Siebert Field is a

baseball park A ballpark, or baseball park, is a type of sports venue where baseball is played. The playing field is divided into the infield, an area whose dimensions are rigidly defined, and the outfield, where dimensions can vary widely from place to pla ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with list of lakes in Minneapolis, thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minne ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. It is the home venue for the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

Golden Gophers of the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conferen ...

, and is named in honor of

Dick Siebert Richard Walther Siebert (February 19, 1912 – December 9, 1978) was an American first baseman in Major League Baseball who had an 11-year career from 1932, 1936–1945. He played for the Brooklyn Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals, both of the ...

, a former head coach who led the Gophers to three national titles. From 1971 to 1978, the venue was known as Bierman Field in honor of

Bernie Bierman Bernard W. Bierman (March 11, 1894 – March 7, 1977) was an American football player and coach of football and basketball. He coached from 1919 to 1950 except for a span during World War II when he served in the U.S. armed forces. Bierman was t ...

History

In 1971, Siebert Field was built to replace the university's former baseball venue, Delta Field, which was located beyond the left field fence of the present facility. Siebert Field, which featured natural grass and a capacity of 1,500, was constructed on a single large block near

Dinkytown Dinkytown is a commercial district within the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Centered at 14th Avenue Southeast and 4th Street Southeast, the district contains several city blocks occupied by various small businesses, restau ...

. The original facility was demolished in 2012 and replaced with a brand new ballpark at the same location. The new facility bears the same name as its predecessor.

Old Siebert Field

The Old Siebert Field hosted its first game on April 23, 1971 – a 2–1 Gopher victory over Creighton. At the time, the ballpark was considered one of the most modern in collegiate athletics, with an electronic scoreboard, automatic irrigation, and a state-of-the-art press box. In addition to serving as the Golden Gophers' primary home venue, the old Siebert Field occasionally hosted other events and teams, including numerous Minnesota State High School League baseball tournament games. In 1994–1995, Siebert Field was home to an independent professional team, the Minneapolis Loons, of the now-defunct North Central League. Three NCAA Regional tournaments were played there in

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of President of the United States, United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom K ...

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrati ...

, and

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, respectively, as well as six

Big Ten Conference baseball tournament The Big Ten baseball tournament is the conference championship tournament in baseball for the NCAA Division I Big Ten Conference. The winner of the tournament receives the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division I baseball tournament. H ...

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast As ...

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains independence from Indonesia and ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, disintegrated during reentry into Atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an 2002– ...

, and

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

. As the old Siebert Field aged, its infrastructure, particularly the grandstand, became dilapidated. As a result, the University of Minnesota men's baseball team, which had routinely played cold-weather games at the former

Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome (commonly called the Metrodome) was a domed sports stadium located in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. It opened in 1982 as a replacement for Metropolitan Stadium, the former home of the National Football League' ...

(an indoor venue), began favoring the downtown-located Metrodome over Siebert as their primary home stadium. In 2004, the team played the majority of its home games at the Metrodome for the first time – a trend that continued until 2010, when all home games were played at the Metrodome (save for one which was played at nearby

Target Field Target Field is a baseball stadium in the historic warehouse district of downtown Minneapolis. Since its opening in 2010, the stadium has been the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Minnesota Twins. The stadium hosted the 2014 Major Leagu ...

). The 2011 schedule also called for the team's home games to be played at the Metrodome; however, the collapse of the Metrodome's roof and the subsequent heavy damage to the stadium forced the Gophers to move elsewhere. Games scheduled in March were moved to other cities or canceled. Twelve home games against

opponents were moved to Target Field, while three midweek non-conference games were played at Siebert Field. In 2012, the Gophers continued using the Metrodome as its primary home venue, save for one game at Target Field and one game at Siebert Field, the latter of which was held on May 1, and was the final game played at that facility – a 9–2 win over St. Thomas.

New Siebert Field

A groundbreaking was held at the new facility On June 11, 2012, after which the reconstruction project began, including the demolition of the old facility, building of the new grandstands and dugouts, and installation of the new playing surface and

Daktronics Daktronics is an American company based in Brookings, South Dakota that designs, manufactures, sells, and services video displays, scoreboards, digital billboards, dynamic message signs, sound systems, and related products. Founded in 1968 by ...

scoreboard. The new Siebert Field hosted its first game on April 5, 2013, which the Gophers won 7–0 over

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

. Additional upgrades to the new facility are ongoing. Lights were installed prior to the 2014 season, and its first night game was played on April 25. Prospective upgrades, including construction of an indoor training facility, upgraded home and visitor locker rooms, new offices, an umpires’ locker room, and a canopy, have no timetable for completion.

Location

Siebert Field is located at the intersection of 15th Avenue SE and 8th Street SE in Minneapolis. The block is bounded by 15th Avenue SE and railroad tracks to the northwest and north; 8th Street SE, to the northeast; 5th Street SE, to the southwest; and railroad tracks to the south and southeast. The field itself is set back from 15th Avenue, with a football practice field in between. The facility is adjacent to other University athletic facilities including track-and-field, football, softball, and indoor sports venues. The diamond has an unorthodox southeastern alignment (home plate to center field); the recommended orientation is The

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § ...

of the field is approximately above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...

References

External links