Next Up, Target Field

For my second of 30 MLB ballparks, I’m headed to Minneapolis for a midweek day game between the Twins and Cardinals.

I admittedly don’t know a lot about the Minnesota Twins or their ballpark, Target Field. I do know the Twins play that other brand of baseball where the pitcher doesn’t get to bat, but I also know I end up at Target multiple times per week … so I’m keeping an open mind. (Plus, I believe Torii Hunter was my go-to American League center fielder when it came time for All-Star voting in the 2000s.)

Unlike the Reds, whose ballpark I just visited and who have been around in some form since professional baseball began, the Twins got their start in 1901 as one of the multiple iterations of the Washington Senators. They didn’t move to Minneapolis and become the Twins until 1961.

The Twins were apparently all the rage right before I made my grand appearance on this planet, winning the World Series in 1987 against my would-be favorite franchise, the St. Louis Cardinals. (Side note, back then, the Twins weren’t playing at Target Field, which opened in 2010. They were playing in the Metrodome, which I remember most for its roof collapse.)

I forced myself to watch highlights from the seven-game ’87 World Series to get a better feel for the history between the teams I’ll be watching on the field this week. They were shockingly less depressing than expected. (And now I know what I’ll be humming throughout the game on Wednesday.)

While researching, I also discovered that there may have been a few questionable calls by the umpiring crew in Game 7.

The Twins went on to win another World Series in 1991 but haven’t claimed the crown since.

I’ve been to the Minneapolis area four times in my life, twice to visit friends and twice for college sporting events (basketball and gymnastics), but never for baseball.

My first trip to Minneapolis was an Orange Krush road trip my senior year of college in 2011. For those who don’t know, the Orange Krush is the charitable student cheering section at Illini basketball games, and each year, Krush invades a Big Ten opponent’s arena.

(Maybe I’ll do a throwback blog on that at a later date. But for now, enjoy this picture of me getting back to the student union after a 25-hour bus trip, 7 a.m. on a Thursday to 8 a.m. on a Friday, from Champaign to Minneapolis and back. I  basically got off the bus, brushed my teeth and went to class. Illinois won, so it was worth it.)

Now, back to baseball.

Going into this two-game series, the Cardinals (22-16) are 2-4 since sweeping the Cubs, May 4-6 at Busch Stadium. (Sorry, I HAD to put that somewhere on this blog). Two of those four losses came to Minnesota in a two-game series last week in St. Louis. The Twins (17-20) have won seven of their last 10 games.

Of note, former Cardinal Lance Lynn will be taking the mound for the Twins, looking for his second win of the season with a 1-3 record and 7.34 ERA. Also worth noting, I’ll be going to my second Miles Mikolas game of the season, which could be a good thing because he is 5-0 with a 2.51 ERA. If he wins this game, maybe I should make this a tradition.

Game Preview
Cardinals vs. Twins
Target Field
Wednesday, May 16, 2018
12:10 p.m. CT
Probable starting pitchers: STL Miles Mikolas (RHP) vs. MIN Lance Lynn (RHP)

Editor’s note: About five paragraphs in, I realized I forgot my MLB GameDay Pass-Port and pretty much spent the rest of the night freaking out about it. I was already two hours from home and didn’t want to spend four extra hours driving back home to get it, but I did want the stamp. At press time, I was still trying to decide what to do. (Hey, at least it’s not a real passport.)