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By Jeff Horwich, Minnesota Public Radio
June 4, 2001
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With the Twins' season off to a rousing start, many Minnesotans have baseball on the brain. In St. Paul and Duluth, fans are cheering the Saints and the Dukes into their third week of play in the Northern League. Minnesota's third baseball league is kicking off its season, as the Beetles, the River Bats, the Mashers, the Honkers and the Mighty Gulls took the field around the state.
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THIS YEAR'S HOME OPENER for the St. Cloud River Bats began by reliving last year's championship game, where a three-run homer in the 10th inning lifted the Bats to victory over the Waterloo Bucks. The crowd of 2,400 fans went wild all over again. Some cheered from their seats on the concrete walkways; this field officially seats only 1,900.
The local paper has been full of River Bats stories. The stands are purple and black with River Bats' merchandise. Kids line up for autographs of their favorite players. And 22-year Major League veteran reliever Goose Gossage threw out the opening pitch.
"These kids don't get paid anything, they just play for the passion and the love of the game, and the game is about you folks sitting in the stands; it's about the fans," Gossage said.
With all the hype, the loyal fan base, the multimedia production and promotions that go into a River Bats game, it sure looks like the minor leagues.
POWERED BY COLLEGE BOYS
But each summer St. Cloud and other Northwoods League cities adopt a mostly new crop of college boys. They come from schools around the country, and live on the charity of local host families while they hone their skills during the 64-game season.
Here in St. Cloud, where attendance is highest and the marketing is perhaps the slickest in the league, team owner Joel Sutherland gets most of the credit for putting a convincing pro-baseball veneer on what could be just another college league.
Sutherland also owns one of two new teams in the league this year, the Alexandria Beetles. He brought the River Bats to St. Cloud five years ago. "If people came and walked this field, they'd feel like they're walking on a putting green," he says proudly. "It's phenomenal. The facility's great, the fans are phenomenal. We keep the prices low, which means we have a lot of fans. Last year we averaged over 1,800 people a game. All our uniforms, our merchandise and stuff. We don't cut any corners."
BUCKING BASEBALL'S ECONOMICS
The games are a marketing extravaganza. Almost all the advertising over the outfield fence is sold out. Every home game features a new promotion, including "Guaranteed Win Night" and "Blind as a Bat Night," where one lucky fan wins Lasik® eye surgery. The seventh-inning stretch is brought to you by Sundance Chiropractic, and foul balls into the parking lot are sponsored by City Autoglass.
River Bats superfan Jan Wentland sits in her second-row season-ticket seats in a jersey celebrating the Bats' league championships in 1998 and 2000. But her husband Alan says success isn't built on fans like them. "It has a lot to do with the parents bringing the kids out. It goes back to the parents wanting to get the kids into the game," he says.
Players got their first taste of local celebrity handing out newspapers and signing balls for young fans outside two St. Cloud supermarkets.
Centerfielder David Gates just finished his junior year at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, and is one of seven players returning for another year as a River Bat - if only for one night. Gates has now headed back to Alabama to await the outcome of the Major League draft. He says players quickly find out the Northwoods League offers more than just a way to stay in shape.
"You don't really know what it's like to play in front of that many people until you actually do. It's a big rush. Your game improves a lot better and you learn a lot more than you do when you're playing in front of 10 parents or something," according to Gates.
Like many other small-time baseball leagues, this is solid entertainment. Music helps establish personalities for the players. When Pete Jones from Texas Tech steps to the plate, fans get a blast of If You're Gonna Play in Texas. Designated hitter Casey Spanish? Living La Vida Loca.
It's good fun, and - so far - for River Bats fans, it's also good baseball. On Saturday night the Bats were too much for the Mankato Mashers, doing them in with a three-run shot off the billboard for the cable company in right field.
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