Baseball hall of famer Dave Winfield, center, smiles during his legacy celebration at Toni Stone Stadium in St. Paul on Saturday, July 19, 2025. (Bennett Moger / Pioneer Press)

Dozens of baseball fans and community members flocked to Toni Stone Field on Saturday to honor baseball great Dave Winfield, the former St. Paul playground legend who became a major league hall of famer.

During a ceremony recognizing Winfield’s athletic and philanthropic successes, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter announced that a statue of Winfield would be placed at the St. Paul baseball field in the spring to remind young athletes of their own potential for greatness.

Baseball hall of famer and St. Paul native Dave Winfield gives a speech during his legacy celebration at Toni Stone Stadium in St. Paul on Saturday, July 19, 2025. (Bennett Moger / Pioneer Press)

“St. Paul, all of you mean a great deal to me,” Dave Winfield said. “And I’m totally honored that you would think of putting up some permanent recognition to keep that legacy alive, to motivate other people after me and tell them, ‘Yeah, you can do it, too. Yeah, you come from St. Paul, Minnesota.’ It’s not where you’re from, it’s where you’re going. And to have that permanent statue and legacy … it’s one of the greatest honors of my life.”

A star pitcher and basketball player at the University of Minnesota, Winfield became one of baseball’s great right fielders over a 22-year career playing for San Diego, the New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays, Twins and, briefly, Cleveland. He was an all-star 12 times, and won seven Gold Glove Awards.

In addition to baseball’s Hall of Fame (2001), Winfield is a member of the Gophers and Central High School halls. He has written several books and articles on baseball, and his “Ask Dave” column ran in the Pioneer Press from 1993-94.

“This is a very powerful day,” said Anika Bowie, city council member representing Ward 1 in St. Paul. “And this neighborhood that raised legends continues to make history.”

The Winfield family, which includes Dave’s brother, Steve — a fixture in St. Paul amateur athletics as a player, coach and game official — is “Rondo Royalty,” Bowie said. “They represent the best of us. Rooted, resilient, and relentless in their beliefs, in our young people, in our families, and in investing in what has invested in us.”

“Their roots run deep here and their values reflect everything that his neighbors stands for — perseverance, leadership and love for a community,” she said. “They showed us what’s possible when talent meets opportunity and when family and neighborhoods walk beside you every step of that way.”

Winfield is more than just a “baseball icon,” she said. “He’s a Rondo kid … who turned grit into greatness, a young boy who sharpened his skills on the field and was lifted up by a community that believed in him. And now he gives back to that same community 10 times over.”

Along with the installation of the statue, Carter announced that the Toni Stone baseball field would be “renewed” and that a Hall of Fame plaza was going to be constructed at the location to honor Winfield and the other St. Paul hall of famers: Paul Molitor, Jack Morris and Joe Mauer. All four grew up at different times, but within miles of one another in the city.

Baseball hall of famers Dave Winfield, left, and Joe Mauer, right, congratulate each other during the Dave Winfield Legacy Celebration at Toni Stone Stadium in St. Paul on Saturday, July 19, 2025. A statue of each of them, in addition to two other St. Paul baseball legends, will be installed in the Dunning Sports Complex to celebrate the path they have paved for St. Paul baseball. (Bennett Moger / Pioneer Press)

“We’re in the presence of royalty today,” Carter noted, acknowledging the other recognizable members of the crowd, such as Mauer, longtime baseball coach Bill Peterson and former Vikings receiver — and King Boreas — Leo Lewis.

Growing up, Carter said, he and his friends said they knew that Winfield and Peterson were from their community and he remembered the day Winfield swung the bat and made his 3,000th hit.

“And that changes our perspective of where we can go from these spaces,” Carter said, noting that out of some 20,000 people who have played Major League Baseball, only 33 have had accumulated as many as 3,000 hits, including Molitor. “So, when we say that Dave Winfield is literally one of the best to ever do it, that is not hyperbole at all. That is just statistical facts.

“And the only thing better than coming from this community and going on to do great things is coming back to the community to do great things.”

From the early stages of his baseball career, Winfield has been invested in the community and neighborhood.

“They say, ‘Don’t forget where you came from,’ and we’re here to honor and celebrate someone who literally never forgot where he came from,” Carter said.

St. Paul Parks and Recreation Director Andy Rodriguez called Winfield a “hometown hero who represents the heart, soul and strength of” St. Paul.

