I'm with you, Rick. On the 5th inning sermons, on the 75% baseball-filled mind, on the desire to get the SI with Thome on the cover (even though I've printed the cover out for my desk at work AND read the article online).

Let the questions continue!

I'm picking up the magazine too. There's nothing wrong with collecting things. I might try to get Thome to sign it too. I got Mauer's auto on his 2006 issue. I plan to frame it.

I can add this as another reason why getting married is bad.

Well said, Rick!

Rick-
I know. I'm just very anti-marriage. Most women wouldn't have smiled. They'd rather be your mom than your wife.

My wife picked up a SI for me (or maybe for her?) at the LA airport Friday on the way back from a conference.

On another note --- yesterday at Cub Foods I spotted a Twins "Mission October" T-shirt. Red, MLB tags, etc., nice looking. Then I saw the "Made in Honduras" tag and was deeply saddened.

As is the "official" locker-room Central Division champions t-shirt Ben. I saw the Mission October one and decided to get the official one instead at Kohl's yesterday.

As for the SI cover...maybe it's just the picture resolution or what not, but looking at that cover, TF looks more like a Terrance Fogarty painting than an actual picture of the ballpark.

less than 24 hours to post season ticket sales..hope we are lucky enough to get at least 2!! After paying 5x face for a game against oakland last week..i shudder to think what a post season ticket would cost after the fact!!

Five times the face value? Yikes. Were there no tickets on the Twins website? I know they were advertising the crap out of the last home stand because not all of the tickets were gone yet. It might have been mostly the Indians games though.

No...we checked the website..phoned the box office up until 10am the day of the game...nothing! Ticketking had the same seats, but for $5 more than we paid the scalper...tho I guess i should not feel too bad, the people beside us paid $15 more per ticket than we did from the same guy!!
We drove to Cleveland 3 weeks ago..paid the same price for tickets in first row behind Twins dugout...

It's good to be a scalper these days. I can't say that I haven't benefited from selling tickets this season, ones I got for free.

I'd love to be able to score extra tickets to sell!! But I just really want at least two for my Wife and I!! lol

AJ, that's an incredibly cynical view on women. Might that kind of attitude be holding you back from finding the right woman? In my experience, painting "most" of a group of people with such a broad brush isn't really helpful to anybody.

And --- boasting about ticket scalping profits on a public site might not be the brightest thing he's done today either.

I have the right woman and I wasn't boasting. I think you take things a little bit too personal around here, Ben.

We know that the Twins already painted over the Target bullseye on the Trap sign out there...so we know they can change advertisements at a whim.

Does anyone think they might get rid of the god-awful static FSN ad on the scoreboard next year and replace it with something that might be worth a bit more money to them? How about an ad for Majestic??

OK, AJ, maybe it is the brightest thing you've done today.

Whatever you say almighty Ben.

Hey, you folks who have already picked up ALDS tickets: Is there a print at home option?

More specifically, if I can jump through the hoops tomorrow morning and get some playoff tickets, can I opt to receive them via email in some format -- either a file or a link that I can forward -- in order to more easily get a ticket into the hands of one in my group who would be coming from the far end of the state?

The wait-at-the-gate thing...? Been there, not doing that...

Yes, you can print tickets if you buy them for the ALDS but it cost $2 to do so. Why it costs more to print than for you to mail them to you is beyond me.

Yes, you can print tickets if you buy them for the ALDS but it cost $2 to do so. Why it costs more to print than for them to mail the tickets to you is beyond me.

Thanks chris,
Do you know, is it a pdf attachment to an email which I could forward, or a link to a page like stubhub uses which makes it more difficult to share without allowing full access to my login data, etc

Nice series in Detroit...good thing home field advantage wasn't on the line or anything...

couldnt agree more twinswschamps.

now we go to Kansas City...and you know how well we tend to do against them.

BTW, my question from yesterday was answered by Dick and Bert today, they mentioned the fact that after we clinched in '87, we dropped our last five games. So, we must have clinched pretty well the last week of the season that year.

Can you explain the reason for the "3,9" in the magic number box above. I understand the 9, but what is the reason for the "3" before it. Thanks!

Luke, I heard Dicknbert say it was 5 games. Glad you heard it too, I was feeling guilty that I hadn't answered you. ;)

Da, 3 = Magic # for home field in ALDS. 9 = Magic # for home field in ALCS.

LOL at the Twins not selling their own tickets on Stubhub for 5X the price. Look at ALDS game 1 on Stubhub.

Section 128
Row 1: 16 tickets on Stubhub
Row 2: 18 tickets on Stubhub
Row 3: 13 tickets on Stubhub
Row 4: 19 tickets on Stubhub
Row 5: 12 tickets on Stubhub

There are only 24 tickets in each row!!! Face value: 35 per ticket. Stubhub price: 160-240 per ticket.

Eightmenout,

All it would take is a scalper that bought a huge number of cheap season tickets and knows a way around the waiting rooms. This scenario is more likely than the twins selling the tickets.

One of my favorite things about this blog is getting to read how the 'Faith Minute' is such a terrible, evil, theologically-incorrect thing that is invading our otherwise glorious, uplifting, honorable commercial break. How dare you speak of humility, Faith Minute, for only I know how to use metaphor properly in the teaching of the Word!

(other than the obsession with the Faith Minute, love the blog, keep up the good work.)

Waiting rooms suck...

