Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Front row seats? Front row seats!


Last Thursday I had the awesome opportunity to sit in front row seats behind the Twins dugout for their game against the Blue Jays—and yeah, okay, I realize I’m a bit late on writing about this, and everyone has moved on to the Yankees, and such forth and hereto with. Unfortunately, law school classes have started up again, and being a law school student seriously cramps my Twins fandom style. And my time available for blogging. I apologize.



Anyway, these were the same seats I got the chance to sit in very early in the year on May 3rd, during the game in which Wilson Ramos convinced Twins fans for a week or so that he was the second coming of Joe Mauer and ought to play 3rd base. Good times, right? Target Field was still fairly new at that point and I had nothing bad to say about sitting in the front row.



Mind you, these are still entirely awesome seats and I think every Minnesotan should get the chance to sit there. Standing up, you’re able to look right down at the players in the dugout, literally just a few feet away. It's really just like you could lean over and rub Thome's head.


Jim, by the way, was awesome. A fan yelled for him and he turned around and just game him a "Rock on" sign. He really genuinely seem as nice as everyone says.




The thing is, you can only see this stuff standing up, and being in the front row, you feel obliged to sit for most of the game. The dugout comes up rather high—presumably to protect fans from objects flying out of the field. So when you sit down, you can no longer see any players in the dugout.



Ok, I lied—you can see the top of Jon Rauch’s head.


Now I know the real point is to watch the game, but the view of that isn’t necessarily the best either. I personally feel that the view would actually be much nicer a few rows back. Of course, then you'd lose the novelty of sitting in the very front row, where you can pretend you're a superstar.


Jose Bautista.


ME and Jose Bautista.


Anywho, I had an enjoyable time--drank a beer, saw Jose Bautista absolutely murder a baseball, drank more beer, saw Bautista murder another ball, waved at Jerry White (he likes waving to fans), and took a lot of pictures.


Mauer on deck.



Plouffe warming up the pitcher (they really don't let Morales do anything)



Danny Valencia!


Crowds clearing out after the Blue Jays hit homeruns like it's the Metrodome.



I also managed to take a video, apparently of Jose Molina's homerun.


And Julie--the umpire twirling his finger around in the air means it's a homerun.


I went to the games Friday and Sunday as well (although not in the front row seats, of course). Some people might get bored at these games since they 'don't really matter'. Personally, I love watching the last few games of the season, both in person or on TV. In fact, I especially love watching games between two teams who are totally out of the playoff picture. Back when I had Extra Innings (or even any cable at all), I used to try and watch as many of the last games as I possibly could. The very last games were, understandably, usually on the West Coast. I remember a few years back, watching the very last regular season game in all MLB--a Dodgers game--and both teams were totally out of the race. But then the Dodgers scored a run, and the camera panned around to show all the cheering fans. "And for one brief moment," Vin Scully orated, as the camera zoomed in on a small boy, sitting on his father's shoulders, barely holding on to an ice cream cone as his dad jumped up and down, "it's Camelot in Dodgers Stadium."

"But then," Vin Scully went on, as the boy and his father still cheered, "reality sets in."

As a Twins fan, this season has been an absolute dream come true--and I know I can saw that regardless of what happens in the playoffs.

Thank you 2010 Twins!

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