Baseball Travel: Wade Stadium, Duluth

Duluth-Superior Dukes / Wade Stadium

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Rating

Specifics

Address/Directions: 132 N. 34th Av. W., Duluth. Wade Stadium is in a residential neighborhood south of downtown Duluth. To reach the stadium from either the north or south, exit I-35 on the 40th Av. W. exit, head west (to the left) on 40th Av. W., hang a right on Grand Avenue and stay on it until you reach 34th Av. W., on which you'll hang a right. Drive two blocks (past the bowling alley) and you'll see the parking lot for the Wade.
Phone: 218/727-4533.
Web: www.dsdukes.com
Online ticket sales? No.
Online broadcasts? No.
Capacity: 4,200.
Year Built: 1940-41.
Last Visited: July 31, 1999.
League/class: Northern League, Central Division.
Affiliation: Unaffiliated.

Description

I will be upfront about my passion for Wade Stadium and Duluth, for I strongly believe that there's no better place to watch a baseball game on the face of the earth. The Wade isn't as spiffy as the newer parks in the minor and major leagues; it lacks amenities like luxury suites and theater-style seating, and until last season you couldn't really tell if the bathrooms featured indoor plumbing. There's no fancy scoreboard, no sideshows like trained pigs or Norwegians, no nuns dispensing massages. But the Wade -- which faced the wrecking ball in the early 1990s -- was lovingly restored by volunteers who were passionate about their city and their baseball, and that commitment to a pile of bricks and concrete makes the Wade a stadium that's truly cherished by the community.

Let's face it: ballparks constructed during the Works Progress Administration (WPA) are a dying breed, as many of them are too small and too old to serve the needs of today's baseball fans. The brick-faced Wade Stadium -- or, the Wade, as the locals say -- undoubtedly been torn down in the early 1990s had the Northern League not come to the area, according to city officials. At that time, Wade renovation was structural in nature, ensuring fan safety, while changes were made in the concourse area. Last season the parking lot was (finally!) repaved. Look for further improvements to the Wade in the future, as Dukes officials work with the city. Last year the city came through with funds for a renovation of the bathrooms and locker rooms, and improvements for the 1999 season include an auxiliary concession stand down the third-base line, as well as expansion of handicapped seating to meet ADA guidelines.

I may be biased, but a strong argument could be made that the Wade is the best place to actually watch a baseball game in both the Northern League and in all of Minnesota. In the Northern League, only Fargo's Newman Outdoor Field offers comparably great sightlines from every seat in the house. Bleacher seats are usually an afterthought in most minor-league parks, but the horseshoe design orients most bleacher seats to second base and the pitching mound. And when you consider than nine-tenths of the seating in the Metrodome sucks for baseball, the Wade comes out ahead in that comparison as well.

There's only one drawback to the Wade: chilly weather. If you go to a day game on a sunny day, you can be reasonably sure that temperatures will remain steady. However, if you go to a night game, all bets are off. If a cold wind and fog rolls off of nearby Lake Superior, it can be 10 or 20 degrees cooler between the beginning of the game and the third inning. (I've been to more than one game that was called on account of fog.) Season-ticket holders tend to being quilts, blankets and sometimes parkas to night games, no matter how warm the temperatures are during the day. And those outfield metal bleachers can get mighty chilly at night.

Still, there are no bad seats in the horseshoe-shaped Wade, and the aforementioned bleacher seats are generally filled with the locals, who know that they can save a few bucks by sitting in the bleachers and not sacrifice a great view of the game. In fact, the best seats in the park might be the back row of the right-field bleacher seats. From here, you can see Lake Superior and the loading docks for the Duluth, Messabe & Iron Range Railroad; during my last visit I watched the 1,000-foot-long Mesabi Miner roll into the docks to pick up a load of taconite. If you're in the grandstand, you have a surprisingly intimate view of the action: the seats are ground level and you're close both the home plate and the dugouts. One of the most joyous occasions of my baseball-viewing life came when a group of Dukes players from Latin America were playing a pepper game with the Dukes pitching coach, Mike Cuellar. They were laughing and joking and having the time of their life, playing baseball thousands of miles from home. You rarely see that joy of the game on the major-league level -- players don't appear to have fun too often (which is another reason why Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa captured our imaginations in 1998: they were having a ball!) and usually you're too far away from the players to actually see their emotions at work. Give me a choice between a fun-loving minor leaguer and an anal, no-fun pro like Chuck Knoblauch, and I'll choose the minor leaguers any day.

That's why it's not a surprise that Ila Borders made her mark in Duluth, winning national attention for being the first woman to start a game as a pitcher in organized baseball. (Remember, the Northern League is an independent, unaffiliated league, so there's still another hurdle for a female pitcher.) When Borders was first signed to the St. Paul Saints by Mike Veeck, a lot of us assumed that she was yet another marketing gimmick from the king of gimmicks. Her early performances in St. Paul confirmed this, and most of us assumed that her eventual trade to the Dukes (for a .181 hitter named Chris English, who soon was cut by the Saints) was a graceful way for Veeck to admit that his gimmick failed.