Ah, waiting room....

The waiting room REALLY sucks!!!

Woohoo! 4 tickets to game 2 in the skyline view.

My son got in and got some tickets.

Game three (actual game 5 if necessary), sec 327 last row.

Two seats together in the far corner but at least he now has tickets for the game.

Anyone else have any luck?

The waiting rooms WORKS!

Got 4 in 331 row 5

A friend had 4 tix, game 1, sec 124, row 39 and lost them because the system wouldn't take his credit card info.

Man can not place order till tommmorow! I see the Skyline View seats went from $30 for the ALDS to $50 for the ALCS?

Ticket pricing for each series.

I snagged a couple in the Skyline View section for Game 2. Now I just need to monitor prices and decide whether the profit from selling them trumps the coolness factor of going to the game. I think I need to make at least $200 in profit (and I paid $80 for my pair) to make it worthwhile and might be hard with the glut of tickets about to hit the market.

Boom...4 tickets were scored this morning for Game 2 on Thursday night. Should be fun. Very high traffic volume even once you got past the virtual waiting room. "High Transaction Volume try again later" $30 in fees for using the internet is always a kick in the balls.

CSG Mike
Was it your friend's password or did he/she get the password from someone else?

We got 4 Skyline view tix for Game 3. Took about a half hour to get through. I think all ALDS tix will be gone this morning...

I have 3 tix to home game 3. Sec 333, row 1, seats 11-13. $38 each.

Not the best... but we're in the building!

Anyone have opinions about the HRP? I've never been up there.

Go Go Twins, it was his password. He has no idea what's up with his credit card.

Sounds like these waiting rooms are intense...I hope everyone who is trying since 10am gets something...

TwinkFan, and the ticket prices only go up more for the WS, be thankful you can purchase at Face + fees

When do you think they will release the start times for the ALDS and NLDS? If Philly and Cincy get the 1 and 2 seed. There will be no west coast start times for 1st 2 games of either AL or NL. Yep the fees suck! LOL!

Ended up with 1 ticket for home game 3 in 206. Tried doing 2, but kept getting rejected. Then got the offer for 2 SRO, but opted to keep looking. Finally, decided that I'd be OK watching on my own (with 40,000 close friends).

Fiesta did they have 2 seats together anywhere on the field? Gee I hope they have some good seats for tommorow yet! LOL!

There will be 3 games total on that Wed and Thursday (2 AL, 1 NL); I doubt they'd take the Yankees out of prime time unless absolutely necessary. My guess for both days:

12:30 Tam-Tex
4:00 NL game (switch with above if no west coast team in game)
7:30 Twins-Yankees

I tried doing "best available" with 2 seats and it kept rejecting the request before finally going to the SRO option (for $40).

Is this the general public purchasing date today for the ALDS games?

So if we get the Skankies the first 2 games you think both will be primtime night games? I see the Phillys had 2 early afternoon games last year for games 1 and 2. Hard to belive they would do that to them again!

inventory on Stubhub for game 1 has gone up over 300 tickets in the last 50 minutes.

Being a season ticket holder really pays off in these cases. I haven't heard any of the problems that were talked about on here in relation to the Private STH sales from last week. I am hoping that tomorrow goes as well as the ALDS one, since most will probably be gunning for the Game 1 & 3 package.

Pat - I agree with you and hope for the same results, but it appears all STH's will be purchasing their ALCS tickets tomorrow. Last week, it was over a two-day period.

Yep I will be gunning for game 1 and 3 tommorow also. Is the ALCS 2 -3-2? Or 2-2-1-1-1?

Uh oh! I was just reading the terms and conditions on the lottery...

"Address information supplied on registration form must match billing address on the credit card."

I used my friend's codes because they were in a meeting and busy with work. Will these tickets get cancelled by the Twins? Has anyone ever had that happen?

ALCS is 2-3-2. Is it just hockey, or hockey and basketball that do the 2-2-1-1-1?

CSG Mike-
I believe they did that for the opening day lottery as well. I would assume they were eventually rejected, but I don't know anyone who tried to do it so I can't say for sure.

post season schedule link:

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/schedule/ps.jsp

CSG Mike,

I highly doubt that will be the case. I am certain there are 100's of Twins fans in the same or similar situations. I am sure it will be hard to take time and energy for the Twins to connect with all these people and reject there purchase after it is all said and done, and risk PO'ing the legitimate people that bought tickets for others who may have been busy at the time.

I am guessing 10-20% of all purchasers were in this or similar situation. If the addresses do not match, they may then just look at last names, etc. But I doubt they would go that route, they have already sold the tickets and I think it would be more work for the Twins to get the same amount of profit back in the end.

The Twins were pretty clear about the process (fees are another story). The fact that there was a two step lottery process wasn't a surprise. I was not shocked at all that I had to spend some time in a virtual waiting room and knew full well that not getting tickets was a possibility. The Twins wanted to make sure they sold out, and sold out in one shot, so they sent out more passwords than necessary, but not more than would create a website meltdown.

I have a feeling that the SH inventory will start moving in the direction of fewer tickets available starting this weekend when it is finalized the schedule (Date/Time/Opponent) and the options for tickets through the Twins is gone.

Bear with me while I try to document some of today's experience. Just hoping that it provides a good resource for future lottery efforts. Sorry it got so long:

The waiting room game was a beast today, but armed with suggestions I gleaned from many of you guys, I was able to at least go in with a plan of attack and reached a moderate level of success.

