Saints Raise Championship Banner to Start 2020 Season
It’s a moment 15-years in the making. The St. Paul Saints final game of 2019 saw more than 5,300 fans celebrate a championship moment at CHS Field in a three-game sweep of the Sioux City Explorers in the American Association Finals. The Saints now know when they will hang the banner as their 28th season begins with a six-game homestand with Opening Day on Tuesday, May 19. The Saints will kick-off their sixth season at the award-winning CHS Field against the Lincoln Saltdogs.
The Saints begin their title defense with a three-game series against the Saltdogs from May 19-21 and continue the homestand with a three-game series against the 2019 South Division Champion Kansas City T-Bones from May 22-24. It will be the ninth time in the last 10 seasons the Saints have started at home. The only time in that span they began on the road was in 2018 when they started the year in Gary.
The annual high school roadtrip, as CHS Field plays host to the Minnesota High School Section Tournaments, takes place from May 26-June 3 and will send the Saints to Winnipeg (May 26-28), Fargo-Moorhead (May 29-May 31), in a rematch of last season’s epic North Division Championship Series, and Sioux Falls (June 1-3). This is the first time since 2014 that the Saints will not travel down to Texas for their annual High School Tournament trip. That year they traveled east to Rockland, New Jersey and Quebec when the American Association and Can-Am League merged.
The Saints have drawn 2,028,402 in their first five seasons at CHS Field and more than 7.5 million in their 27-year history. Once again, the Saints led the American Association in attendance, drawing 394,970, for the fifth consecutive season. They are coming off a year in which they led all of minor league baseball in percent capacity and were eighth in average attendance.
A rematch of the North Division Championship Series will take place at CHS Field June 26-28 and July 31-August 2 when the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks come to town. The Saints defeated the RedHawks three-games-to-two, coming back from an 0-2 series deficit and winning the final three games at home, including Game 5 when they trailed 5-0 going into the sixth and 7-5 in the bottom of the eighth. The team the Saints defeated in that Championship Series, the Sioux City Explorers, will visit CHS Field June 15-18. The Saints swept the Explorers, winning Game 3 at home 6-3.
The Saints have 10 homestands, five of which are multi-series.
In all, 30 of the 50 Saints home games will take place Friday-Sunday and 36 of 50 Thursday-Sunday. There are a total of six home games in May, 13 in June, 16 in July, and 15 in August. The Saints will remain with the traditional 7:05 p.m. game time on Monday-Saturday and continue with the 5:05 p.m. Sunday game time. There will be three weekday afternoon games: Wednesday, June 17 at 1:05 p.m., Wednesday, July 15 at 1:05 p.m., and Tuesday, August 4 at 1:05 p.m. There are 10 Friday night fireworks and three additional Fireworks Super Shows. The Saints will host their traditional Memorial Weekend Super Show on Sunday, May 24 at 5:05 p.m. The other two Super Shows will come on the heels of Friday night fireworks. The first is part of an Independence Celebration weekend culminating with a Fireworks Super Show on Saturday, July 4 with a 6:05 p.m. game. The second will be a part of Fan Appreciation Weekend with the Fireworks Super Show on Saturday, August 29 with a game time at 6:05 p.m.
The American Association remain a 12-team league and will be comprised as follows: North: Saints, Chicago (IL) Dogs, Fargo-Moorhead (ND) RedHawks, Gary SouthShore (IN) RailCats, Milwaukee (WI) Milkmen, and Winnipeg (MB) Goldeyes. South: Cleburne (TX) Railroaders, Grand Prairie (TX) AirHogs, Kansas City (KS) T-Bones, Lincoln (NE) Saltdogs, Sioux City (IA) Explorers, and Sioux Falls (SD) Canaries.
The league made one minor schedule change as the season begins on a Tuesday this year giving teams two extra days off. Teams will once again play a 100-game schedule, but over 112 days instead of 110, with six teams in the North and six teams in the South Division. The Saints play each team in their division two series at home and two series on the road. They play one home series and one road series against each South Division team. The top two teams in each division will make the playoffs and face off in a best-of-five Division Series. The winner of each Division series will then face off in a best-of-five Championship Series.
The Saints will play a total of 63 games within their own division (31 home, 32 away), and 37 against the South (19 home, 18 away).
Group and specialty seating tickets will go on sale November 21st while single game tickets will go on sale in March. Season tickets are currently available for CHS Field. For more information contact the Saints ticket office at 651-644-6659 or visit saintsbaseball.com.
The entire 2020 schedule is below:
May August
19-21 vs. Lincoln 1-2 vs. Fargo-Moorhead
22-24 vs. Kansas City 3-6 vs. Milwaukee
25 OFF 7-9 vs. Gary SouthShore
26-28 @ Winnipeg 10 OFF
29-31 @ Fargo-Moorhead 11-13 @ Cleburne
14-16 @ Texas
June 17 OFF
1-3 @ Sioux Falls 18-20 @ Lincoln
4 OFF 21-23 vs. Cleburne
5-7 vs. Winnipeg 24 OFF
8 OFF 25-27 @ Fargo-Moorhead
9-11 @ Milwaukee 28-30 vs. Sioux Falls
12-14 @ Kansas City 31 OFF
15-18 vs. Sioux City
19-21 vs. Winnipeg September
22-24 @ Gary SouthShore 1-3 @ Gary SouthShore
25 OFF 4-7 @ Milwaukee
26-28 vs. Fargo-Moorhead
29-30 @ Chicago
July
1 @ Chicago
2 OFF
3-5 vs. Texas
6-9 vs. Chicago
10-13 @ Winnipeg
14-16 vs. Gary SouthShore
17-19 vs. Milwaukee
20-21 ALL-STAR BREAK
22-23 vs. Chicago
24-26 @ Sioux City
27-29 @ Chicago
30 OFF
31 vs. Fargo-Moorhead
By Sean Aronson, St. Paul Saints
