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Becoming a Baseball Town

October 1, 2006 11:02 PM

COMMENT

What makes a great baseball place? Great teams and great stories, that's what.

It doesn't happen overnight. It happens over generations. And for those of us among the first generation of Twins fans, it's been a long time coming. But I smelled something other than RBIs coming from the Metrodome today. It smelled way more like the beginnings of a cultural shift than just a division championship.

Justin Morneau, mobbed after a game-winning homer on June 9

Some say that Minneapolis just isn't a baseball town. Maybe it's because on an average weekday in August you have to wade through 12 pages of pre-season football coverage in the Strib to get to the box scores of games that matter. Maybe it's because the hometown nine play baseball in the corner of a football field. Maybe it's because the mainstream media is way more into scandal than stats.

But don't believe it. If the lively blogger landscape hasn't convinced you otherwise, check out the 40,000 people who stayed for 45 minutes after the end of a game to watch a couple of innings taking place very far away. For every person there, 400 more watched the same thing unfold on TV. That's more than just cool. That's the sign of a community that gets it. That's the sign of fans who have come to realize that the game is as small as a single pitch, and as big as a 162-game rainbow -- and you never know exactly which moment is going to matter most.

While other sports hogged the spotlight, baseball in Minnesota has been simmering for a couple of decades -- some would say languishing -- under a teflon lid, just waiting to be let loose. It's been right there all along, growing deep roots and the occasional blossom. We didn't know it, but this town was becoming a great baseball place.

One of those blossoms is before us now. This team may play on fake grass, but boy do they play. They play like today matters, and tomorrow will take care of itself if they just take care of today. They play as if yesterday's elbow troubles are as stale and flat as 2004 locker room champagne.

They play with their wits and their muscle, but also with their noses. And fish glue. And tiny super-heroes. And big lumber. And sideburns. They play with their hearts and boundless joy. And they have written a very good baseball story.

And that's how baseball will get you every time. It's the stories that draw us in and teach us the game. If the reaction to Kirby's death proved only one thing, it's that these great stories don't just stay with us, they define us and become us. Before you know it, you discover that this game is in your DNA -- that it's been there all along. Wherever this happens, you have a great baseball place.

Oh sure, it has something to do with winning. But it also has to do with a hometown batting champ who isn't pretending when he "aw, shucks" his way through a thousand TV interviews. Or an MVP candidate who looks truly shocked when asked what it's like to live in such an accomplished household. Or a Gold-Glove centerfielder in his contract year who plays and celebrates with as much joy as a Little Leaguer. Or a Cy Young candidate who can't stop talking about his teammates. Or a back-up catcher with enthusiasm strong enough to infect you as you watch from your couch. Or a fisherman who insists on taking the ball one last time.

Hennepin County may have cooked up the plan, and the Legislature may have approved it, but the 2006 Twins earned their new ballpark by giving us a story we'll tell for the rest of our lives. They, with their predecessors and teams yet to come, have shown us why we need this game and why we love it. They sealed the deal with four months of the best baseball we've ever seen in these parts. And they are not done.

We don't know what the line-up will look like when the Twins run out onto the freshly-mowed field in 2010, but one thing is for sure: the story of the 2006 Twins will be there with them. The stories of Kirby will be there with them. The stories of Harmon and Tony and Rod and Bert and Kent and every other player who ever wore a TC cap will be there with them.

And that's enough to make a great baseball place.

Comments

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I guess I'll truly believe we have become a baseball town is when crowds at the game stop trying to start the wave.

Posted on October 3, 2006 at 07:18 AM by freealonzo 1

I'm with you. Let's hope the new park is wave-proof! -- Rick

Posted on October 3, 2006 at 1:11 PM by Rick 2

As expected.....(click my name for the link)

"The Minnesota Twins have sent contract offers to the key players that will design and build their new ballpark.

Twins executive Jerry Bell said the team selected HOK Sport + Venue + Event of Kansas City, Mo., as the lead architect; Hammel, Green and Abrahamson Inc. (HGA) as the local architect; and M.A. Mortenson Co. as the builder. No deals have been signed yet, but team officials say an announcement should come within two weeks.

HOK will oversee all the major stadium design features, while Minneapolis-based HGA will assist on the project and handle some of the smaller details.

