Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks
We return to the American Association for an independent game at Newman Outdoor Field between the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks and the visiting Kansas City Monarchs.
After a couple of hours of relaxing and regrouping back at the hotel, Dad and I set out for Newman Outdoor Field on the campus of North Dakota State University in Fargo, home of the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks of the independent American Association of Professional Baseball.
I dropped off Dad in front of the ballpark, then went to look for parking. We had a date with Devin Fry, a reporter with Fargo’s KVNL-TV (aka Valley News Live), for a pre-game interview about our road trip. As I pulled into a space, I checked my messages to connect with Devin and found another message from Ryan Bowlin of rival KVRR-TV in Fargo, who also wanted to meet with us at the ballpark for an interview.
I took a deep breath as I approached the front gate. It was going to be another busy night at the ballpark.
There was already plenty happening at Newman Outdoor Field. It was First Responders Night with local police, firefighters, and other emergency personnel greeting fans on the concourse.
Minor league professional baseball first came to Fargo in 1902 with a monikerless Class D team playing in the Northern League. The Fargo Trolley-Dodgers played in the Northern Copper Country League in 1906, and the Fargo Browns returned to the Northern League for the 1908 season. The Fargo-Moorhead Graingrowers took root briefly from 1914 to 1917 and won two titles before disappearing. In 1922, the Class D Dakota League included the Fargo Athletics for a single short season.
The region’s biggest baseball boom began in 1933 with the introduction of the Fargo-Moorhead Twins, who represented their twin cities long before the Major League Minnesota Twins entered the scene. Fargo’s Twins also played in the Northern League and were affiliated with the Cleveland Indians (1934–1940, 1953–1957), Pittsburgh Pirates (1947-1948), and New York Yankees (1958-1960). The franchise won four league championships in that time, highlighted by a 1953 team that featured 18-year-old Roger Maris, who was named league Rookie of the Year.
The Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks began in 1996 as an expansion franchise in the new, independent Northern League. The club had tremendous success in the league, making it to the playoffs in 14 of 15 seasons, collecting five titles, setting a single-season record for winning percentage with a 64-21 (.753) mark in 1998, and winning a record 68 games in 2005. Baseball America named the RedHawks the Independent Team of the Decade for the 1990s.
Following the 2010 season, Fargo-Moorhead and three other teams left the Northern League for the American Association, and the Northern League soon folded. The RedHawks have since claimed one more league title in 2022, which earned them the right to compete in the inaugural Baseball Champions League Americas tournament in 2023 — held in Mérida, Mexico — against teams from Cuba, Mexico, and Colombia. Fargo-Moorhead took the crown, beating Caimanes de Barranquilla of Colombia in the championship game, 8-0.
The RedHawks have featured about 50 players over the years who have spent time in the major leagues or who were international baseball stars, including Ozzie Canseco, Mike Busch, Enrique Cruz, and Édgar García. In addition to Maris and Jackie Robinson, Newman Outdoor Field displays the retired numbers of Jeff Bittinger, a pitcher and longtime coach; outfielder Joe Mathis, who hit .299 in nine seasons of independent ball; pitcher Jake Laber, who holds the franchise record for wins and innings pitched; and Doug Simunic, who holds the RedHawks record for wins as a manager.
Opened in 1996, Newman Outdoor Field has a seating capacity of 4,517. The RedHawks averaged 3,064 fans per game in 2025, sixth-best in the 12-team American Association.
The press box behind home plate features a tribute to Scott Miller, the voice of the RedHawks for 10 seasons and known for his signature call of “My Oh My.” Miller, who also called football and basketball games for the North Dakota State Bisons, died in 2016 after a battle with cancer.
Dad and I enjoyed our interview with Devin, who came prepared with some great questions. You can see his story here.
Our daily trip to a team store had been delayed but would not be denied.
Fargo-Moorhead hews closely to its red, black, and white primary branding, but the shop nevertheless has plentiful purchasing options. I had a good look at the hats and set aside my Tilley hat to try one on. That would be the last time I saw that Tilley hat for a couple of weeks.
