Minnesota Twins: Target Field

 The Twins play their home games at Target Field.  I went to Minneapolis, Minnesota to see a game on August 6, 2022. The Minnesota Twins played the Toronto Blue Jays. The Twins won (Blue Jays 3 - Twins 7). The name of the team, Twins,  is a reference to the twin cities, St Paul and Minneapolis. This American League team was founded in 1901, as the Washington Senators.  When they moved in 1961, they changed their name to the Minnesota Twins. As a franchise, they have been World Series Champs 3 times (once as Senators in 1924, twice as Twins in 1987 and 1991).

Target Field is an open air baseball stadium, that opened in 2010. The ballpark is considered a modern take on Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, PNC Park in Pittsburgh, and Oracle Park in San Francisco. The design of stadium uses local limestone, heated viewing areas, and a heated field. There is a pedestrian bridge from the ballpark to downtown. In Minneapolis if you have a good pair of walking shoes, you can walk everywhere downtown. The stadium does not have a roof, but it does feature an enlarged canopy to protect fans from the weather. Inspired by Liberty Bell at  Citizen’s Bank Park (after each home run lights up the Liberty Bell), when a Twins player hits a home run, the Minnie and Paul sign lights up with strobe lights surrounding the Minnesota state outline and Minnie and Paul shake hands.  If you walk around Target Plaza, there are statues of great Twins players (eg. Kirby Puckett, Rod Carew, Tony Oliva, Harmon Killebrew, and Kent Hrbek).

The 2023 Twins are a good post season bound team.  They clinched the American League Central title yesterday, but in playoffs that is the beginning of the ride to the World Series.  You have to win at least 2 series (best of 5, best of 7) if not playing in wild card series (best of 3) to even make the World Series. Then, you play a 7 game series against the National League representative to call yourselves the World Series champs.  This year the Twins do not face the Yankees (all Twins fans must be happy about that), who annually seem to eliminate the Twins from the playoffs. The Twins will face (if season ended today) the Houston Astros, who are hungry for a repeat of their 2022 title, at home. It will be a fight.

I can root for this Twins team, as long as it is not against my Phillies. If Phillies are in it, which would mean meeting Twins in World Series, this team’s drought continues. I do not hide my bias.