I had my "opportunity" code and my daughter's at the ready and had a half-dozen virtual waiting rooms ticking down the 15 second intervals by 9:50. The first one opened up at 10:01 and I figured it was going to be a snap. Well...

Feeling so smug, I made my biggest mistake - going after the one known game to actually be played: Game 1. No solid assurance of date or opponent, but who cares? It's Game 1.

Sailing right along through the screens, greed must have taken over, because I found myself testing the waters for 4 seats in various affordable sections. (I didn't pick 'Best Available' at first, since the budget did not allow $65.00+fees per seat.) Multiple "...high transaction volumes..." messages ensued, followed by those inevitable words: "...not available together in the quantity you requested..." Best available? Same routine. 3 seats? After a number of refreshes, same busy signal ending in the same rejection. 2 tickets? 1? Ten minutes of this frustration before being told "...no seats are available for this game...Please try at a later time..." Yeah, right.

I did get a bit smarter in the middle of all of this and had a second window going with the same "opportunity" code, working Game 2. (It was apparent that they allow use of a single code a second time until you actually hit on a ticket offer of specific seats and are being asked if you'd like to continue. And the "opportunity" launch page was in no way linked to a specific email address or code.)

By 10:30, I had worked through a similar path of rejection for Game 2 and had a screen open to work on Game 3 (5).

Going with '4, Best Available', I immediately hit on 4 SRO tickets for Game 3, but it timed out on me while I debated about it and got another Game 3 window open with my daughter's code. Additional tries at 4 came up with the same results, while asking for only 2 gave actual seats, albeit some of TF's worst.

Long story, I know. Here's the skinny: 4 SRO and 2 seats in (don't laugh) Sec 301 Row 2. (Oh, and I bought both of them using my own name, contact info, and credit card. Once you got in with a code, no matter whose, they apparently could care less whose card was being charged.)

So I have 6 tickets FOR A GAME THAT IN ALL LIKELIHOOD WILL NOT EVEN BE PLAYED! Now, to convince my wife that true fans would not pass up such an "opportunity," nonrefundable fees be damned.

As far as worries about the Twins canceling tickets due to using someone else's code, I would not fret: I paid the extra $2.00 and my tickets are already printed and ready for Game 5.

schweady-
That sounds about right. I think we've seen other people mention that before, especially opening day (with a few details changed). My only hold-up is the price. If I can afford it, I take the first ones that come up.

schweady,

Good point on print at home option. How can they cancel those tickets? I do remember this being an issue with the regular season pre-sale. My friend who works for the Twins said "if you got the confirmation, you should be good" back then and I am sure it also applies now.

I am pissed I didn't try to use both codes I had. I figred the "only one per person" term would stop me from using my info for two codes. I gave one to a coworker after I got my first set of tickets.

CSG Mike I wouldn't necessarily worry about that. I bought tickets at the beginning of the season during the season ticket holder presale, and just last week for game 3 of the ALDS. To be fair I wasn't gaming the system, my brother and I share season tickets, so he wanted me to pay for the tickets I was buying.

hey, so yeah we got 4 tix, sect 331, row 1. not too bad i guess.
anyway, they are for home game 2. so would that mean that if we do NOT get home field adv, we may not have a game to go to? i mean (and god i hate saying this out loud) if we loose 3 straight, then no game right?
thanks! sara.

Isn't it time that the Twins' online ticket sales became as sophisticated as the system that ticketmaster is experimenting with for picking your seat for a show at the Orpheum: show a seating diagram with individual seats available and let me click on them to pick my spots.

It's just that I get so sick of being at the mercy of the Twins for what is the "Best Available" seat. And having no clue whether a certain seat location grouping listed has one lone seat left, while another similarly priced grouping has some larger blocks of seats available.

While an argument may be made that the large number of seats per game and huge volume of demand right now for anything TF would tend to crash any such system, I'll provide a random link in my name anyway just to highlight what I'm talking about.

(Another benefit: once TicketMaster went to this interactive seating map system, some of their devious sale methods involving timing their release of various blocks of seats became fairly obvious...)

Sara,

you are correct, and I did not hear you say anything outloud.

If the Twins do not have home field and clinch in 3 games, Home Game #2 would not be played.

However, I do not foresee the Rangers winning out and Twins losing out, so any combination of 2 Twins wins, Rangers loses, give us home field in ALDS.

Sara,
You meant to say, "If we don't get home field advantage in the ALDS and we *WIN* 3 straight, we may not have a game to go to?"

But, relax, have no fear, home field advantage for the ALDS is coming soon.
Have a good time at Game 2 on Thursday Oct 7.

tk-
thank you so much for making me feel better!!!
i am trying to run scenarios in my head and am wondering if you or anyone just has some simple ones to tell me. there is no way the skanks will play rays, right? so where do we want (need) to finish to guarantee HFA? we either need to finish 1st or ???
maybe there's just too many "what -ifs" to figure it out??
thanks tons, sara.

Question:

If game 5 is not played. There is no refund on STH tickets, the STH account is credited for the purchase price automatically. No action needs to be taken.