“Baseball is woven into the history of St. Paul. It’s more than a game here. It’s part of our identity,” Rodriguez added. “St. Paul has always been a place where young people have found themselves through sports and recreation, and found community through teams. And no one embodies that story more than Dave Winfield.”

Winfield retired with 3,110 hits, the 3,000th hit as a member of the hometown Twins in 1993. The year before, he won the World Series with the Blue Jays.

“Even more inspiring is what he’s done beyond the field,” Rodriguez said. “He’s never forgotten where he came from. He’s invested in youth, in community, and in opportunity and in building programs that have lifted up thousands of young people across the country and especially here at home.”

In St. Paul, Rodriguez noted, all athletic programs for children are free “because we believe every kid deserves the chance to play, deserves the chance to grow and belong.”

Dave St. Peter, longtime president of the Minnesota Twins now working with them as a consultant, said that while Winfield was a “unique player,” his athletic prowess is only part of his legacy.

“Dave was active in the community before it was in vogue for players to be active in the community,” he said. “The Winfield Foundation had been established many, many years before he ever showed up in a Twins uniform. And in my role at the time, it was a blessing to (tell other players) … ‘Dave is the model, guys.’”

“I had a really wonderful blessed career with the Twins, and I got to do a lot of really cool things,” St. Peter said, “But one of the things I’m most proud of is working with Dave Winfield and championing his community activities.”

Carter said he went to college on a Winfield scholarship and that he is the parent of a student who was a scholarship recipient.

Dave Winfield, right, hugs his brother Steve Winfield, left, before giving his speech during the Dave Winfield Legacy Celebration at Toni Stone Stadium in St. Paul on Saturday, July 19, 2025. (Bennett Moger / Pioneer Press)

Steve Winfield also spoke at the ceremony, saying that when he and his brother were growing up, raised by a single mom without much money, they always tried to find an extra can of food or something to help when a new member of their baseball team showed up and didn’t have “much of anything.”

And his brother noted, Winfield went on to help others as one of the first professional athletes to start a foundation.

“Now, just about all the athletes get a contract and say, ‘OK, I’ll do this, I’ll do that,’” he said. “But David was doing it before it was a popular thing to do, so I think that’s a thing I’m most proud of.”

Playing sports is about more than just the sport, Carter said.

“You learn how to connect with teammates. You learn how to work hard through struggle. You learn how to take and receive coaching. You build relationships with your teammates, you build relationships with adults who care about you,” he said.

Winfield said he and older brother Steve were “very fortunate” to grow up in a community where sports and the park and recreation were important to the community. They loved baseball from a young age.

“We would play and we didn’t need nine guys and a coach and time for practice,” he said. “We’d get a rubber ball, a tennis ball — any kind of ball — and play off the steps, off the back of the church, in the street, in the alleys, anywhere. Baseball just really took ahold of us.”

Steve would fall asleep at night dreaming of making the best catch ever, Winfield said, while he would fall asleep thinking about how hard he wanted to hit a baseball.

“I wanted to hit the ball so hard that a guy would reach out and the ball would already be past him,” he said.

In a special article he wrote for the Pioneer Press on the occasion of Target Field hosting the All-Star Game in 2014, Winfield said he began playing baseball at age 8, and knew by the age of 12 that he wanted to play professionally.

“The skills and lessons I learned in St. Paul were the foundation of a career I could barely imagine as a youth,” he wrote.

More than anything, Winfield said Saturday, he wanted to thank “all the teachers, the coaching, the community members who poured something into me to help make me who I am.”

He said he had no idea that the future mayor of St. Paul would benefit from his foundation. “And all the outstanding things he’s done. I didn’t know. But it was always about giving back. It was just a natural thing for me.”

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Seven cameras that scan and record the license plates of every passing vehicle have been installed this year at intersections in Stillwater, and more are coming.

Stillwater Police Chief Brian Mueller said another 11 Flock Safety automatic license-plate readers are expected to be installed throughout the city by the end of the year.

A Flock Safety license-plate reader, which helps police track vehicles involved in crimes, mounted on a light pole at the intersection of Maryknoll Drive and 75th Street North in Stillwater. (Courtesy of Stillwater Police Department)

The solar-powered license-plate readers are meant to act as a deterrent to anyone considering committing a crime in the city, Mueller said; the readers will not be used for speed-limit enforcement.

In addition, 24 fixed surveillance cameras – 20 downtown and four in other parts of the city – will be installed soon. Four of those cameras and two Flock license-plate readers will be placed in the city-owned parking ramp downtown, he said.

