When we set off on our adventure back in 2011, Target Field had just opened the previous year. We heard great things about it and felt like we missed out on seeing a really cool ballpark. On May 24th, we hopped on our plane and made it to Minneapolis. We got a nice hotel right next to the Mall of the Americas, which we'll discuss later.
The trip was well worth it! The game was a day game with a 1:00 pm start. We woke up on Saturday morning the 25th and we couldn't have asked for better weather - sunny with a high around 80. Michael and I grabbed some breakfast and headed downtown a bit early to check out the stadium and catch some BP.
Anyway, when we arrived, we walked around the outside of the park. The perimeter of the park had plenty of cool photos and statues of Twins greats from the past. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a strong connection to the Twins as Kirby Puckett was my little league coach. It's cool to not only say you know a major leaguer who grew up in your hood, but to have him be a Hall of Famer is even more special. Needless to say, although he passed away a few years ago, he is still worshiped as a god in Minnesota.
Once we got into the park, we hung out down the left field line and watched some BP. Then Mark hooked us up with a special guided tour of Target Field by one of the memorabilia curators who has worked for the Twins for 40 years. That was really cool! Then we headed to our seats to watch the game.
Michael and I both agree that Target Field is beautiful! We had seats in the lower level just behind 3rd Base. The views were spectacular. From our seats, you have a great view of the downtown Minneapolis skyline.
The nice thing is we were joined by a couple of my longtime good friends and Minnesota natives Trent Wilcox, who I attended law school with and got into plenty of mischief with, and Mark Wiersbeck who I've known since we both worked at Digital Equipment Corporation back in the late 80's. Mark is a diehard Twins fan and pretty much hates the White Sox so it was double the fun.
The park is intimate. It's hard to see any bad seat in the place. The scoreboard was large, but not too overbearing like in some parks that we have seen. The big Twins logo with Minnie and Paul in center field is a very nice touch. The fans were all very nice - especially the ticket takers who helped us find our tour.
There were plenty of great food places to eat, although the one we visited during the game was a disaster because they took forever causing us to miss out on a White Sox home run!
As for the game, the Twins crushed the White Sox 8-1 and the Sox got swept in the series too. But watching a game in Target Field was awesome and we'd love to come back. After the game, we walked around the main level and took lots of pictures. And of course, we visited the Team Shop and got a baseball and team hat just like we did in all of the other 28 parks we visited.
After the game, we walked around downtown Minneapolis near the stadium and took some pictures at First Avenue - the place where they filmed many of the scenes from Purple Rain and a place where Prince played many a night. Then we all headed over to Top Golf, had dinner, and watched Trent beat us all in a friendly game of target golf. It was great seeing my friends and it was very cool that Trent, his girlfriend, and Mark got to share in the trip with us.
------------------------
The next day, we had hoped to get a tour of Paisley Park - Prince's former home that is now a museum of his music career, but it was too late. Instead, we spent the morning over at the Mall of America. Wow! How big is it? It not only has a full-size amusement park, it has four Lids stores! Anyway, we hung out there for a few hours before we had to catch our flight back to Phoenix. The highlight was definitely finding a vintage Tanner Boyle Bad News Bears jersey for Michael at the Lids store.
Overall, it was a great trip. I would slot Target Field as my #7 stadium. Michael ranked as his #5. We both highly recommend visiting Minneapolis and seeing a game at Target Field on any baseball trip.
