Here is a story for baseball fans from the “Minneapolis Police 150th Anniversary” book published by Acclaim Press (currently out of print).
It was almost as if the cops themselves wrote the Star Tribune headline on July 14th, 2014. The words jumped off the paper: “Cops are a big hit with All- Star baseball fans in downtown Minneapolis.”
It was validation for the team of more than 30 officers working the command center in the shadows of Target Field. They were faced with the daunting task of welcoming thousands of visitors to the city, which included world-class ballplayers and entertainers in town to take in the festivities. Officers and deputies from more than 20 different agencies came in to help out by patrolling downtown on foot.
“Our cops, and officers from other agencies, were very visible. Our residents and visitors could see we were out in full force,” Assistant Chief Matt Clark said. Clark and dozens of other officers had been planning for this event for months.
“Every street corner, people were asking us, if they didn’t understand (where to go) we escorted them with our bikes,” Rich Sheldon, a BRRT Sergeant at the time, recalled.
Inside the stadium, Sergeant Jeff Waite led the teams securing the Home Run Derby and the All Star game. There were eight cops on the field and an- other 40 securing gates and walking the concourses. Waite made sure all officers assigned to the stadium’s interior had a chance to spend some time on the field.
“It was basically a Twin game on steroids,” he remembered. “They had a rain delay during the Home Run Derby for an hour and nobody complained. They probably sold a half a million dollars-worth of beer at that time.”
On the field, the Major League All-Stars were fist-bumping the cops and the fans were singing their praise. “People would come in and say ‘man, there are cops everywhere.’ I remember a lot of people coming up and saying we really appreciate you guys being out here and making sure we’re safe,” Sgt. Waite concluded.