In all, 24 cameras and 18 license-plate readers are expected to be deployed around the city, Mueller said.

The extra security measures are needed now that downtown Stillwater has become a major tourism destination, Mueller said.

“It’s an entertainment district,” Mueller said. “The tourism, the people who are in the bars and restaurants, people who are coming to events, that’s what’s happening downtown – and that’s a different policing model than like a mall in Woodbury or some other gathering place.”

People who go to other entertainment districts around the country – such as Nashville or New Orleans – fully expect to be on camera, Mueller said, and people visiting Stillwater should have the same expectation. “Hopefully, that is a deterrent moving forward,” he said.

Civil liberties concerns

But groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have raised concerns about automated license-plate readers, saying Flock and other mass-surveillance systems have severe privacy implications.

“The system is growing not just in numbers, but also in power and intrusiveness,” said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project in Washington, D.C. “Every customer of Flock that shares their data with other departments is contributing to a nationwide surveillance network of Orwellian proportions.”

Stanley also raised concerns about officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement accessing and using data collected by Flock Safety’s automated license-plate readers.

“It’s been an issue around the country where some of the more liberal communities that have decided as a policy matter not to cooperate with ICE are finding to their surprise that their police department is collecting a lot of information on the comings and goings of their residents, and that ICE is able to search that,” he said. “Once you create records of where people are going and at what time, it’s not always easy to control who’s accessing that and for what purposes.”

But Mueller said he expects the cameras to help solve crimes in Stillwater and elsewhere.

If an event occurs like the one that happened in Waukesha, Wis., in December 2021, when the driver of an SUV plowed into a crowd of people at the city’s annual Christmas parade, killing five and injuring 48 others, “we can pull up those cameras live time and start utilizing them in a command post,” Mueller said.

Cameras also would have been instrumental in helping police figure out what happened to George Musser in 2022, Mueller said. Musser, 20, of Stillwater, was seen leaving Brian’s Bar around 2:10 a.m. Christmas Eve. His body was found around 7 p.m. on Christmas Day about two miles from the bar in Baytown Township.

“I don’t know that with this camera system, we would have been able to save his life, but I do feel confident that with a more robust camera system, we would have been on his trail a little bit sooner,” Mueller said.

How it works

The Stillwater City Council last year approved spending $222,500 for the cameras and license-plate readers, installation and the first-year annual recurring cost for upkeep and maintenance. The annual upkeep cost will increase once the license-plate readers and cameras are installed in the parking ramp.

The city has received two grants – one for $27,000, the other for $21,000 – to help cover the cost. The grants are from Washington County Emergency Management, which utilizes the Urban Area Security Initiative, a federal grant program, to enhance its emergency-preparedness capabilities, Mueller said.

Here’s how the motion-activated Flock cameras work: They identify and take a snapshot of the critical details of a vehicle that passes by it. The cameras capture the make, vehicle type, color, license plate (full, partial or missing), and various vehicle features, including damage and after-market alterations.

The program alerts officers to stolen or wanted vehicles, stolen license plates and missing persons. It also can be used as an investigative tool to search for vehicles involved in criminal activity, Mueller said.

Police officers last week arrested someone who was driving through town who had a warrant out for his arrest, Mueller said. “That’s the end goal: We catch bad guys, utilizing this.”

According to data in Flock’s “transparency portal,” which is linked to the city’s website, the existing license-plate readers in Stillwater have detected 167,614 vehicles over the past 30 days. Using information from the cameras, officers conducted 26 vehicle searches in that period.

Law enforcement agencies that use Flock can connect with other Flock-equipped agencies around the country to locate suspects, said Stillwater police Capt. Hunter Julien, who is overseeing the implementation of the program.

“Basically, the huge benefit of having Flock is the access you get with other agencies nationwide,” Julien said. “For example, if someone commits whatever crime in Stillwater and flees the state or area in a vehicle, we can track that vehicle as it moves through the state or country if it passes other agencies’ Flock cameras. I can think of many times we could have used this in the past if we had this system for serious crimes.”

Once all the Flock cameras and license-plate readers are installed, a map of their exact locations will be published on the city’s website.

“We want this to be public. We want this to be transparent,” Mueller said. “We want the public to know where all of these cameras are. They’re not going to be hidden. We want to publicize that there are cameras downtown, so none of this is quiet or Big Brother or secret stuff happening. We want everyone to know that our intention is to make downtown a safe area to come visit and hang out in.”

