Dateline: St. Paul

The Northern Battery has ventured cross border deep into Saints territory for the American Association's All-Star Game at the fabulous CHS Field. The Goldeyes own David Rohm and Willie Cabrera will be representing the Northern Front on Tuesday night. Home run derby/Soul Asylum concert tomorrow night to start things off, should be a fun couple days of baseball, hot dogs and rocking in the free world!

Rohm has been as solid as they come for The Fish, while Cabrera was a fantastic mid-season addition from the Joplin Blasters. The latter Goldeye comes in as a replacement for the injured Angelo Songco, who was originally selected from the Saints. Still kind of surprising to see only two Goldeyes selected for the game, but it's a well-deserved honour for these two gentlemen. Looking forward to getting some great shots at CHS!

Storm weather

After beating the Saints twice in as many days, Game 3 was set for July 20. Duke Von Schamann was on the mound for the Fish while the formidable Mark Hamburger (undefeated this season) was in for the Saints. Mother nature had other ideas, however, as the killer humidity hit a cold front and the clouds starting swirling in the sky over Shaw Park. The players, who were sent to their dugouts because of the lightening, stuck around to watch the crazy cloud formations. I stuck around and watched along with them; Jacob Rogers pointed out a funnel cloud spiralling down towards St. Boniface, just behind the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. It lasted less than a minute, making it halfway to the ground before it pulled apart again. I was glad my old neighbourhood was spared the damage! Other parts of town weren't so lucky. Game was called with St. Paul up 3-0 in an 1.5 innings. We'll finish the game off Aug. 15!

Abercrombie breaks AA's all-time home run record

It was only a matter of time, and tonight (July 14) Reggie Abercrombie tied and broke the American Association's all-time home run record with his 87 and 88th shots over the wall. The homers helped The Fish to a 6-4 victory over a decimated Sioux City Explorers squad. Coming off a 17-3 loss the previous evening, the Xs made a game of it with two pitchers in their batting rotation (Rob Wort and Jake Kuebler).

Socks Up for Kids

Goldeye Great Max Poulin was at the July 3 game vs. Sioux Falls for a very special reason: to support Beyond Borders and their efforts to combat child exploitation. Both the Goldeyes and the Canaries wore their socks up for the game, and even took a rare break during the 7th inning for a mid-field photo. Great cause aside, I love the look of the high socks; Gary-Southshore wear it team-wide for each game and it looks very sharp. Maybe I'm old school but I love it. Pictured here are: Pitcher Shawn Blackwell and the Canaries; Adam Heisler, who returns after two-weeks on the injured reserve with his name still in the AA's top 10 batting leaders; Canaries' David Bergin; and the giant Goldeyes/Canaries group shot with Max Poulin.

Blake Schmit, Sioux Falls Canaries

(Photographed July 1-3, 2016 at Shaw Park, Winnipeg) Schmit is currently sitting at #2 in the American Association's league-leading batters, right behind Winnipeg's own David Rohm.