What happens if someone buys a STH ticket or non-STH ticket on Stubhub for game 5 and it isn't played. Is the sale voided and the purchase price returned to the buyer? non-STH tickets for games that are not played must be returned for a refund. Who completes the refund porcess? If someone were to purchase tickets for $200 that have a face value of only $30. The amount refunded by the twins would be $30. Does stubhub void the transaction? If so how does the original buyer get the tickets back to turn in for a refund? I would think that someone that purchases the tickets from a scapler or through Craig's list would be stuck with an expensive ticket that is only good for face value when turned in for a refund.

Just curious

schweady, ya right!! thanks! twins fans are like family, you guys rock! sara.

If you buy a ticket on Stubhub and the game is not played, you will receive a full refund from Stubhub including all fees paid. If you buy a ticket from a guy on Craigslist, you should use Paypal so that you can be assured you will be refunded. If you pay cash on the street or to someone from craigslist, you have to hope that the seller is an honest person and will refund you later.

from StubHub

•If the event is cancelled or postponed:

If an event is cancelled and will not occur at a later date, StubHub will send the Buyer an email offering the Buyer the opportunity to return their tickets within 2 weeks in order to receive a refund for the full cost of the tickets, including service fees and shipping and handling charges. StubHub, in its sole discretion, will determine when an event has been cancelled. If an event is postponed or rescheduled, the Buyer may use the tickets on the rescheduled date or, time permitting, list them for sale at StubHub. If an event is postponed but replacement tickets are required for entry to the event on the rescheduled date, StubHub will work to obtain replacement tickets for the Buyer. If an event is postponed and the number of replacement tickets available is limited, StubHub may, in its sole discretion, deem the event cancelled.

And you obviously don't need to return tickets on Stubhub if the game is canceled because the seller still has the hard tickets.

Also, the only tickets that could even be returned to the Twins physically for a refund are tickets purchased at the box office window. The Twins have already announced that no tickets will be sold at Target Field

Hey Rick,

I just noticed that I am in the picture posted above from the Captain's Deck. I am in the corner SRO with the white Pavano Jersey (can't see PAVANO in the pic) and blue baseball cap. Too bad I didn't see you, I would have come over and said "Hi"

Anyone gonna list their tickets on TC Traders? Rick I assume you'll be adding the playoff dates/games ASAP?

I wonder how many Yankees fans will fly in for the games. I'm strongly considering a $211 flight to NY for the 2 games at Yankee Stadium. Hard to beat that airfare with a stick...

Yup, That's me in the white jersey! We were there 45 mins before the game started and only left one at a time so we could hold it for the whole game.

Still no email from the Twins saying my tix are cancelled due to mismatched addresses, so I feel pretty safe.

I was also wondering if anyone would put extras on TCT? I would love to go to game 1.

If the twins make it to the world series i may be priced out.

Ok, Detroit series is over and forgotten. Need to win at least 5 down the stretch to have a hope of best record in the A.L. (Currently 1 game behind Tampa Bay, 1/2 game behind the Yankees.)

Next game for me is Friday night. October baseball at beautiful Target Field!

My rant is no phone orders for this process..Not everyone can have internet access during a work day. I thought my Iphone would do the trick and it did grabbing 4 tickets row 10 304..The problem is my 10 thumbs took took long to type everything in and my transaction was denied because I went over the time limit...If you take phone orders all year then do it for post season.

ugh...trying to get tickets this morning was awful..I was too greedy at the beginning..trying to get 4 for the first game and ended up with 2 standing room tickets for game 5. Anyone know where the best place to watch the game with standing room tickets is?

Rick, thank you for the comment about the faith minute. I absolutely cannot stand those during the radio games...i literally turn down the broadcast for their ridiculousness...what is next? is God going to get his own gingle?

(in the intonation of Kit Kat bar gingle)

Give him a pray
Give him a pray

Pray to him at Roman Catholic Church!

"Anyone know where the best place to watch the game with standing room tickets is?"

In whatever room your best HDTV is located.

In the ballpark, for SRO I've been happy at 105. Don't go there on Saturday, though...I'm taking my two nephews from Iowa. I wonder how the Twins Pub is for SRO if you can get a window "seat" early.

I would guess that early with enough people to hold the spot is the only way to go.

Twins might not win a game the rest of the year the way they are pitching! Slowey getting pounded by KC Royals AAA team.

hey guys what is the deal with the streaming thing on fsn saying that as of sept 30 dish network may not be carrying fsn? has this happened before? (omg, just watching game too, stinkin royals) anyway, we shouldn't have to worry for postseason cuz they're all on tbs, right?

Why didn't the Twins think to mark off specific spots and number them for SRO ticket holders? Put in a counter and/or numbered drink holders and/or paint rectangles on the floor with numbers. Sell them as 'Sec 105 Row SRO Seat 20', etc. (Yeah, I know... no seat...)

Because there are far fewer than 2,000 spots with a decent view of the game, that's why. Could it have anything to do with greed?

Just an FYI...2 Legends Club seats in Section M on Stubhub for Game #1 @ $175 each. That appears to be a pretty good deal for some really good seats. They will be gone soon....I already have some so I won't be getting them.

Wow...gone within seconds of me posting. Sorry. Somebody sold those way too low.

I find the whole SRO concept annoying. Charging people for the right to stand for 3 hours IS greedy, especially when the SRO ticket is more than some of the actual seats. But I'm not sure the customer can complain. The fact is, you're NOT buying a specific spot in the ballpark, and TF is not unique in that regard (Fenway's SRO options stink in comparison).

