MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Sitting in the hotel room on a rainy Saturday waiting for the England-USA World Cup match and hoping tonight’s Twins-Braves game is not rained out…
1) Visited $545 million Target Field for the first time last night and it’s better than advertised. A small park with fewer than 40,00 seats, it’s an absolutely perfect place to watch Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau.
The press box is one of the best I’ve ever experienced. Great food — cheap, too — and tremendous working areas.
The concourses are spacious and the Twins Store is beyond belief.
Here are some things to keep in mind if you’re visiting: (a) If you don’t stay at a downtown hotel so you can walk to the park, do your best to park at an LRT lot and take the train. Parking is crazy near the ballpark and if you pay the big bucks to park near the stadium, you might never get out. (b) Some high seats in the 300 level in left centerfield have obstructed views (you can’t see the warning track). Standing room is a better seat choice than high upper deck outfield seats. As long as you can stand for three hours. (c) The concessions are expensive ($6 for a small bowl of soup), so eat before you go.
It’s a marvelously beautiful Mankato limestone ballpark that cannot be compared to any other major league stadium — past or present. It’s small, intimate and perfect for a place like Minnesota. Progressive Field in Cleveland used to be my favorite big league park, but it’s Target Field now.
2) Speaking of Cleveland, Indians radio announcer Tom Hamilton had the line of the year this past week. As the Indians were beating the Red Sox 11-0, David Ortiz was called out on strikes and, of course, Big Papi had words for the home plate umpire. Hamilton watched this go on and said, matter-of-factly, “Why is it that all Red Sox and Yankees hitters are in shock whenever an umpire calls a strike on them? Nobody whines as much as Red Sox and Yankees hitters.” Hear, hear.
3) Next weekend, the University of Winnipeg will announce that the brand new Wesmen men’s and women’s soccer programs will begin play in the Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference this fall. The plan is to play in the MCAC for a year and then join the Canada West Universities Athletic Conference in 2011.
It will be great to have men’s and women’s soccer join men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball at Winnipeg’s downtown campus.
4) Gerrard just scored on Howard. The Liverpool captain scores on the Everton goalkeeper. Time to go watch the match.
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