2012 Twins Opening Home-Stand: How About That Josh Willingham?

The Twins have completed their first home-stand of the season, winning 2 out of 6, and ultimately leaving them 2 for 9 on the season total. Accordingly, hence, we can say the Twins suck−except for Josh Willingham.

JOSH WILLINGHAM. Josh Willingham has quickly catapulted himself to the front of my "Favorite Current Twins List." He's already hit FOUR HOMERUNS−FOUR−not to mention, three AT Target Field (eat it Cuddy [omg jk we luv u]). He's been, by far, the biggest offensive stand-out thus far for the Twins.

Which is funny−because you know how I used to sit often on the first baseline? Yeah−now I sit in left field. And I love it! I love left field! Like last Thursday, when Josh hit a homerun right into the flowers in front of me and I watched all these older guys dog-pile in front of me for the ball, but then I was the one on sports center for some reason. We did a number to those flowers.

I was told by the guy who eventually found the ball that it was about 6 inches in the bowl−hence the dig.

(Me, upper right-hand corner, officiating all this or something)

Today (Sunday−Jackie Robinson Day) was also pretty cool when I noticed Josh Willingham had ripped a huge hole in his pants.

Gritty.


Home-Stand Food

One of my favorite parts of getting back to the ballpark is ballpark food (because I'm kinda a fatty, represent!). Out of the new food items presented this year, the Buffalo Chicken Mac 'n' Cheese seemed to be the most anticipated. It was for me! So here's my official review:

The Buffalo Chicken Mac 'n' Cheese is good, but EXTREMELY overpriced. Imagine paying $10 for a bowl of easy mac with extra topings. Ok? This tiny bowl of Mac 'n' Cheese is $10.75.

Not worth it.


Other New Additions to Target Field

I haven't been all around the ball park, but what I've noticed is new:

• A bronze statue of Kent Hrbek has been added outside Gate 14 (No, it does not include Ron Gant, as many multiple 'jokesters' on Twitter asked).
• The lime stone engraving of "Target Field" behind home plate has been moved slightly towards left field (thank god, right?)
• There is NOOO SMOKING AT TARGET FIELD. For reals now. There is not even a smoking section by Gate 6. No smoking. None. NOOOOOOO Smoking. (Rest in Peace Bob Casey).
• Best Additions: A picture of a cancer ribbon hugging the state of Minnesota in right field, along with a large ad for "StandUp2Cancer"−Harmon Killebrew's favorite charity−in the right field second deck.

• LIVE MASCOT RACE: Remember the between-innings video race on the jumbotron amongst the blue ox, loon, mosquito, Target Dog, and fish? Yeah−now they have mascot costumes for all and do a live race. It's awesome. I will probably grow tired of it after awhile, but I know yesterday I laughed my ass off every time the Target Dog fell on its face (because it happened like five times).

Public Service Announcement  

STOP BOOING JOE MAUER YOU IDIOTS.

The Heat Index is 115 Degrees—Let’s Play a Double Header!

In the stands at Target Field, basically.

Last April, the Twins rescheduled a rained-out game against the Indians for July 18, 2011, setting up the double header that was played yesterday.

Conveniently, the heat index was 115 degrees.

It was hot. It was sooooo hot. How hot was it? Consider:

• The photograph accompanying an Associated Press story on the heat wave was of fans at Target Field.

• Dozens of fans needed medical attention. ESPN 1500 reported the number as fifty for the noon game alone. At least several fans were taken to HCMC.

• Anthony LaPanta and Roy Smalley fried an egg.

• Players were offered IV bags in-between games. Michael Cuddyer opted for one.

• At least one player—Tsuyoshi Nishioka—did not play the second game due to fatigue (although he was later seen inexplicably wearing a sweatshirt during a meet-up with a youth soccer team from Japan, which was in town for the Schwan’s Cup in Blaine).

• The Star Tribune has a poll up asking fans if they miss the Metrodome and its AC ("No" is winning, but not by all that much).

• Oh, and the Twins lost both games of the double header to the first-place Indians.

Playing multiple games in this heat will likely wear the Twins players down significantly. On the bright side, however, Joe Mauer did go 6-for-8 yesterday, raising his batting-average to .290.

The Twins play again today at 7:00pm. The heat index forecast is 113 degrees.

The Twins are Blowing $4-6 M on Target Field ‘Upgrades’!

Most rabid Twins fans are already aware of the team’s payroll issues for 2011. With everyone (except Punto :( ) getting a big old raise, money is tight. However, money is apparently not tight enough to stop the Twins from blowing $4-6 million on “needed” improvements to Target Field. WTF!?

The “improvements” include:

- A second electronic scoreboard being added above the bleachers in right field, so all those fans in left field who weren’t paying attention can now see replays.

- A 100-foot-tall LED-illuminated tower that architect Tom Oslund apparently believes will “create a terminus at the end of Target Plaza that would draw people further into the space and have the ability to be a landmark on the cityscape of Minneapolis.” (Stop—I already looked up the definition of “Terminus.” It’s a Latin word meaning “boundary stone” used by annoying people.)

- Even more Kramarczuks stands, to appease all those fans who boycott Schwigerts hot dogs due to them crushing their life long dreams of being in the Hormel Row of Fame (i.e. myself).

- Addressing customer service issues, which I hope includes firing that Game Day guy who is mean to my Mom (seriously, how are you about to yell at a sweet lady who put her drink down on your counter for just one second so she could get out her money to pay you?)

- More heaters for the outfield seats, because the Twins management has no faith and fails to believe that God (a.k.a. global warming) will no longer make Minnesota excessively cold now that the Twins play outside. (Seriously—I walked to the store today, November 11, in my Spam flip flops.)

