Minnesotan to visit, photograph every town ball field

A love of photography

Aggergaard, a senior labor investigator with the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, has already visited nearly 70 of them.

His journey began as a way to combine his love of photography with Minnesota's summertime baseball tradition.

"My first career was in newspaper journalism and I did every job in the newsroom, except for photographer," Aggergaard said. "I did take a few pictures early in my news career at my first job at a daily newspaper where you do both photography and writing. So, I learned on film and went to Augsburg College and took a wonderful photography class way back when."

He eventually left the news business, but photography stuck with him. He began teaching himself sports photography, with baseball becoming his specialty.

"I live about a half-mile from Toni Stone Field in St. Paul and that's where most of the St. Paul amateur teams play," he said. "So I just started showing up and learning how to photograph baseball, getting to know the players a little bit."

A Memorial Day visit to Hastings left him even more inspired.

"I just had a really good experience at the field down there. Nice people, a nice ceremony before the game, and they invited me to photograph that. I got to thinking, 'How many more field are there around the state?' So one thing led to another and I started googling and traveling around the state a little bit."

Capturing town ball

Each of Aggergaard's visits begins with an introduction, usually to the home team's manager.

"Almost always I get a big smile and a thank you," he said. "My quick 30-second speech is I make just as much money doing this as they do, which is zero."

From the players and coaches to the scoreboards and dugouts, Aggergaard looks for the details that make each ballpark unique.

"Even when I'm in the dugout I try to really sort of hide and get the more candid shots of not only the field, but of the players," Aggergaard said. "That's really an important part of baseball. Some sports photographers think baseball is boring because there's so much down time, but down time is often times where the best pictures are. I know those are appreciate, regardless of what field I'm at."

Editing hundreds of photos isn't a quick or easy process, but it's something he looks forward to.

"From the field itself I'll choose 30 or 40 representative pictures and along the way I'm taking a lot of action pictures. Those are a lot of fun, too."

All of his photos are posted online, free for anyone to see and share. Of course, there are some field and experiences that stand out.

"I am a native of Le Sueur, Minnesota and I photograph their amateur team and some high school sports," he said. "Le Sueur was playing at The Mini Met in Jordan as I was just building my skills. I was just blown away by their facility. I was fortunate to photograph some of the 2024 State Amateur Tournaments at The Mini Met and hung out there for a whole weekend. What a treat that was. It's very high on almost everybody's list for the best amateur baseball experience you can have in the state."

More ballparks to come

As another season of Minnesota town ball comes to a close, Aggergaard knows his project is far from over.

"I want to keep doing this hobby when physically I'm able to do it," he said. "I've got no intention of stopping for that reason."

With plenty of fields to visit and photographs to take, he says the goal is to keep showing up, camera in hand, and document Minnesota town ball one field at a time.

"The amateur baseball scene in Minnesota is so fun. You really do see 16-year-olds playing with 80-year-olds," Aggergaard said. "Tink Larson in Waseca is for sure a legend and I had the privilege of meeting Tink when I was in Waseca photographing the field that's named after him. He's managing and we had nice chats, then at the end of the game, he put himself in as a pinch runner. You just can't make that up. Just wonderful stuff in Minnesota."