Brian's Twinsperience

Julie Andrews (as Mary Poppins) once said, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever." For me that may very well be the case with Target Field. My brother and I were able to make our first pilgrimage to the Twins' new home for their second game there, the 6-3 loss to the Red Sox. Okay, so there were some disappointments with the way the game itself turned out, but the experience of the stadium as a whole was very satisfying, and I highly recommend making the trip at some point in their inaugural season.

As a regular visitor to the Metrodome, it didn't take long to notice a few subtle things that made me smile and realize how cool it was to finally be watching the Twins play an outdoor home game. First of all, when we got to our seats in the lower level down the left field line, we went down for a close-up look during the Red Sox batting practice, and it was long before we saw a bird pecking seeds off the floor under seats not more than ten feet away from us. I have actually seen birds in the Dome before, but for some reason that never gave me the sense of actually being out in nature like the experience with this little bird did. We also had a few dragonflies flying around our section during the game, which I thought was neat. Of course later in the year when those other flying insects show up (what Minnesotans would refer to as their "other state bird") then we'll really start to feel the nature effect of outdoor baseball.

The wind became a factor in that Wednesday game, which never happened in the Dome. Actually, some visiting teams would swear that the air conditioners would blow in when they were batting, but the words "the wind's blowing in (or out)" never entered any conversation in the Dome. We saw the wind early on Wednesday when someone at a food stand must have opened a case of napkins, or wax paper wrappers, or whatever they were. Quite a few of these things escaped and were blowing around the right field corner for an inning or so. Again, just a subtle thing, but another aspect of playing outdoors that we haven't seen in these parts for a number of years.

My favorite moment in the game came in about the third inning when it started raining. After so many years of being indoors, the crowd actually cheered when they collectively realized that rain was actually falling in a Twins home game. I just thought that was funny, although an awful lot of people didn't see the humor, since they still went scattering for cover from the "light mist." I shouldn't talk, since our seats were actually far enough off the field (row 23) where we were covered by the overhang of the level above us. We debated for a few innings about heading down closer to the field and taking over some vacant seats, but we never did that until the 9th inning - yes, after it had stopped raining.

But the one thing my brother and I both agreed on as the best thing about Target Field was the smells of all the different kinds of food that were sold there. In the Dome, the food stands and the concourse were separated from the seats and the field, but in the open air of Target Field, like a lot of new ballparks, the smells of the food stands comes right out into the stands. Hot dogs, barbecued beef/pork, chili, loaded nachos, and my favorite smell of grilled onions....like one big huge outdoor barbecue, the smells of the food were as relaxing as anything I experienced in the great outdoors on that particular day. I had heard about their State Fair food stand, featuring walleye on a stick, among other things. I really wanted that to be my first meal at Target Field, but at a mere $11 each, I figured I'd save a few bucks and go with the pork chop on a stick. Hey, $4 saved is a little more than half a beer, if you know what I'm saying.

Target Field was really a great experience, and I again highly recommend it. However, if you go, especially at a time when rush hour traffic might come into play after the game, my best advice is to stay OUT of the parking ramps! It literally took us two hours to get out into free-flowing traffic after leaving the game, and again, rush hour traffic had a lot to do with that, but I have to think we could have gotten out quicker if we had been in an outside public parking lot a few blocks away. So if you drive all the way there, keep that in mind. Twins officials have publicly recommended the Light Rail Transit system, though, which will take you right up to the outside wall of the stadium in left field.

There are a lot of things about this new field that are going to be worth the trip, and let's not forget, even though the Twins lost on Wednesday, they of course came back with a shutout yesterday, and with the way they're going in their first 10 games, I think this could definitely be a season to remember for Twins fans. Take it from me - if you have the chance, go see a game in Target Field this season!