Turn Back The Crossover

I don't pay much attention to minor-league baseball outside of my local team, but one of their rivals was involved in an awesome promotion this past week. The St. Paul Saints traveled to Quebec to play Les Capitales for a crossover game between the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball and the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball, a pair of independent baseball leagues. And Quebec, recognizing the opportunity for some fun, brought hockey into the equation.

As seen above, the Quebec Capitales decided to don uniforms that are similar to those of the Quebec Nordiques while the outfitted the St. Paul Paints with uniforms that resembled those of the Minnesota North Stars! Logos are different, of course, but this is a pretty awesome idea, and kudos go out to the Canadian-based Quebec Capitales for putting together this incredible idea!

Strangely, there are very few photos online of this game. You'd think there would have been more photos, especially from Quebec-based journalists, with the Capitales being the defending five-time champions, but apparently that's not the case. Whatever the reason or reasons may be, here's what I've found from Wednesday night's game between the Quebec Capitales and the St. Paul Saints.

The boys looked solid lined up along the first baseline. You may notice on the left side the guy named Scalabrini. That's former baseball player Pat Scalabrini. The 35 year-old is former infielder who played with the Quebec Capitales in 2002 where he was named an all-star as he hit .325 with seven homeruns and 45 RBIs. He also played with the Winnipeg Goldeyes and in the Baltimore Orioles organization in Delmarva and Frederick, and was a member of his rivals on this night, the St. Paul Saints.

Here's a closer look at the back of the uniforms. While it's not true Nordiques block font, they use the blue-on-red numbers and single blue lettering like the Nordiques did. And yes, I'm a huge fan of the fleur-de-lis along the lower hem and on the shoulders like the Nordiques used to do.

The boys used tape to nominate a captain before the game. While it couldn't be used on the field, it's still pretty awesome to see the baseball team picking up hockey traditions and running with them. Well done, Capitales!

The Saints were provided with their North Star-esque jerseys. The striping is identical, and the triple-colored white-on-black-on-yellow numbers are perfectly replicated from the North Stars uniform. The effort put in on these uniforms is outstanding!

While the end result saw the Capitales jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the third inning, and then let their pitchers handle the rest as they downed the Saints by a 3-1 score. With the game looking like a hockey game, the hockey score put up by the two teams almost seemed fitting.

Kudos to the Capitales for this awesome promotion. Surprisingly, in my research I discovered that the Capitales ran this promotion last season as well! The Capitales have produced three awesome replica jerseys that have been very detail-oriented, and while I'm not normally a fan of crossover jerseys between sports, the Capitales have done a great job here. Thumbs-up, les Capitales!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!