154 09-25-1987 vs Kansas City Royals 4-6 L 83-71
155 09-26-1987 vs Kansas City Royals 4-7 L 83-72
156 09-27-1987 vs Kansas City Royals 8-1 W 84-72
157 09-28-1987 at Texas Rangers 5-3 W 85-72
158 09-29-1987 at Texas Rangers 5-7 L 85-73
159 09-30-1987 at Texas Rangers 1-2 L 85-74
160 10-02-1987 at Kansas City Royals 3-6 L 85-75
161 10-03-1987 at Kansas City Royals 2-4 L 85-76
162 10-04-1987 at Kansas City Royals 1-10 L 85-77

Having done SRO for a couple games, I'll agree that after 3+ hours, my legs, feet and back are all sore. And I'm not a fan of paying more than the cheapest seat in the house. BUT...I'm thrilled to be in the house.

Yeow...thanks for posting that Steve.
I guess it's true what they say, this really IS like 1987, all over again.
Hope springs eternal - but at least in 1987, we didn't have too worry too much about the damn Yankees.

Not the playoffs, but there are now two Legend Club Section M on TC Traders for face (55) Thursday.

The tickets referenced above have been sold overnight on stubhub. Maybe underpriced again but it has been so easy this year. A time will come when it changes to a buyer's market.

In 1987 the pitching staff wasn't giving up double-digit runs, either.

The way our guys are playing right now, we might have to implement a playoff 'mercy rule' when the other guys are up by 20 runs.

Giving up 10 runs to the Royals is just not acceptable.

Easy as pie this morning. Got 2 seats in Section 206, 2nd row for games 1 and 3 of the ALCS. Receipt time stamped at 9:02.

I got my two seats for games 1 and 3 of the ALCS....section 102, row 34

I liked the postseason magic that comes with the #34 :)

wow alcs is spendy, 2 seats for game 1 and 3 for 290.00 lf bleechers...i have another password but donthink i can afford to use it

I too was able to get tickets right away. From my experience the Internet Explorer seems to get through a lot faster than a Mozilla screen. Maybe a faster refresh rate?

Got in about 9:07. 4 tickets to Games 1/3 in row 2 of section 319. Not bad. I had generally good choices and looked at a couple fo different sections, but no Overlook seats were available, unfortunately.

mazaratirick, if you are willing to negotiate, let me know. I have ticket partners interested.

I like how they tempted you with the Dugout Box but none together :)

Yeah I got mine.... 139 row 8, seat numbers in the high teens... Hopefully not too obstructed I know the higher numbers are bad in this area. Games 1,3 also. Was looking to get Overlook like I did for the ALDS but it wasn't even an option

Relax firedog....it will be alright. Didn't we have this talk about 3 months ago when you thought Gardy should be fired and the Twins would finish no better than third? (Sorry, couldn't resist. I DO like saying I told you so. :-)

This morning was a little rougher for me than the ALDS tickets. Longer wait, not as good seats, but still decent. Got games 1 and 3, section 221. There goes another $334!

Games 1 & 3 in section 316, row 1. It took ten minutes. Overlook seats were not listed.

Kind of depressing that the money I've spent on postseason tickets (after the World Series sale next Tuesday) will be more than my season tickets. I just can't stop myself though!

Antifire,

Just think, that is cheap compared to where ALCS will go for on the secondary market, so you are getting a steal! People paid that for 1 game on OD.

WS tix will go on 2nd market for no less than 1500.00 for a pair... thats a fact...

Just scored my 2 tickets in skyline view again sec 326 row 4! Man $34.00 in fees. Yes getting up to my 20 game pack for next year already for the post season. Oh well lets hope we get to the 2nd round! LOL!

Yeah, that's true. And I already know I can't go to one game each series (damn work!), so I'll come out alright. But for the next two weeks or so, $$$ will be tight in the household!

I'm in a season ticket group, and a couple of the guys there took the tickets for playoffs. The guy "in charge" of the group told them they shouldn't sell them for more than face value!!! He doesn't think that's "right" I guess. I'm like, good luck with that!!

LOL at anyone complaining about paying fees when they are buying tickets for 25% of market value.

Maz, WS tickets will start at $400 ea for SRO and 450-500 ea for seats, you can take that to the bank. 1500 will get you some pretty good lower level pairs.

8 man I guess I got spoiled paying no fees for my 20 game season ticket packs. You offering me $200 each for my $50 ALCS seats?

I'm not personally because I already have home plate box seats, but look at Stubhub, 200 each would be the cheapest LCS tickets on the planet right now.

Hmmm very interesting!

Looking in the background of that Sports Illustrated cover I can see no advertisements on that wall of the Target Center guess things couldnt be worked out to put stuff like that on there hmmm. Not sure if thats a good thing or bad though.

Looks like the AL East could definitely go down to the last day of the season. The Rays clearly have the easier schedule and own the tiebreaker with the Yankees (via winning the head to head matchup this season), but anything can happen while teams rest starters/pitchers in preparation for the postseason. Unfortunately the Twins need to pass both squads to win homefield throughout the AL playoffs because they lost the season series to both the Rays and the Yankees.

If the Twins don't advance past the ALDS there may be lots of STHs who've pre-paid a significant portion of their 2011 STs with the 2010 playoff tickets that would go unused. Pretty sweet position for the Twins to be in...

