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Flag Pole - Part 2

June 5, 2006 1:51 PM

With the sun shining and my driving path taking me right by the place, I grabbed my camera today and took some pictures of the flag pole which stands in front of the American Legion in Richfield (just a few blocks south of the crosstown on Portland Avenue).

It's in amazingly good shape for its age, and because it is so tall, it can be seen for quite some distance.

Though there was no plaque, just one look and it's easy to confirm that it is, in fact, the same one which flew over Met Stadium for all those years (see comparison at right).

The image on the left is a detailed enlargement from a photo I took on photo day, September 15, 1974 (the actual subject of the photo was, of course, Tony Oliva). The image on the right was taken today. There's no question that the detail at the top is an exact match.

While it is possible that such detail was common on large flag poles in 1955 (when it was presumably installed at the Met), I'm much more inclined to take B.W. McEvers and his story (see my original article) at face value.

So much of Met Stadium ended up at the bottom of a landfill in Eagan, that it's great to find a piece still being put to very good use.

Wouldn't it be amazing if this flag pole could overlook major league baseball again someday?

(By the way, I have been working on a long entry about the naming of the ballpark. Hopefully I can wrap that up and post it sometime later today or tonight. While there may not be much known about the Twins' thinking, there was a great deal of research involving branding and some of the potential companies. Thanks for your patience, and thanks for stopping by today! -- Rick)

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I think it would be somewhat neat to include the fonts of the previous ballparks. For instance in left field you'd have the 320' (or whatever it is) in the original font that Met stadium had.

For center I would like to have a 7' fence (or wall) as a subtle tribute to the metrodome--hey home run saving catches were a huge key to center field. I think the metrodome "408'" style writing could be in center as another tribute to the dome and all the game saving catches made in the dome.

Then in right have whatever the new stadium design warrants for the measurement mark.

This way we could include an element of the dome but not have to look at extreme ugliness

Posted on June 1, 2006 at 11:10 PM by Boof 1

The met home plate is in the park of mall of america, and We already have a homeplate to be installed. If Pohlad sells naming rights to land o lakes, we could keep the milk carton!

Posted on June 3, 2006 at 5:53 PM by Jason 2

Please, no Metrodome tributes whatsover! And please tell me someone can design an advertisement on something other than that god-awful shiny plastic junk that's hung all over the dome. If they do that at the new place, I'm not going.

Posted on June 12, 2006 at 4:31 PM by Bryan 3

getbocorl

Posted on September 19, 2008 at 11:02 PM by bastaeltt 4

I think it's great that they will use that flgpole! Go Twins!

Posted on October 26, 2008 at 11:10 PM by Scott 5

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Posted on August 3, 2010 at 3:48 PM by Pharmd187 6

Very nice site!

Posted on August 3, 2010 at 3:48 PM by Pharmk235 7

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Here are 50 images chosen randomly from the 2393 found on this site. Click the image to be taken to the original post. A new list is created every 10 minutes.

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Ye Olde Tyme Vegetable Cart (and its modern cousin)

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Tickets!

Click to enlarge

A detailed crowd shot. Click to enlarge greatly.

Wanda's view!

Banners on the parking ramp are a great touch. They help manage scale and turn a lemon into lemonade. On my way there today I passed the WCCO building and remembered how the Twins schedule used to be painted in giant form on the side of that building (which is no longer visible). Wouldn't that be a great thing to resurrect on the side of that ramp? A giant Twins schedule. I always thought that was cool.

"Original" or "Dinger" Dog

Who Owns What (Click for larger version. Source: Ballpark Authority)

Pesky Reality

Not from Moose's tour, but it's an image you need to see. (Click to enlarge greatly.)

From about two blocks away you can finally get an idea of what it looks like. Just to my left (but out of view) was a valet parking stand where a limo was idling.