St. Cloud  Minnesota Saturday, August 28, 2010 @ 7:05

Minnesota Twins Alumni Game at Joe Farber Field in St. Cloud MN on August 28th - Home of the River Bats.

We love Baseball in Saint Cloud MN! Our city is home to the Minnesota Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame located in the St. Cloud Civic Center and we have a lot of local baseball fields, from the 2 stadiums at the St. Cloud Municipal Athletic Center to the over 10 baseball diamonds at Whitney Park and Recreation Center. If you love baseball Saint Cloud Minnesota is a great place for you to call home.

Our local baseball team the Saint Cloud River Bats is part of the Northwoods League whose motto is Get ready for the show. We have the pleasure to watch our River Batsplay against teams such as the Alexandria Beetles, Brainerd Lakes Area Lunkers, Duluth Huskies, Mankato MoonDogs, Rochester Honkers, Thunder Bay Border Cats and the Willmar Stingers. This year the Saint Cloud River Bats are finishing off the season with a game against the Minnesota Twins in this Saturday's, August 28th, Minnesota Twins Alumni Game.

The Minnesota Twins Alumni Game is a college ID night so bring you college id and get half off admission. This game finishes off their season a bang; getting to play Minnesota Twins Alumni, the post game fireworks finale and a big promotional giveaway from Saint Cloud Subaru, your chance to win a new car. The game will be a lot of fun and with ticket prices starting for general admission at only $6 it is a fantastic deal for all. See you at the Game!

The Saint Cloud Municipal Athletic Complex or MAC is home to 2 ice arenas, 2 baseball stadiums, and an executive par 30 public golf course. It was built in 1972 and has undergone 2 major renovations, one in 1993 and one in 2008, since it first opened it's doors to the public in central Minnesota. 

Located next door to the Saint Cloud Veterans Administration Medical Center, the Municipal Athletic Center is also home to the Minnesota Veterans Plaza. The two St Cloud landmarks are well connected as the par 30 public golf course, Veterans Golf Course, land is being leased to the city by the Saint Cloud VAMC. Since the city took over the golf course in 1990 they have made great efforts to improve the course and have turned it into a great place to spend the afternoon with friends and sink a putt or 2.

The St Cloud Municipal Athletic Complex is busy year round. The 2 baseball stadiums, Dick Putz field and Joe Faber field, remain busy and are host to over 400 games between the 2 of them each season. The MAC is home to the St. Cloud Riverbats, our local team from the collegiate "wooden bat" Northwoods League, who average about 32 games per year. With the 2 baseball stadiums only about 100 feet apart the Saint Cloud Municipal Athletic Complex is the perfect place for tournaments and playoff games.

The ice arenas at MAC are kept busy too, hosting multiple teams throughout the area. Currently the arenas are home to 5 different (2 girls and 3 boys) high school hockey teams, the St. Cloud Youth Hockey Association, the St. Cloud Figure Skating Club and several hockey leagues.

The Athletic Complex has even been used for Rallies and for Public Speaking events. In 2004 President George W. Bush came to St. Cloud MN. A campaign rally was held at Dick Putz Field and I stood in left field without my baseball glove, but I did have my video camera. Whether the President of the United States of America is Democrat or Republican or Independent: if he, or at some point she, comes to town I am going to go. It is a little bit of history, and I was there at the Saint Cloud Municipal Athletic Complex.    

U.S. Air Force Heartland of America Band The Noteables

On Friday, August 20, 2010 at 7:00 P.M. at the St. Cloud VA Medical Center Grounds Adjacent to Building 96 for a FREE outdoor concert by The Noteables.

The USAF Heartland of America Band is presenting The Noteables, described as the squadron's "little Big Band". Most notably, The Noteables have performed with Bob Hope, jazz trumpeter Bobby Shew, composer Frank Mantooth, Doc Severinsen, Lee Greenwood and Wycliffe Gordon. The Noteables are sure to please all ages with their dynamic repertoire filled with specially selected standards, Jazz, Big Band classics and many all round favorites.

So bring a lawn chair as there will be limited seating available and enjoy great music on the beautiful grounds of the St. Cloud VA Medical Center, no tickets are required for this free concert.

In August of 1965 my family moved into a new home on the corner 37th Ave and 12th St N, at the very edge of the city of St Cloud MN. Across the dirt street was a high fence topped with barbed wire that marked the border of the Veterans Administration property and enclosed several acres of cow pasture and farm buildings.

The fence was meant to keep people like my brothers and I from getting on the property. It had the opposite effect. Coming from northern Minnesota we naturally had problems adapting to this "big city". We explored the woods and fields, and especially the Sauk River which bounds the property on the north and west sides. Eventually we found the PX (Post Exchange) with tax free "stuff".

Today in St Cloud, the street that accesses the main enterance to the campus is called Veterans Drive (8th Street North). The grounds are more beautiful than ever, and the VA turned over their 9 hole golf course to the St Cloud City Parks Department, which they improved and now operate as a profitable and popular asset to the St Cloud community. During the holiday season they assemble a fabulous lighting display on the campus' main roads. The cow pasture now  has a 4 lane highway, a park, MN DOT, an office building, and Apollo High School.

The St Cloud Veterans Medical Center is one of the areas larger employers and serves a great number of our nations Veterans and their families. From mental health and chemical dependence, to chronic illness, to old age they take care of our heros who served this great country. The people who work at the St Cloud VAMC are great people who do a wonderful job. I know.

My dad was a World War II veteran who served in the Navy Seabees. They built airstrips in the south Pacific. After the war, dad went to school, got married, had kids and worked. As dad got older and needed help, the VA was there for him, literally. They were practically neighbors and the St Cloud VA did not let him down. Eventually dad needed 24 hour care which they provided. During dad's stay at the St Cloud VA I got to re-explore the Veterans Administration grounds from the personal and beurocratic side of things. The Medical Center staff does a great job with too few people and the Veterans don't get enough visits from family and friends.

St Cloud Veterans Administration Medical Center - another wonderful reason to love St Cloud MN is post number 13 in my series wonderful reasons to live in St Cloud MN. As you can see this one has a very personal tie to me, the facility is a beautiful place because of the grounds and mostly because of what they do. So here is an idea for all of us, you may not be able to visit the St Cloud Veterans Administration Medical Center but I know there is a similar faciltiy near where you live. Gather your office or friends and go visit the patients. If someone can play the violin, great, if not you can always talk or play games or read to the Veterans.