Merch acquired, Dad went to our seats while I chatted with Ryan of KVRR-TV about our road trips together. You can see his story here.
The RedHawks wore special jerseys in honor of First Responders Night, with navy blue replacing black in the standard color scheme.
They would be taking on the Kansas City Monarchs, who we had seen in Game 1 of our road trip in Kansas. It would be a preview of a first-round playoff matchup in September won by the RedHawks, who went on to lose the division championship series to the Sioux Falls Canaries.
Pre-game activities included a swearing-in ceremony for new recruits to the Fargo Police Department, a first pitch from the Fargo police chief, and the unveiling of a huge American flag carried by first responders and community members for the national anthem.
It was time for baseball. Right-hander Colten Davis took the mound for the RedHawks and hit the first batter he faced. Davis, who was in his third season with the RedHawks and has also played in Australia and Mexico, then gave up three singles before getting out of the first inning. The Monarchs took a 2-0 lead.
Fargo-Moorhead bounced back with a run in the bottom half on a single and an error to make it 2-1 Kansas City. Dad and I looked on as both Fargo reporters filmed us simultaneously from different angles for their stories — an odd sensation, to say the least.
I scouted our dinner options in the second inning. I saw bratwursts, footlongs, pulled pork sandwiches, chili cheese dogs, and even grinders.
But we had already consumed a lot of barbecue and sausages on the trip and wanted something a little different. We settled on the Taco Shop, where Dad got a trio of soft-shell tacos, while I had a Baja Burrito with chicken, cheese, chipotle, onions, lettuce, tomato, and pineapple, paired with an Ectogasm IPA from Fargo’s Drekker Brewery.
The first responders participated in many of the bits of between-innings fun, which included a t-shirt cannon, a relay race in which kids had to put on pieces of a police officer’s uniform, a man chipping baseballs into a bucket, and a recycling relay with contestants quickly deciding whether to put items in the trash or recycling containers. (Watch the episode!)
Police officers also tossed squishy baseballs into the crowd, and Dad caught one. He then turned to my camera and, despite having just eaten three tacos, proved that he is 100% ham.
It was a little less fun during the innings for fans of the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks. Kansas City picked up two more runs on four hits in the top of the second. Fargo then made it 4-3 on a two-run bomb from third baseman Brendon Dadson. The Oshawa, Ontario, native was playing for his fifth independent team in five years and would struggle for much of the season, hitting a career-low .227.
Monarchs first baseman Jhailyn Ortiz returned the favor in the fourth with a two-run shot of his own, and Kansas City added another run in the fifth to make it 7-3.
RedHawks mascot Hawkeye worked the crowd to help keep fans in the game in the late innings.
While I snapped shots of the final frames, an usher took a photo of me at work and texted it to me — a very cool gesture.
After five scoreless innings, the RedHawks kicked off a rally in the bottom of the ninth with a double and a hit batter, but they could only manage to bring home a single run. The Monarchs took the game, 7-4.
We began our drive out of the ballpark, winding past the enormous greenhouses of North Dakota State University and onto the freeway. That’s when it dawned on me that, once again — for the second time on this trip and the third time in two years — I had left my Tilley hat at the team store. My psyche flipped a switch from exhaustion and satisfaction to adrenaline and stress. The hat is one of my prized possessions, accompanying me on travel journeys to three continents. I had to get it back.
I cursed my repeated stupidity and carelessness as we turned back to the ballpark. I simply could not believe I had done it again, after feeling the same stress, then a wave of relief, when I lost and found the hat just eight days earlier in Kansas City.
I stomped on the gas and returned to North Dakota State, coming to a quick stop at Newman outdoor Field — not too quick, of course, with so many first responders still about. I jogged back into the ballpark and made my way upstairs to the team store. I found a staffer just leaving and explained my predicament. He went inside, looked around, and returned empty-handed. Wild-eyed and despondent, I did not think clearly enough to do what I should have done: ask to look through the store myself. Because, as it turned out, the hat was still there.
I left my phone number and returned, dejected, to our rental car for a gloomy ride back to our hotel.