- Providing fans with free wireless internet, so that they can sue you when you ‘disseminate’ descriptions and pictures of the game via Facebook without prior written consent of the Minnesota Twins.

- Fixing this HUGE eyesore below the Metropolitan Club by covering it up with more limestone:



- MORE ARTWORK.

- Another creepy bronze statue of a player, to add to the current creepy statues of MLB Hall of Famers Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, and Kirby Puckett. (Coughnexthalloffamerbertblylevencough).


Yeah, okay. If the Twins are just going to get swept again in the playoffs, we might as well do it in style. In all seriousness though, these sound like good changes—except the LED tower. I mean, weren’t the Twins just complaining about how the minimalist advertisement put up on the neighboring Target Center tarnished the view? Now they want to add a huge, phallic, light-up tower?

In other news—how about that Joe Mauer? Another Golden Glove and Silver Slugger award.

EDIT:
Thinking about it--that LED tower will scare off Kirby the Kestrel! Boo...

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!

“Gardy's office is like Bill Gates' office!”

The Angels made their Target Field debut on Friday, which inevitably begs the question: what do you think, Torii?

"Gardy's office is like Bill Gates' office!" Torii Hunter told reporters, in awe of Target Field's amenities. Gardy gave Torii a special tour of the ballpark early Friday afternoon.

"This is almost better—this is better than Yankee Stadium," Torii said. "You can see why guys get there at 1:30 every day. They were playing video games, they were all happy, eating lunch—they have a chef now. I said, 'What did you guys do, spend the night here?'

"This is definitely a dream. They dropped me off in the players' parking lot and I was walking up, I was like in shock—could not believe how beautiful this stadium was on the outside. And then I walked inside, just walked through the home side, the clubhouse, I was in tears.”

Torii might have been one of the most popular Twins for many years, but I was always more of a Jacque Jones person myself. I was still interested, however, to see what Torii would say about Target Field. More specifically, I wanted to see if he would regret leaving the Twins for more money elsewhere. Obviously, he wouldn’t tell the media if he did think that—he could only say that indirectly. He could only say something like "I'm going to tell Denard, say: 'You blessed. You don't know how blessed you are. You better be thankful. Y'all better stop complaining.'”

While the Angels were warming up before Friday night’s game, I looked around for Torii—but he was conspicuously absent.

(Not the best picture, and no, I don't know why all those people are walking around the warning track)

After the Angels left the field, however, I noticed a player come out to warm up alone.




One of the things I was curious to see was what the fan reaction to Torii would be at Target Field. You may remember that Torii’s first game as an Angel was actually an away game against the Twins at the Metrodome back in 2008. The Twins played a special thank you video for Torii when he was announced in the lineup, and Twins fans cheered him the first time he came up to bat. After that, Torii was booed.

So was Target Field any different?

Here is the Angels’ lineup being announced on Friday night:




So yeah—I suppose it’s a lot easier to get over Torii being a traitor when he comes back crying after seeing how beautiful the Twins’ new ballpark is.

Torii was also cheered when he first came up to bat, but it was no “Jacque Jones returns” type ovation. However, the Twins did do something special for him. Watch Torii’s first at bat below:




Did you catch that? My instincts kicked in as soon as I heard it—Torii’s batting music from his last year as a Twin (“This is Why I’m Hot”). You can see Torii pause and say something to Joe Mauer when it starts to play. I've never heard batting music played for a non-Twin at a Twins home-game before.

Brian Duensing went on to pitch 8 marvelous innings of baseball, and the Twins beat the Angels 7-2. The loss pushed the Angels one game under .500, while the Twins are an amazing 20 games over .500.




Wonder what Torii thinks about that!

WILSON RAMOS! (Joe who?)

Yes. I did have the joy of being able to put my beer and food on top of the Twins Dugout today (until the ushers promptly told me to remove it.)



Can you spot Jon Rauch? (No, his bunyanesque-ness never gets old for me.)









CATCHER OF THE FUTURE

WILSON RAMOS






(yawn)




















Wilson Ramos. Catcher of the Feature.

Congratulations--and welcome to Target Field!!

P.S.-- I'd like to thank my father for taking me to the game in these wonderful seats. Maybe one day, Dad, I will be able to forgive you for FUMBLING THE GAME WINNING BALL WILSON RAMOS THREW DIRECTLY AT YOU. Ugh...

Thoughts on Target Field and 2010

Around 13 years ago, my father—an architect—gave me this picture for my birthday:

(Click to Enlarge)

He presumably got the picture at some meeting concerning a new stadium for the Twins. These days, though, I find it more interesting than ever: this stadium has the Mississippi in the background, not downtown Minneapolis. What is that walkway behind center field? (A bike path? Part of the stadium?) The Northwest Advertisement is amusing, and the jumbro-tron looks downright puny. Even then, there was no roof, not even a trace of a retractable one. And it sure looks full of happy people--they got that right!

Of course, the picture was only incidental to the real present, which was on the back:

(Click to Enlarge)

It's amazing what the future brings. Even as a big fan of the Metrodome, I can say Target Field is a dream come true. Sure, I'll never get to be in the Hormel Row of Fame, but now I do get to watch the field as I wait in line for innings to get my Tony O Cuban Sandwhich! Really though, I'd be pinching myself if it weren't for Kirby's conspicuous absence.

We all miss Kirby--but I also remind myself: things could have been very different. I found, in what is purportedly Kirby’s last interview—with KMOJ 98.9, on January 30th, 2006—the following:

Larry Fitzgerald: Do you think the Twins will get a new stadium anytime soon?
Kirby Puckett: Not in my lifetime.

Less than two months later Kirby was gone; and less than two months after that, the Twins were slated to receive a new stadium.