The selections should come as no surprise, as all three firms have a great deal of experience working on major building projects and already have been involved with the Twins project on some level.

The stadium legislation gave the Twins the authority to select the architects and construction firms, but Hennepin County has the final say. Once contracts are in place, the county will review the deals to ensure they fall within generally accepted market values and that the firms have enough capacity to handle the project.

HOK, Mortenson and HGA all declined to comment on the Twins stadium project, referring questions to the team.

HOK Sport + Venue + Event
HOK drew up the preliminary ballpark sketches that the Twins used during the legislative approval process and designed Xcel Energy Center, which the team has identified as a model for its new facility. The company designed eight of the nine major league stadiums that have opened since 2000 and is the architect on stadium projects underway for the Washington Nationals, New York Mets and New York Yankees.

Bell, the Twins' point person on the stadium project, cited HOK's vast experience as the dominant reason the Twins selected the firm.

The company is best known for its retro stadiums, like Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore and AT&T Park (formerly Pacific Bell Park) in San Francisco. Those ballparks feature brick and exposed steel, similar to the stadiums of past generations.

But HOK also has proven itself adept at designing more-contemporary facilities, such as Petco Park in San Diego, which has a sandstone exterior, and the Nationals' ballpark, which will feature large quantities of glass."

Posted on October 3, 2006 at 11:02 PM by MOJO 3

No surprise either but I wonder, HOK is designing new Yankees, new Mets, and new Nationals stadiums, all slated to open before the Twins. I know they are big but do they have the horses for a 4th major league stadium or will we get the interns and guys who usually do football stadiums?

Posted on October 4, 2006 at 12:39 PM by freealonzo 4

Let's not forget that they also got the gig over at the U of M...

Posted on October 5, 2006 at 12:55 AM by Rick 5

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"You talk about the magic, the aura, but what really makes a stadium is the fans. Concrete doesn't talk back to you. Chairs don't talk back to you. It's the people who are there, day in, day out, that makes the place magic."

– Bernie Williams

Explore the Site

Here are 50 images chosen randomly from the 3004 found on this site. Click the image to be taken to the original post. A new list is created every 10 minutes.

Detail showing clubhouse and home dugout (click to see the entire drawing)

Work on one of the side panels

Detail of the Puckett wall hanging

Lunch break at the top spot. (Grandstand)

The media had some beautiful foliage to use as a background.

Playing surface dirt out there? Maybe. (click to enlarge)

Scoreboard as viewed from Fifth Street.

This is the plaza as viewed from the A ramp.

A truck is leaving the HERC plant. Here you can see the proximity to the promenade. For the record, the truck drove right by me and I smelled nothing...

These guys were there, but it wasn't any of you, right?

The moat walkway viewed from across the park.

Steps, skyway, and plaza intersect.

The bases for the player statues have been recently upgraded.

Seventh inning sing-along.

View from the batter's eye seats

This would have been the HERC side, though it's unclear just how far over the plant the retracted roof would have gone. My fear was always that they would have to shorten the track and more of the roof would have stayed over the ballpark. The only good retractable roof is one which disappears when not in use. I don't think they could have realistically created such a thing.

Some baseball legends (and Ron Coomer)

Killebrew taught, "Always make your autograph legible, boys."

Looking from the doorway to the south, across Seventh Street

This is the Carew gate covered in plastic.

The Pro Shop

Plaza extension reaches toward First Avenue

I was surprised at how close those upper deck seats seem. From the plaza, you feel like you can reach out and touch them. It really adds to the impression of overall compactness.

Just so you have a reference, this is an LD ("low def") scoreboard (inset is what the controller probably looks like).

This looks from the base of the stairs, behind the big pillars, toward the street.

At the base of the B ramp, the foundation for the center field stands.

No arches. No brick. No girders. Classic.

Playing surface dirt out there? Maybe. (click to enlarge)

Gate 6 Oliva, with the 573 Club looming large over it (I wonder how Tony feels about that)

From the revised site plan, this is the configuration of Gate 34 Puckett.

This is the Suite Level. There are multiple suites between each pillar, and there will be seating on the area in front of the suites which currently looks like it could be a walkway.

Seville's certainly will benefit from 81 games a year played about a block away! (When I walked by on this day, the place looked deserted, but I stand corrected!)