Was at Nationals Park last Friday night for the Braves vs Nats game. The ballpark typically doesn't get rave reviews, but I thought it was pretty nice. Easy access to the Metro station. The price of concessions was sky high. Had their signature Ben's Chili Bowl (DC institution) chili dog that was fantastic. Walked up out of the Metro station & there were scalpers galore. Snagged 2 seats 5 rows directly behind the Braves dugout with a $75 face/each for a total of $70. Hope the Nationals can turn it around eventually with Strasburg and Bryce Harper leading the way in 2012...

Does not look like to many people have been paying attention to the Twins releasing tickets for the last home series of they year with playoffs on the horizon, Friday night, Section 111, Row 2.

So there must be a few seats available for games 2/4? Seems most people are going the 1/3 route.

I believe the Legends Club standing room only tickets are gone from the price list? Did they offer those in the public sales? I haven't heard any mention of them since seeing them on the price schedule early on. Just wondering how packed LC will be.

Just a question - how do all of the ticket brokers have the same tickets for sale? If you go to different ticket pages for ALDS, game 1, it seems like the brokers have the same sections and rows for sale. (Different prices/different fees) I know they could have season tickets in the same areas, but it almost seems like they are the same tickets, because they have the same quantity....

Go Go, there is at least one national ticket brokerage site (TicketNetwork) that "feeds" MANY other sites. Post tickets for sale there and they appear instantly on that one named "minneapolistickets" or something like that, for example. I think theat's what you're talking about.

There are wholesale brokers and retail brokers. Ticketking is a retail broker, IE they sell mostly to actual fans. Many brokers sell mostly to bigger retail brokers like Ticketking. If you look at Ticketking's site, only a small percentage of those seats are actually owned by Ticketking. The other tickets are shown at a markup from other wholesale brokers. If you buy a pair from Ticketking, it will be shipped in a Ticketking return address, but they might be coming from a broker in New York or Miami.

All the brokers have their tickets listed at ticketnetwork.com as well at their wholesale prices. If you buy them on Ticketnetwork, you are charged a 18% buyers fee.

All these tickets are also listed on Stubhub of course, at a 15% markup. Most people buy from Stubhub and when those tickets are sold, they slowly disappear from the brokers sites and ticketnetwork...

So what happens if you sell your tickets on Stubhub and then they don't advance. What happens to the seller and the buyer. Say I bought tix for $300 but sold them for $500 what happens if they don't play?

Josh,
If you sell your World Series tickets on Stubhub and we don't make it, the buyer will instantly get a full refund from Stubhub. I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think Stubhub will pay you for the WS tickets until we are definitely in. Otherwise they would have to chase after a lot of people for refunds who already withdrew the money.

Rick,
If the tickets are listed for instant delivery, the SH sale is final. The broker's other sale, he would either have to call the customer to offer replacement or upgraded tickets, or cancel the order.

If the tickets aren't listed with the barcode, the broker will probably accept whichever sale was for more $$ and reject the other sale.

There's an edit listing spot where you can delete or change listings. I've done it a few times, it's easy once you hunt down the right spot. It's not exactly intuitive, but it's definitely there.

If you list tickets on SH within 2 day of the event, you must enter barcodes. If you list tickets in advance, you can either upload the barcodes (in which case the sale is final and instant), or you can choose to upload barcodes after the sale...In this case when you get a sale, you can either confirm or reject it before you enter the barcodes.

On SH, listings with the "INSTANT DOWNLOAD" icon already have the barcodes, listings with only a black checkmark, the seller must confirm the sale and has a few days to upload the tickets.

I started thinking about how important it is to protect those barcode number/letter combinations. Really slick system for last minute tickets (I have both bought and sold on SH, 1 game each way) but it's just like handing cash to an unscrupulous SH seller if they would ever have the opportunity to pilfer your codes.

As far as successfully selling goes, I used their automatic declining price system for the one sale that I made and they were gone after the second downtick. (Now, If I could just figure a way of tracking exact groups of tickets which are being sold under that system and nailing them as soon as they drop to my price point...)

tom (aka tcmark)

SH does not process payment to the seller until after 2-7 days after the event, to ensure that there were no issues with the buyer getting a raw deal. So, payment would not be made to the seller until after the event, no event, no payment to process.

However, since MLB and SH have a relationship, SH reissues a new bar-code to the buyer and the old bar-code become invalid. Therefore, payments on electronic delivery happen much quicker after the event occurs.

TK,
That's incorrect. I got paid for many of the August/September Twins tickets I sold back in April within a week of uploading the barcodes. If I had had to wait months to get paid after the event, I would not have sold them on SH.

I've seen a tab that says something like "price alerts". Maybe that's a way to do it. First time I tried to delete a listing it took me forever to find out how. I also raised the price, so a TCTrader could get them from me after I figured it out. I wonder if they make it less obvious on purpose.
All these ticket purchases you guys are talking about from the Twins this week: Are these all for partial STHrs? I tried the public lottery, without success.

Robin,

Yes, those sales have been for the partial STH's. At least last Monday/Tuesday and today. I think there was a public lottery sale yesterday?

ahhhh....yes. the always predictable pretenders are falling back towards the mean. get ready to be disappointed by "one and done" gardenhire and bill smith/terry ryan yet again. but at least many of the twins rubes will be content yet again with "just getting to the playoffs. because golly gee it was fun".

first round ALDS exit.....here we come! woo! woo!

hope you didn't waste too much money on the twins and the playoff junk they have been selling the last week or so.

oh wait....the sun is coming out........nevermind what i just said......the minnesota twins.....2010 world series champions. sunshine and butterflies!

