It seemed like it was a very short night. The walls at the LaQuinta were paper thin and for some reason there was not much sleep in night. I could take a few little cat naps on the coach since today was pretty much a coach day.
Headed north to Minnesota today and the landscape changed from corn fields to evergreen trees. Just a couple of stops on the way - a facilities use one and lunch. Given the option of MacDonalds or Burger King we opted for the latter. Unfortunately, it was not the best choice. 25 minutes to get an order was totally ridiculous.
Target Field has the smallest footprint of any of the MLB parks, just 8 acres. It does feel like that when you are sitting in the stands.
On the back side of the stadium are wind breakers with all the Twins players’ baseball card photos.
We walked around the stadium to check out the commemorative statues. They included Tony Oliva, the Target dog, Kent Hrbek, the Twins Mascot, Rod Carew, Calvin Griffith, All Star Game rosters from both the Metrodome and Target Field, Carl and Eloise Pohlad (owners of the Twins), Harmon Killebrew, Tim Kelly, and Kirby Puckett. We actually saw Puckett’s induction into the Hall of Fame in 2001 since that was the same year that Bill Mazeroski was inducted. The gates around Target Field are numbered with the players numbers so you can go from gate 3 to 34 without any numbers in between.
We hit the team store to pick up a ball and bat for a friend and get my passport stamped before finding our seats. Whoa - right behind home plate in row 16.
There was a great and vociferous crowd on hand to see the Yankees play. The scoreboards were a bit difficult to read and very busy. When you are keeping score, it is important to make note of substitutions and the PA announcer never made those. When the Twins hit a home run, the two cities shake hands on the scoreboard. The dog also waves all night long.
So ESPN and MLB are calling this the game of the year. With 26 runs scored and 35 hits between the 2 team, it was epic. The lead changes, home runs, and defense made an exciting game. The pitching left something to be desired as it finally ended in the bottom of the 10th with a spectacular catch by Aaron Hicks after 5:04 hours. Yanks pull it out 14-12.
Needless to say, we didn’t get back to the hotel until late, actually early morning, at 1:00 am. BED!
It is painful to watch Paul Goldschmidt destroy Pirate pitching. We watched a bit of the game before the live game started and loved that we were up 3-1. But it turned and home runs beat us. Another loss 4-3 to the Red Birds. We will be there in 2 nights and I will be cheering against them.
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