St. Paul Saints

On May 31, 1997, the Saints became the first professional men's baseball team since integration to have a female on their roster. Ila Borders, a pitcher, played with the team out of the bullpen for a month before being traded.

On September 29, 2005, the Saints left the Northern League, along with the

In June 2009, the Saints began a push to build a new stadium in Downtown Saint Paul. The proposed 7,500-seat stadium would be located in the Lowertown neighborhood near a planned maintenance facility for the

In 2020, the Saints competed as one of six teams in a condensed 60-game season as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.^[14] They played much of their season away from their home stadium, CHS Field, and were instead based at Sioux Falls Stadium, where they shared a home field with the Sioux Falls Canaries. On August 4, 2020, the Saints returned to play at CHS Field.^[15]

The beginnings of a closer relationship with the local Major League Baseball franchise, the Minnesota Twins, came in the summer of 2020. Due to the pandemic, the 2020 MLB season was modified in several ways, including the cancellation of the 2020 Minor League Baseball season. Because of this, teams were allowed to use taxi squads located at nearby facilities where non-active minor league players were allowed to train. The Twins made use of the Saints' CHS Field facilities as home for their taxi squad.^[16]

Notable players to have played for the Saints during their independent baseball years include Shane Costa, Glenn Davis, J. D. Drew, Leon "Bull" Durham, Gavin Fingleson, Dan Johnson, Brandon Kintzler, Kevin Millar, Minnie Miñoso, Jack Morris, Darryl Motley, Matt Nokes, Rey Ordóñez, Tanner Scheppers, Dave Stevens, Darryl Strawberry and Caleb Thielbar.

Affiliated baseball (2021–present)

Due to the

The Saints began competition as a Twins affiliate on May 4, 2021, with an 8–2 loss to the Omaha Storm Chasers at Werner Park in Papillion, Nebraska.^[22] St. Paul ended the season in third place in the Midwestern Division with a 61–59 record.^[23] No playoffs were held to determine a league champion; instead, the team with the best regular-season record was declared the winner.^[24] However, 10 games that had been postponed from the start of the season were reinserted into the schedule as a postseason tournament called the Triple-A Final Stretch in which all 30 Triple-A clubs competed for the highest winning percentage.^[24] St. Paul finished the tournament tied for seventh place with a 6–4 record.^[25] In 2022, the Triple-A East became known as the International League, the name historically used by the regional circuit prior to the 2021 reorganization.^[26]

In March 2023, it was announced that The Goldklang Group was selling the team to Diamond Baseball Holdings for an undisclosed sum.^[1] Diamond Baseball Holdings owns a number of minor league teams, including the Iowa Cubs and the Minnesota Twins' Class AA affiliate Wichita Wind Surge.^[1]

Roster

Notable promotions

In an attempt to gain publicity in a metropolitan area that hosts five major pro sports teams and a major college program, the Saints create unique promotions that have received media attention numerous times.^[27]

• The Saints celebrated the 40th anniversary of Animal House on August 14, 2018, by staging the world's largest food fight after the completion of the fifth inning against the Sioux Falls Canaries. Approximately 8,000 fans participated.^[28]
• On August 22, 2017, the Saints held the world's largest Twister game, with over 56,000 dots painted on the outfield grass.^[29]
• On July 21, 2015, in an event sponsored by My Pillow, the world's largest pillow fight was held after the second inning, with 6,261 participants. The event was hosted by Stephen Baldwin.^[30] Additionally, in honor of the 40th season of Saturday Night Live, former cast member Joe Piscopo performed the national anthem in his impression of Frank Sinatra, and made other appearances throughout the game.^[31]
• A May 11, 2013, exhibition game between the Saints and
  Gary SouthShore Railcats was played without umpires. The team instead had a judge, in a judicial robe, call balls and strikes from behind the pitcher. Calls at first and third bases were made by a "jury" of 12 Little League players, with the judge able to overrule any calls.^[32]
• In August 2012, as part of a regional conference held by the Minnesota Atheists, the Saints held "A Night of Unbelievable Fun", where the team wore alternate jerseys branding themselves as the "Mr. Paul Aint's". The promotion was reprised in subsequent seasons.^{[33][34][35][36]}
• On July 23, 2011, the Saints celebrated National Hot Dog Day and parodied Anthony Weiner and his first sexting scandal. The first 1,501 fans age 18 or older received "Tweeting Wiener Boxer Shorts", depicting a blue bird taking a picture of a hot dog, or "wiener". The bird was deliberately drawn to resemble the logo of Twitter, the social media site that Weiner used to send links to indecent photos.^[37]
• The Saints announced a giveaway for their May 23, 2009, game against the Sioux Falls Pheasants of 2,500 bobblehead dolls dressed as the
  2008 U.S. Senate election between the two men. The Saints made further jabs at the race:^[38]
  • The ceremonial first pitch was thrown by
    third-party
    candidate.
  • Fans were asked during the game to spin the heads of their dolls to either Coleman or Franken. Attorneys were present to count the "votes" from this process, poking fun at the extensive involvement of attorneys in the recount process. The team's website stated that fans could challenge the "results" at the team's Fan Services booth during the game.
  • The team also facetiously stated on its site that it would not make the results of that night's game official until mid-June—around the time that the entire Minnesota Supreme Court was scheduled to rule on Coleman's appeal of a panel ruling that Franken had won. (The Court issued its ruling in Franken's favor on June 30, with Coleman then conceding.)
• In May 2008, the Saints announced the giveaway of 2,500 bobble foot dolls, ostensibly to celebrate National Tap Dance Day. The dolls, which featured two feet visible beneath the door of a bathroom stall, were covered in the national news for their reference to Senator Larry Craig, who pled guilty to soliciting sex in a Minneapolis–Saint Paul Airport restroom in August 2007.^[39]
• In August 2007, the Saints announced that rubber dog toys would be given out, as a jab to the
  federal dogfighting case involving Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick.^[40]
• In April 2006, the Saints announced that rubber boats would be given out during a May 27, 2006 game, to honor the 30th anniversary of the television show The Love Boat. However, details of the promotion indicated that it was intended as a jab at the 2005 boat scandal involving the Minnesota Vikings, where several members of the team were allegedly involved in illicit behavior on a private cruise. The promotional rubber boats used the same color as the Vikings uniforms (purple and yellow) and were named Minnetonka Queen (a reference to Lake Minnetonka, where the cruise took place).^[27]
• On May 8, 2005, the Saints hosted a Mother's Day exhibition game against the Sioux Falls Canaries which began at 5:35 a.m. and set an unofficial record for earliest game time in baseball history. 2,253 fans attended the 6-6 tie, with about 500 of them tailgating overnight in the parking lot. Free cereal was given away and all ticket sales went to charity.
• In August 2004, the Saints held a Bobblehead Election to tap into the campaign buzz around the election year. Fans were told to select either a John Kerry or George Bush bobblehead as their "vote." The stunt was capped off with a speech by the winning bobblehead. A real donkey and a donkey dressed like an elephant (the Saints were unable to obtain a real elephant) added to the atmosphere.^[41]
• In August 2003, the Saints held "Randy Moss Hood Ornament Night", poking fun at Randy Moss, then a wide receiver for the Vikings. Earlier that year, Moss was involved in an incident where he bumped a traffic control officer with his car while he attempted to make a turn.^[27]
• During the 2002 Major League Baseball labor negotiations, the Saints gave away seat cushions with pictures of commissioner Bud Selig on one side and player's association Executive Director Donald Fehr on the other.^[27]
• In 2002, in response to Selig's controversial decision to end the
  neckties (or "ties") with Bud Selig's image.^[27]