Midway Stadium

[hofflalu]

I'm having trouble finding photos of the original Midway Stadium in St. Paul, home of the St. Paul Saints AAA team until 1960, then used as a practice field by the Vikings until its demolition in 1981. In case you're wondering, the current Midway Stadium (used by the current St. Paul Saints) was built in 1982 about a mile to the west of the original Midway. Considering the first Midway Stadium was designed to be expanded for major league use prior to the Twins' arrival from Washington, I'm curious what this stadium looked like to imagine how it could have been expanded if a team had gone there instead of to Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington.

[oldstuffer]

hofflalu

Here are three aerial views of Midway Stadium where the St. Paul Saints played from 1957 to 1960. They are from the Minnesota Historical Society's visual resources database, with a link to the search result that produced these images:
http://tinyurl.com/2e9k6mf

It was built to be expanded, both by adding a second deck and by extending the stands down both lines, but it's location may have been its biggest obstacle. Parking and traffic would have been horrendous, as anyone who has traveled to the nearby Minnesota State Fair can attest.

midway1..jpgmidway2..jpgmidway3..jpg

[cgcoyne2]

Not too shabby!!!! I sort of like it.

[NYFan1stYankFan2nd]

hofflalu

Here are three aerial views of Midway Stadium where the St. Paul Saints played from 1957 to 1960. They are from the Minnesota Historical Society's visual resources database, with a link to the search result that produced these images:
http://tinyurl.com/2e9k6mf


It was built to be expanded, both by adding a second deck and by extending the stands down both lines, but it's location may have been its biggest obstacle. Parking and traffic would have been horrendous, as anyone who has traveled to the nearby Minnesota State Fair can attest.

midway1..jpgmidway2..jpgmidway3..jpg

That's sort of how OYS/RYS *could* look by now, had common sense and a few persistent NY baseball fans & B-F members prevailed.

[hofflalu]

oldstuffer, thanks for the photos!

I got my copy of The Sporting News' "Take Me Out To The Ballpark" in the mail today (the first ballpark book I remember reading in the stores some two decades ago), and found another Midway Stadium photo. Here's the scan from the book:

[hofflalu]

Reading through the Metropolitan Stadium thread and the recently-posted photos of a 1981 Twins game, I noticed on the Flickr account of the person who originally uploaded those photos was a picture of the demolition of the original Midway Stadium, from July, 1981. From snaebyllej2's Flickr account:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/snaebyl...7624414756875/

[jrh31584]

I would guess that if it were expanded for major league use, it would end up resembling County Stadium.

[Arlington Stadium Child]

It looks like a pudgey little brother of Jarry Park in Montreal.