FanPost

Three Great Days of Family and Friends at Target Field

I was fortunate to be able to attend three Twins games at Target Field this year. The Twins won two out of those three games, which was nice, though if they had won that 3rd game I could say I attended roughly 5% of the Twins wins for the season.

I had hoped to attend more, but the ones that I did were made special by the people who I was able to share the experiences with.

April 16th: Twins vs California Angels of Los Angeles of Anaheim of Orange County

Box Score

My friend Tanya invited me to accompany her to National MS Awareness Day at Target Field. Sadly she was diagnosed with MS about three years ago and has since been confined to a wheelchair while being bounced around the State trying to find a live in care facility suitable for both her and her son.

In my 20's I played in various bar bands around Minnesota and this is how we met. Having not seen her in years, she contacted me and asked if I'd come play guitar and sing some songs for her birthday. While catching up on lost time we got to talking about baseball and she asked if I'd come along to a game she was going to in April. I of course said yes.

The day was gorgeous as far as April goes. Probably the nicest day of the year up to that point. $5 of every ticket sold was donated to the MS Society and everyone participating in the event could take part in a pre-game parade around the field. The person who sold the most tickets for the event got to throw out the first pitch. I told Tanya next year I will try sell as many tickets as I can so she can be the one throwing out the first pitch.

The game was great too....Oswaldo Arcia and Byung Ho Park hit back to back home runs to center field near where we were seated. The Park HR was that mammoth 462 ft blast to the new Catch bar in centerfield above the batters eye. Surprisingly Ricky Nolasco pitched a somewhat competent game and Kevin Jepsen wowed the crowd by earning his 2nd save.

We both had a great time and plan to attend the event again next year.

July 31st: Twins vs White Stockings

Box Score

Initially I had a group planning to go to this game together but some plans fell through, so I invited a good buddy of mine Robbie whom I don't see too often. He works at either McMurdo or Palmer Station in Antarctica during the winter (summertime there) and is gone most of the year. He had never been to Target Field, and I listened to an hour long rant from him as we headed to the game on why they should have just kept the Metrodome....a lot of which I agreed with, but kept telling him 'wait till you see it'.

I still had a couple tickets left so I invited James Fillmore....yes THEE infamous James Fillmore along to the game...as he is a fan of the band The Baseball Project, a band that sings about nothing but baseball, and who happened to be playing at Target Field that day. I knew a little about the band but apparently not enough as I mistakenly called the guitar player Peter(Buck of REM) while shaking his hand.(Mike Mills of REM is the bass player) I felt awkward..he didn't seem to care. In my defense he did kinda look like Peter Buck though.

It was a nice day but hot. Our seats weren't good but they were close to where the band was playing so that was cool. The sarcasm in the centerfield nosebleed seats was thick that day. It was also the day that Brian Dozier hit those 2 home runs while batting as the DH and don't count towards his legitimate 2B total.

Afterwards we moseyed on over to Kieran's Irish Pub and sampled just about every beer they had. Much sports talk, beer banter, and jokes about Antarctica ensued.

Sept 20th: Twins vs T i double guh er's (Tigers)

Box Score

This was my favorite game this year because I got to spend it with my Mom, brother, and sister. My dad was supposed to come too but he had about 100 acres of hay cut down that needed to be baled before it rained the next day. Even though my Dad couldn't come with, it was still special because my little brother has lived in China for the last few years teaching English and we rarely see each other. It was the first time we had all attended a Twins game together since we were kids going to the dome.

The weather was perfect. We tried many foods and beers. It was my mom's first time at Target Field, and I think she is addicted now. The Twins played terribly except for G-man hitting a home run and Buxton making an amazing diving catch. But even though the Twins could only muster 3 hits and the pitching equally was bad, we all had a great time.

Looking forward to next season and possibly buying a flex plan to catch more games.