The Flock transparency portal linked to in the city’s website spells out what is detected (license plates, vehicles) and what isn’t (facial recognition, people, gender, race).

“Data is used for law enforcement purposes only,” the portal states. “Data is owned by the Stillwater Police Department and is never sold to third parties.”

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Prohibited uses include immigration enforcement, traffic enforcement, harassment or intimidation, usage based solely on a protected class (i.e. race, sex, religion) and personal use, the portal states.

All data will be deleted from the system after 30 days unless it is being used in an active investigation, Julien said.

The cameras and license-plate readers are being installed on stoplights, city-owned light poles and special “Flock poles” erected to house a camera or license-plate reader. Police had hoped to have some of the cameras installed downtown before this weekend’s Lumberjack Days, the city’s popular summer music festival, but Flock officials were not able to schedule the installation on the city’s new LED streetlights in time, Julien said.

The cameras should be installed within the next few months, he said.

Other cities using cameras

Other communities in the area have installed or will be installing Flock Safety cameras, including Hudson, Wis., Forest Lake and Woodbury.

Woodbury has had license-plate readers installed in different commercial and shopping areas of the city for the past two years, said Cmdr. Tom Ehrenberg of the Woodbury Public Safety Department.

“We have 17 now, and we’ve had a ton of success with them,” he said. “They’re not in residential areas. They’re only checking the back side of the vehicle, not the front, so there is no concern for profiling individuals. It’s just the vehicle. It really is just to alert us to higher-level crimes like stolen vehicles and assaults.”

Eighteen Flock Safety license-plate readers have been installed in Hudson, mostly at entry points into the city and along main thoroughfares, including Vine Street and Crest View Drive, said Police Chief Geoff Willems. “They have been instrumental in solving crimes for us,” Willems said. “There are too many success stories to even remember. Those, coupled with our 16 traffic video cameras, have solved countless crimes.”

Forest Lake officials are in the process of having 13 license-plate readers installed throughout the city and three cameras installed in city parks, said Capt. Luke Hanegraaf of the Forest Lake Police Department. Final permits are being processed, and the readers and cameras should be up and running in August, he said.

Twelve Flock automatic license-plate readers will be installed in Cottage Grove by the end of the year. The exact locations are still being determined, said Phil Jents, a spokesman for the city.

Officials in St. Mary’s Point voted in 2022 to install four Flock license-plate readers, but then decided to cancel the order after receiving pushback from residents, said City Clerk/Administrator Cindie Reiter.

The ACLU’s Stanley said he is optimistic that communities will eventually reject the use of mass-surveillance technology like license-plate readers.

“I’m optimistic long term about privacy,” he said. “I think that people do, after a while, start to push back. It takes a long time for people to really become aware of new privacy intrusions. It takes a while for people to become aware of how it can affect them. The arc of history is long, but it bends towards privacy. I think what we’ve seen historically is that over time, people do eventually start to push back and to reclaim the freedom that they once had to not feel like they’re being watched every minute.”

New mobile barriers

Another Stillwater safety measure: Pitagone F18 Mobile Vehicle Barriers to be used at events like the World Snow Sculpting Championship, the Fourth of July and Lumberjack Days.

“We have a lot of events held in Lowell Park, and our whole goal is to separate vehicles from people. You know those don’t mix,” Mueller said. “We’re trying to build that barricade around where the people are versus where the vehicles are.”

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The 75 barriers, which are designed to stop or significantly slow down vehicles, will help protect people from any possible “directed, intentional terrorist attack or from someone who’s trying to do harm,” he said, but also from anyone who has a medical event behind the wheel or loses control of their vehicle.

“Tragic things happen,” he said. “It’s not just someone trying to kill people.”

The police department spent $200,000 on the new mobile vehicle barriers, Mueller said.

The bright red and yellow barriers won’t stop vehicles “dead in their tracks,” he said. “It’s going to roll under, hit the engine, basically the drive train, and make the vehicle inoperable. So it’s not immediate, but it’s going to stop you in short order versus just continuing on through people.”

Just in time for thousands of people to pour into St. Paul for the second day of the Minnesota Yacht Club Festival on Harriet Island, Metro Transit announced that the Green Line had reopened Saturday afternoon, nearly two days ahead of schedule.

“Good news! Green Line construction ended early and trains are now operating regularly from Minneapolis to downtown St. Paul. If you are headed to the Minnesota Yacht Club Festival this weekend, review all your transit options,” Metro Transit posted to its website around mid-day Saturday.