:-)

robin:
SH's "Price Alerts" has never worked for me. They promise an email when tix for a particular event drop to or below a certain point. They've never mailed. Then I'll check the listing later and find lots of seats for less than my "Alert" price... (I suppose that if I save money, they lose money, eh?)

btw - ken burn's baseball: the tenth inning premieres tonight at 7pm CT on tpt2 in minneapolis/st. paul. it is part 1 of 2. part 2 will air on wednesday night at 7pm CT on tpt2.

just thought that program might be a bit more interesting/inspiring for some than watching the twins pitching staff lose number 5 in a row.

Anything Ken Burns is well worthwhile. Holy DVR!

Wow, interesting article about the Rays giving away 20,000 tickets for their final home game. I wonder if the seats will get filled?

RAYS FREE TICKETS

Class guy.

I'd like to nominate Ken Burns to be the next Commissioner of Baseball.

Does Betaband only come on when the Twins are doing well...Just wondering

"Anything Ken Burns is well worthwhile. Holy DVR!"
Totally agree and DVR'ing it so I can burn it to a DVD.

I cannot seem to wake up from this 5 day nightmare...

I think I'd rather have Bob Costas. He'd be good.

WOW this is like never ending groundhog day!!!! 6-0 bottom of the 3rd! Gotta hope the week long vacation ends kinda soon? FCOL!

I can't say I disagree with Longoria and Price's comments, though there are some legit reasons for fans not going. I'm surprised they are giving away that many tickets. It would be a little funny if they still didn't show up. Then you really have a problem.

The Twins, namely Cuddyer early on were speaking out about the Batter's Eye at Target Field. I think the Batter's Eye at Kauffman Stadium with the large scoreboard would be more distracting. Maybe it is high enough in person, but on TV it looks deceptively distracting.

SW,
It must be your imagination. he told us all he was giving up on the Twins a couple months ago, and he was going to devote himself to cheering for the Vikings and Gophers. I wonder how that's going for him.

Me sensing a euphoric high reached upon clinching, thus leading to an inevitable meltdown. Clearly, recharging is more important than pushing for home field advantage at this point. All it would've taken was 2-3 over the past 5 games to be in the drivers seat to host the whole thing at Target Field. There is a "dead zone" in baseball the 2nd half of Sept for teams that are playoff-bound. Not sure if it's people saving up money for playoff tickets or what, but nobody cares until post-season begins. And, if you look at every team in contention, except for maybe the Phillies, I wonder if the players care.

Hey, Twins! MAYBE TRY WINNING SOME MORE GAMES THIS SEASON, OK?

Argh!! Hopefully they decide to show up on Friday - I have tickets to that game.

please forgive my ignorance, but do the twins have HFA for sure? did i just hear dick/bert say that?

Strangers lose to Seattle at home. We clinch home field. My next game is Sunday! Then Thursday for game #2. I hope it's a night game or at least a 4 or 5 pm start!

Sara yes with Texas losing tonight we clinch home field for first round! Wow 0-5 on this road trip!

As good ol Charlie Brown would say: "Good Grief"
As good ol Charlie Brown would say: "Rats"

So the Twins back into home field advantage in the ALDS with a TX loss and their own exclamation point on the night:
Punto - K
Revere - K
Plouffe - K (PH)

"Were gonna win Twins..."

Soon, I hope.

thanks for the confirmation!!! sweet, my first play off game. tell me it's gotta get better than this!!! i'm so excited i can't stand it!!!!

Anyone interested in ALDS Game 1 SRO tickets (Wed. Oct. 6, 2010)should email me. Thinking $85 a peice and I have 4.

Amen on the Ken Burns comments. (Although I jumped in during the 2nd hour and then caught the first hour on the rebroadcast, starting in with the story of Torre's first WS which seemed like an overly long and drawn out Yankee worship. My dear wife's comment summed it up: "I thought this was about baseball. This is all just about one series. And it's all about the Yankees.")

The reviews have indicated that this series is not his best work. But --- mediocre Burns has just about anything else on TV beat all to hell.

Rick,

I have been eagerly awaiting your review on the Metropolitan Club, any idea if you still are doing this and if so when?

antifire, thanks. I don't recall when the public lottery winners actually pick, since I wasn't chosen a winner anyway, though I could look it up. But I was informed over the weekend I wasn't chosen, and I signed up for it quite a while ago from the twins website.

Schweady, i haven't tried it myself (the SH price alert) as I seldom buy there. I was wondering if brokers use it to snatch up bargains. Funny they didn't send you an email though.

TV baseball for Yankee haters. Someone told me the '60 Pirates WS was going to be featured, but I don't recall the station. I think it may be this coming sunday.

So, I'm watching video of both NY and TB celebrating, pouring beverages on each other, and it took a while to make out the wording on the hats and t-shirts: "Playoffs, 2010"

And we worried about our Twinkies acting like they had been there before...

schweady-
All of the playoff teams celebrate like that. That's why it was weird when people kept saying "do it like you've been there before." I think they did cut it down though. Most teams don't do the high-fiving fans parade like the Twins did twice. It's not like they weren't going to celebrate at all, which is what some people wanted.

I think the celebration this year was fine. It's not like getting to the playoffs is easy.

