The Gateway Grizzlies are a professional, minor-league baseball team affiliated with the Frontier League. While the team may be a far cry from their World Champion neighbors across the River, the Grizzlies were 2003 leage champions and ballgames here retain a conspicuously professional feel at a fraction of the cost of Cardinal’s tickets. Founded in 2001, the team played its first year at Sauget Field (a small, single bleacher, dirt field off Highway 3) before moving to its current stadium for the 2002 season. While this park is of new construction, baseball culture in the area dates to the 1940s when employees of Monsanto formed a ball club for inter-company play. Ironically, the new park is carpeted with natural grass rather than AstroTurf (née ChemGrass) one of Monsanto’s most successful material spinoffs.