Lexington Park
Encyclopedia
Minor league baseball
Minor league baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball and provide opportunities for player development. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses...
park in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was the home of the St. Paul Saints
St. Paul Saints
The St. Paul Saints are a professional baseball team based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in the United States. The Saints are a member of the North Division of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball...
from 1897 through 1956, when it was replaced by the first version of Midway Stadium
Midway Stadium
Midway Stadium is the name of two different minor league baseball parks in Saint Paul, Minnesota, one now demolished and the other still in active use. The name derives from the location of the stadium in St. Paul's Midway area, so named because it's roughly halfway between the downtowns of...
.
Lexington Park was commissioned by baseball owner Charlie Comiskey
Charles Comiskey
Charles Albert "The Old Roman" Comiskey was a Major League Baseball player, manager and team owner. He was a key person in the formation of the American League and later owned the Chicago White Sox...
to serve as home for his St. Paul Saints
St. Paul Saints
The St. Paul Saints are a professional baseball team based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in the United States. The Saints are a member of the North Division of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball...
Western League
Western League (U.S. baseball)
The Western League of Professional Baseball Clubs, simply called the Western League, was a minor league baseball league originally founded on February 11, 1885, and focused in the Midwest....
baseball franchise. In late 1899 the league changed its name to the American League
American League
The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or simply the American League , is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league based in the Great Lakes states, which eventually aspired to major...
in an ultimately successful bid to gain major league
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
status. While the Saints
St. Paul Saints
The St. Paul Saints are a professional baseball team based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in the United States. The Saints are a member of the North Division of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball...
were initially a member of that league, Comiskey moved his team to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
prior to Opening Day
Opening Day
Opening Day is the day on which professional baseball leagues begin their regular season. For Major League Baseball and most of the minor leagues, this day falls during the first week of April. For baseball fans, Opening Day serves as a symbol of rebirth; writer Thomas Boswell once penned a book...
1900 (where they still exist today as the Chicago White Sox
Chicago White Sox
The Chicago White Sox are a Major League Baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois.The White Sox play in the American League's Central Division. Since , the White Sox have played in U.S. Cellular Field, which was originally called New Comiskey Park and nicknamed The Cell by local fans...
). As such, the ballpark holds at least the technical distinction of being the original home to a current American League
American League
The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or simply the American League , is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league based in the Great Lakes states, which eventually aspired to major...
franchise -- even if, admittedly, the league wasn't major at the time, and not a single major league game was ever played there.
Comiskey continued to own the ballpark for another decade or so (leasing it out to a replacement American Association
American Association (20th century)
The American Association was a minor league baseball league at the Triple-A level of baseball in the United States from to and to . Together with the International League, it contested the Junior World Series which determined the championship team in minor league baseball, at least for the...
club), until finally selling it to local interests in 1909.
It was on the block bounded by Lexington Parkway, University Avenue, Fuller and Dunlap. Home plate was originally in the southwest corner of the block. Following a fire in 1915, a steel and concrete grandstand was built with the plate repositioned to the northwest corner. Lights were installed in 1937.
The 6-decades-old ballpark did not quite go out in a wave of euphoria the way its Twin Cities cousin Nicollet Park
Nicollet Park
Nicollet Park is a former baseball ground located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The ground was home to the minor league Minneapolis Millers of the Western League and later American Association from 1896 to 1955. During its first season it was officially known as Wright Field name for...
did, but the Saints did manage to defeat the arch-rival Minneapolis Millers
Minneapolis Millers
The Minneapolis Millers were an American professional minor league baseball team that played in Minneapolis, Minnesota, until 1960. In the 19th century a different Minneapolis Millers were part of the Western League.The team played first in Athletic Park and later Nicollet Park.The name Minneapolis...
in the final game.
Although demolished in the 1950s, elements of the park remain in existence to this day. A significant segment of the southwestern foundation can still be seen by the knowledgeable observer, and as late as the 1990s a grocery store on the site (since demolished) preserved the location of Lexington's home plate with a distinctively-shaped commemorative floor tile.
The area is currently being redeveloped. An Aldi
ALDI
ALDI Einkauf GmbH & Co. oHG, doing business as ', short for "Albrecht Discount", is a discount supermarket chain based in Germany...
grocery store is one of the most recent additions to the site. According to Stew Thornley's 2006 book, a plaque that had once been affixed to the grocery store is now reinstated, at the TCF Bank branch building.