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 St. Paul Saints

Saints game with Sioux Falls rained out

July 3, 2004 - Northern League (NL)
St. Paul Saints News Release


ST. PAUL, MN – The St. Paul Saints game with Fargo-Moorhead scheduled for tonight at Midway Stadium has been postponed due to rain and wet grounds.

The teams will play a doubleheader on Sunday, July 4 beginning at 12:05 p.m. As per Northern League rule, there will be two seven-inning contests with approximately 25 minutes between games.

Fans with tickets for the July 3 game can exchange them for tickets of equal value to another regular season game. The fireworks show that was scheduled to take place after the game was also postponed and could be re-scheduled for a future date.

St. Paul ticket manager Ryan Wiese said that several good seats remain for Sunday’s doubleheader. The ticket office will open at 9:00 a.m. and gates will open at 11:00 a.m. Only tickets marked July 4 will be honored at Midway Stadium Monday.

St. Paul, winners of six in row and a season high 11 games over .500 at 25-14, will pitch a pair of righthanders Mike Meyer (4-2) and Jason Verdugo (1-2) and in the doubleheader. The Canaries will counter with righthanders Mike Lyons (2-3) in the opener and Brad Foss (0-0, 1.80 in the nightcap.

KSTC-TV (channel 45) will televise the opener with Comcast Cable airing the nightcap. Both games can be heard on KSNB-AM (950).

The Saints some more mound help when they signed veteran righthanded pitcher Ray Young. The 40-year old Tempe, AZ resident has pitched in 221 games in a career, including 75 at the AAA level in career that spanned from 1984-2000.

To make room for Young, St. Paul placed IF Tim Merritt on the 7-Day Disabled List retroactive to June 29. Merritt pulled a quad muscle chasing a pop foul.

“I don’t care how old he is. The man looks like he can pitch,” said Saints’ manager George Tsamis. “We need help in the bullpen and we have a veteran’s spot open.”

Young, who was once a spring training teammate of Saints’ pitching coach Ben Fleetham, broke into pro ball as a free agent in the Dodgers’ system in 1984. He has also pitched in the minor league systems of Toronto, Oakland, San Diego, Florida, Cleveland and Baltimore. In 1990, he led the Pacific Coast League in strikeouts (137) and was second in wins (14) while with Tacoma. In his 221-game career, he has a 60-56 won-loss mark and a 4.62 ERA with 831 strikeouts in 925 career innings. He last pitched professionally in the Mexican League in 2000.

Young called the Saints for a tryout and arranged for his own transportation. After looking at him, Tsamis, a former major league pitcher signed him but said this was no sympathy move. “He’s got some nasty-looking stuff,” Tsamis, 37, said. “It will be interesting to see what he does in a game.”


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Northern League Stories from July 3, 2004


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