All 13 light rail stations in St. Paul went offline for track maintenance on the night of July 11, and were not officially scheduled to reopen until early Monday morning. The scheduling, which took St. Paul officials by surprise this month, drew some sharp words from St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter’s office to Metro Transit and the Metropolitan Council, the regional planning agency that oversees the transit authority.

The three-day music festival, which is expected to draw some 30,000 fans daily, opened Friday with Hozier, Sheryl Crow, Train and nine other bands, and continued Saturday with big name acts Weezer and Fall Out Boy. Green Day, Sublime, 311, The Beaches and others were scheduled to perform to a sold-out crowd on Sunday. This is the festival’s second year on Harriet Island.

Metro Transit has posted more transit information online at metrotransit.org.

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The Timberwolves’ Summer League season reached its conclusion in the consolation round Saturday in Las Vegas. Minnesota didn’t lose a game in pool play, but missed out on the semifinals thanks to point differential.

But there is plenty for Minnesota to dissect after a couple weeks of Summer League play, with much of the incoming information looking positive. Here are a few things to take away from Minnesota’s time in Las Vegas.

Not too much

Yes, it’s the antithesis of this entire article, which will dive into various aspects of the last two weeks and “what it means” for Minnesota’s future. But it’s more a sense of what it could mean. Because, in reality, it may mean very little.

Terrence Shannon Jr. will be discussed below. And he was dominant during his Summer League run for Minnesota. But he will also turn 25 years old at the end of the month, and dominating this level of competition can mean very little.

For instance, 22-year-old Jaylen Nowell dominated the 2022 Summer League for Minnesota four years ago. Bones Hyland was equally great that summer at the age of 20. Those summers weren’t exactly launch pads to NBA prominence.

It’s better to play well in Las Vegas than the alternative, but also worth noting all results should be consumed with a grain of salt.

Shannon shines

That said, Shannon was excellent for Minnesota, as expected. He scored with relative ease, was part of Minnesota’s overall harassing defense and just looked bigger, faster and stronger than his competition on a night to night basis. It was a continuation of a rookie campaign in which the wing shined in most of his presented opportunities.

Minnesota tasked Shannon with more playmaking in Las Vegas, and he showed an aptitude to do so at a passable level. He was, occasionally, a little too turnover happy — any thought of him starting alongside Anthony Edwards as the sole two guards in the lineup anytime soon would be ill-advised — but Shannon does seem to be getting to the point where he can use his physical prowess to not only create opportunities for himself, but others.

He figures to open next season with a role in the rotation, and looks ready for it.

Beringer brings it

In a stunning defensive display, Joan Beringer had seven blocked shots in his Summer League debut. The dominance wasn’t quite as prevalent from there, but it’s easy to see the Wolves’ front office’s vision for the 18-year-old center, whom Minnesota selected No. 17 overall in June’s draft.

Beringer is able to cover a lot of ground defensively, effectively covering pick and rolls in multiple schemes. He’s also a dangerous rim runner who opened up the Wolves’ lob game.

Regardless of how much opportunity is available to the Frenchman in next year’s NBA season — and there may be little — the Summer League synopsis of his game had to leave onlookers encouraged about what’s to come.

What is Dillingham’s fit?

Rob Dillingham was excellent in the second half of Minnesota’s victory over Phoenix on Wednesday, as he got ultra aggressive offensively to rally the Wolves to a win. It was the point guard’s best stint of the summer.

What was notable about that was it came in the game in which Shannon didn’t play.

Minnesota was clear about its wishes for Dillingham to be more of a distributing point guard in Las Vegas, but it remains obvious that’s not the best version of Dillingham at the moment. He’s a dynamic scorer, the type of which is usually best suited for a sixth-man role unless you are the elite of the elite. Is that the role Dillingham will eventually assume on the team?

Identity determined

Minnesota’s Summer League team was defensively dominant and played with great energy and purpose. In that way, it mirrored what the NBA club has established.

That the guys who have been sitting on the end of the bench for the last year or two can so closely mimic what they’ve been watching is a testament to the organization’s established identity and the buy-in that’s been created.

Such performances in Las Vegas should only increase Timberwolves coach Chris Finch’s confidence that if and when the time strikes for Minnesota’s “young guys” to be more heavily leaned upon in the NBA rotation, he can pull those levers without fear that Minnesota will lose itself as a team.

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