But a funny thing happened. While it's not clear that the Duluth front office realized that Borders could pitch, it became apparent quickly that the fans would turn out to see her pitch, so the Dukes eventually gave her a chance as a starting pitcher. She had some success as a starter (including an impressive start against the Sioux Falls Canaries, which was owned by -- guess who! -- Mike Veeck), and by the end of the 1998 season she was drawing crowds of 3,000 to 4,000 to the Wade, who loudly cheered on the lefty. Still, she ended up the season with an 8.66 e.r.a. (abysmal even by Northern League standards), but the fans didn't care.

Why did Ila Borders capture the attention of Duluth, which is on the edge of the Iron Range and is still generally a blue-color town? Because she worked hard, and in Duluth hard work is still considered something to be admired. In addition, Range women tend to be different than women from other parts of the country -- they play harder, they party harder, and they tend to live life with a little more zest than the average woman -- and Ila Borders' pluckiness drew a lot of admiration from these Range woman and their daughters. Yes, the Dukes promoted the heck out of her, but Ila's done a pretty good job of marketing herself as well, as evidenced by the Ila Borders merchandise available at the official Ila Borders Web site.

Still, Borders' performance was subpar, even by Northern League standards, and she was dealt to the Madison Black Wolf in the middle of the 1999 season. As long as she boosts the attendance figures she'll have a home in the Northern League, but it's sad to see her become the equivalent of the Famous Chicken.

Concession Highlights

There's nothing exceptional about the concessions at the Wade. Inside the concourse, you're looking at your standard minor-league ballpark fare: Klements hot dogs (a bargain at $1.50), nachos, popcorn, peanuts, hot cocoa. Two beer stands serve Summit Pale Ale, Bud Light and Miller Genuine Draft on tap. New in 1999 is an expanded coffee selection. You can buy your cup of locally roasted Arco for between a buck and $1.50 (with one free refill), or you can opt for the more expensive cappuccino. While the cappuccino is from a machine, it's still pretty tasty on a cold night.

Also new in 1999 is an expanded concession stand down the third-base line, serving the needs of a picnic seating area. It's a gathering spot for both kids and mosquitoes, so plan accordingly.

Smoking

You can smoke in the back rows of the bleachers, where it's also the windiest. On a cold night, you certainly are braving the cold for a nicotine fix, but on a sunny summer day the left-field bleachers become a sun field. Cigars are also allowed in this area.

Parking

There's a large parking lot outside the Wade, and on a crowded night you can also park in the parking lot of an adjacent bowling alley. During sellouts, there's overflow parking a block away. Best of all, it's all free.

For the Kids

There's a play area of sorts down the first-base line, but it's basically a big open area where kids play catch and chase down foul balls -- there's no playground equipment, for example.

Before the Game

There's not much within walking distance of the Wade, except for Mary's Place and the Stadium Lanes bowling alley. Your best bet is to hit the game early for the Dukes Happy Hour: 8-ounce beers and Duke Dogs are a buck apiece.

You could also spend time perusing Duluth and taking in the scenic views. Duluth is a busy shipping port, with taconite from the Iron Range and grain from the fields of the western United States and Canada making their way to the rest of the world. The Canal Park area of Duluth features a small museum detailing the history of shipping in the region, and if you're lucky you can watch one of the huge ships make its way through the canal before heading to a storage area to load up. (Call 218/722-6489 for the latest arrival and departure information.) Canal Park used to be a run-down industrial area, but it's now a vibrant area filled with restaurants (including the legendary Grandma's), shops and the Blue Moon Cafe coffeehouse.

After the Game

Duluth has always been a party town of sorts. In the old days, the partying was on the rough side, especially when there were a lot of sailors and Iron Rangers in town. (As you might expect, they made quite a mixture.) And while you can still find that kind of partying in parts of Duluth, you'll probably want to head down to Canal Park, where a large variety of restaurants and bars (Grandma's, Little Angie's, Green Mill, Timber Lodge Restaurant, Old Chicago, Lake Avenue Cafe) pack them in during the summer.

Where to Stay

There's nothing within walking distance of the Wade, and the few hotels in the general area cater more to truckers than tourists. You'll want to stay in Canal Park, a short drive away, where four hotels face Lake Superior and allow easy access to the Lakewalk, which runs alongside Lake Superior all the way up to the Glensheen mansion. The best of the four is the Inn on Lake Superior (350 Canal Park Dr., 218-726-1111; $85-$110 per night), with an assortment of standard rooms and lakefront suites. Families will also want to check out the Hawthorn Suites (325 S. Lake Av., 218-727-4663) and the Comfort Suites (408 Canal Park Dr., 218-727-1378). Other downtown hotels worth checking out includes Fitger's and the Holiday Inn.

Notes

In the past, Dukes ownership made no secret about willing to sell the Dukes to the right buyer, even going to the point of taking out free advertisements on America Online. With attendance in Duluth up, owner Jim Wadley tells me that he's not actively seeking a new ownership group. Indeed, Wadley has been present at many games this year.

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