastic and cheeky commentary by the public address announcer. The goofiness bumped up between innings with silly activities led by their entertainment team members, who take on ushertainer personas such as Fanboy Fred and Miss Adventure.

After a few innings, I walked around the 7,210-seat, $63 million CHS Field that has been among the top drawing minor league parks since it opened in 2015. I found a display about the ball pigs, which has been a tradition since the current Saints team formed in 1993. I met the team’s mascot, a fluffy, pink pig named Mudonna, or Mud for short. I figured out the source of an enormous line in the left field concourse was a stand offering 36 local craft brews.

I stopped at the City of Baseball Museum, on the third-base concourse and free during the game you’re attending. The 2,000 square foot space opened in 2019 and has exhibits covering baseball in the area dating back to the late 1800s through to the modern day Saints, who in 1993 brought professional baseball back to city after a 32-year absence.

Among the familiar names mentioned are baseball legends born in St. Paul—including Joe Mauer, David Winfield, Paul Molitor, Jack Morris and Toni Stone—and players who came through during their careers, including Darryl Strawberry, Rey Ordoñez, J.D. Drew and Roy Campanella, among others.

The Saints’ regular season schedule runs through Sept. 28. Tickets range from $5 for berm seating to $18 for infield reserved seats. The Twins also have regular season home games through the end of September; prices vary.

If you make the trip, be sure to look for this year’s ball pig, named 867-530Swine, or Jenny for short. The name is chosen from a public naming contest and this year includes 30 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the current inception of the Saints.

This story was originally published May 1, 2022 at 3:37 AM.