Twins announce ‘Winter Caravan’ dates, locations, and personalities

Every winter, the Minnesota Twins take the show on the road, with their annual ‘Winter Caravan,’ which stops throughout Twins Territory, an expansive reach of the Northern Prairie. Each year, the Twins send a handful of players, coaches, executives, and broadcasters to each stop, to interact with fans, sign autographs, and answer questions. These trips may-or-may-not contribute to Dick Bremer’s exhaustive knowledge of small, upper-midwestern towns.

This year’s events kick off in just over a month, and run from January 20th through 23rd. There are four legs to the caravan, each covering two days (so two are always running at the same time,) and each with a different cast of characters.

Leg number one, on the 20th and 21st, will visit Thief River Falls, Brainerd, and Duluth MN, and Fargo ND. The folks scheduled for this leg include broadcasters Dick Bremer and Jack Morris (the latter also being a Twins legend of course,) and a few up-and-coming players; Luis Arraez, Lewis Thorpe, and Trevor Larnach. They will also be joined by Dave St. Peter for the Fargo stop, and Derek Falvey in Duluth.

Leg two runs simultaneous to the first leg, and stays a little closer to Target Field, stopping in Minneapolis, St Cloud, St Paul, and Glencoe MN. Dan Gladden represents the broadcast team here, and is joined by coaches Rocco Baldelli and Wes Johnson, and pitcher Randy Dobnak. Thad Levine will join for St. Cloud and St Paul.

The third leg runs on the 22nd and 23rd. Radio man Kris Atteberry joins legend Tony Oliva, current player Ehire Adrianza and Brent Rooker. This leg includes stops in Sioux Falls, SD, and Worthington, New Ulm, and Mankato MN.

The final leg is the fourth, which hits Hastings, Rochester, Winona, and Welch MN. Bert Blyleven fills the role of both legendary player and broadcaster here, and Cory Provus will also be representing the broadcast team. Outfielders Jake Cave and Alex Kirilloff will join them.

Personally, I live a long, long way from Twins Territory, and has never been able to make it to one of these events, but our own Jon Gamble has been to a couple, and said they were enjoyable. He also described it as “basically like a big Q&A session with hot dogs and then autographs afterwards,” which sounds like a pretty decent time if you’re baseball starved in the middle of the off season.

Not all of the stops are open to the public, not all of the locations in each city have been announced, and the personalities and schedule could change, but the team will be updating the official site here. Tickets are available through various TIBN affiliates, and all the information is at the link above as well.