ST. PAUL - GAME RECAP

We saw the Saints take on the Duluth-Superior Dukes in an exhibition game. I hope that the Dukes managed to get some new pitchers in time for the regular season because they were awful in this game, giving up 25 hits and 19 runs as the Saints romped 19-2. Yuji Nerei, the first Japanese position player to play pro ball in the U.S. (he was a member of the Montreal Expos farm system in 2000), went 5-5 with 4 RBI which made us very happy - Nerei had actually contacted us after finding our website and invited us to a game. 

Nerei takes a pitch

Unfortunately the game was over early as Duluth's middle relief was horrid, but thankfully Midway Stadium offers a lot of entertainment to keep fans occupied.

An interesting situation at the end of the game: Tomohiro Honda, a Japanese pitcher who had been signed by the Saints two days before, needed a drive back to his hotel and the team translator asked us to help out. So we actually drove him back to his hotel - only in the independent leagues I guess!

Honda, Sean, Aya, and Nerei after the game