St. Paul Saints show new definition of a successful season amid pandemic

The long, strange trip that was the 2020 season ended Thursday night for the St. Paul Saints, not with the successful defense of their American Association championship but still with a sense of accomplishment.

The independent minor league baseball team finished its truncated, 60-game season with a loss to the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks in front of 1,500 at CHS Field — a crowd that qualified as a sellout in these coronavirus-impacted times.

By losing the finale of 21 games at CHS Field since the start of August — following a month spent as a home team away from home in Sioux Falls — the Saints finished with a 30-30 record, missing the two-team league playoffs by two games.

The biggest triumph for the organization, however, came largely by fouling off pitch after pitch after pitch against the Mariano Rivera-like dominance that is the COVID-19 global pandemic. The Saints, plus the five other teams from the 12-team American Association playing this summer, got through the regular season with no major outbreaks.

"It went as smoothly as any of us could have expected," said Derek Sharrer, Saints executive vice president and general manager. "There are so many different areas of concern we're dealing with in a pandemic like this."

Before the season, Saints players were instructed to not let the virus take the jersey off their backs — in other words, lie low and don't do something that gets you infected. Players were tested each Monday, and Sharrer said the Saints had no one with a positive PCR test, a swab exam that determines whether someone has a COVID-19 infection. One player had a positive antibody test, a blood exam that determines if the person had the virus in the past and has developed antibodies to fight the virus. That player and his roommate immediately were quarantined.

"They did a good job with it," manager George Tsamis said of his players, adding, "there were times you had to remind them to keep their masks on."

Sharrer was pleased by the low number.

"There's an enormous sense of pride to have accomplished the completion of a season in front of fans," he said. " … To have only three [positive tests] out of upward of 30,00 people, we feel very positive about that."

The Saints could have played the entire season in St. Paul, but because of early state restrictions on the size of crowds at outdoor events, it was more financially feasible for the team to relocate temporarily to Sioux Falls, S.D., where they were hubmates with the Canaries, and received revenue-sharing funds from the league. Another hub was in Fargo, N.D., where the RedHawks took in the Winnipeg Goldeyes.

"We couldn't bubble like the major league sports did, but what our process really evolved into was a traveling bubble," Sharrer said. "Within that traveling bubble, our players stayed with each other. They took it very seriously."

Still, Sharrer wanted the team to return home as soon as possible, and he worked with the state health department and Gov. Tim Walz's StaySafeMN task force on opening the Lowertown ballpark to more fans.

The players were happy to get home, but their time in Sioux Falls served a purpose, too.

"You definitely build some friendships through adversity, and that was the situation for us," said righthander Mike Devine, the American Association's pitcher of the year. "To be playing home games in another city was tough to start. We all got through it."

The temptation to sample the nightlife on the road — as young, male athletes have been known to do — didn't become a major factor, Devine indicated.

"We have a lot of guys who have girlfriends or wives," he said. "As far as [not] going out, it was easy for a lot of us."

Though the Saints won't be in the postseason — regular-season champ Milwaukee faces Sioux Falls for the title — they do exit with vivid memories, good and bad, from a season like no other.

Added Tsamis: "It was a challenge, but you know what? You get through tough times."