Can Moonshot Scott stop the bleeding tonight? Gardy must be stomping around in that clubhouse. A win tonight makes us 41-40 on the road. Stuck on 92 man! Looks like we might see some rain next wed 60% chance. I suppose if rained out they would play that game Friday then?

Yeah, I'm fine with the celebrating. What I got the biggest chuckle out of was picturing the marketing wizards at work figuring out how to sell as many "Playoffs 2010" hats and shirts as possible over the next couple of days, then switching their efforts over to "AL Eastern Division Champions 2010" and "AL Wild-Card Champions 2010"...

Wow, Tampa Bay announced today an option for people to pay $100 to be guaranteed the right to buy full strips of playoff tickets (click my name for link if i did it right). I guess when you don't have a season ticket base you make up the cash where you can. Anybody remember if the Twins ever did something similar when they had lots of tickets available in the dome?

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/rays/content/rays-playoff-tickets-info-100-membership-be-sure-youre

Stevie B,

I do not believe the Twins ever feared not selling out or needing to give people priority for full strips. I know that Twins season ticket holders generally bought full strips, in addition to extra strips as allotted by the season ticket packages.

Also, the Twins also made more money in fees by not selling full strips, and getting people on the fees for each transaction.

In the case of the Rays, it appears they are fearing empty seats with people not purchasing individual seats. I doubt the Rays will cap it at 2,500 as I bet that is just a marketing strategy to get people in the door. "Only 10 spots remain, call now!"

Twins fans have been known to wait in line to get their tickets, etc., so I doubt even in low points, the Twins would ever have to result to this course, even in the Dump.

I do know that the Twins in the past have used the marketing strategy, sign-up for 20-- tickets and get your priority on 20-- playoff tickets.

Can Tampa Bay even sell out for a playoff game? I see they are giving away 20,000 free tickits for todays game! LOL!

tk,

I don't think the Rays are afraid of not selling out the postseason (of course, whether they will or not is another issue). It is just the opposite. Since they anticipate sellouts (or close to) for the playoffs but do not have a large season ticket base they have a large volume of currently unsold tickets for the playoffs. If you want to make sure you get in the door and not have to camp out, win a lottery or otherwise take your chances, you can pay them $100 for the guarantee that you will get tickets to every home game played.

The Twins were in the same position in the dome. They had about 10k season ticket sales and a much larger capacity so had lots of tickets to offer but could go a number of different ways to offer them to the public. I know at least in 2002 they held lotteries for the right to buy full strips of playoff tickets. I am just wondering whether they ever offered customers the option of paying for the right to buy the tickets rather than trying their luck in the lottery, sitting in line, etc.

Also, were there ever many single game ticket sales available for postseasons in the dome? Seems they usually sold only full strips to start and then made individual series available if there was inventory, but not single games.

Anyone getting the tickets from the selection on Monday in the mail today?

"Hey, Tampa fans! For your $100 payment for each seat for which you'd like a strip, you also get a Rays sports cooler and a membership card! One playoff game guaranteed!"

Stevie B,
As far as I know, this is the first year that the Twins have tried to charge for the "right" to buy tickets.

Many of us are entered in the free "opportunity" lotteries, but there was another opportunity open a bit earlier which asked for a non-refundable $21, $31, or $41/game just to reserve the right to buy tickets for a game that might not even be played. Those reservations are sold out for all 3 potential series, but the link is in my name for those interested in the fine print.

I just marvel at the many layers of ticket marketing wizardry and how availability of tickets to the average fan is affected. What a racket.

Schweady,

WHAT?!??!?!?? How did I not find this or find out about this in any way. How many people actually did this!

What is this some sort of Sports Illustrated curse or something? everyone burn their coppies!

What else could it be Kingduck?

tk, I think it was buried on the Twins' website or maybe on the generic mlb page with that similar offer for most contending teams. By the time I saw it the only game with reservations left was ALDS Game 5. And, you could only buy reservations for 2 tickets for 1 game, anyway.

Joe117,

I got my ALDS home game 3 tickets today.

Very interesting schweady - I wonder if the Twins get any of the money from that transaction as it seems to be something that is being offered via MLB and not the Twins. That probably means the tickets sold come out of the MLB allotment for playoffs.

I knew the Twins had a lottery this year as well (I got shutout so far) but I had no idea they offered a pay extra for the right to buy. Just another way to make the fans pay more to get in the gate.

Joe: My tickets came in the mail yesterday. Very happy with the quick turnaround.

$240 RT flights to NY for the Twins/Yankees weekend games (10-9, 10-10). May have to jump on that if the Yankees end up being the ALDS opponent. It is time to slay the dragon...

HAHA! I was right! The SI cover WAS a Fogarty painting! Click my name

What are you talking about luke?

If anyone is looking for tickets to tomorrows game (Thursday), I have 4 tickets available.

Section 121, Row 16, Seats 7-10. $200.00 for all four. Email me if interested.

Thanks!

Two Legend Club M for sale at face for Friday night on TC Traders. $55 each, or $57 if I email them.

{sigh} Jeff, Jeff, Jeff, earlier in this post I commented about the SI cover looking more like a Terrance Fogarty painting than an actual picture of TF. Looking at the SI cover, that photo looked about as fake as Jennifer Aniston's nose.
The link I posted at comment 202 was a link to a new Terrance Fogarty painting of TF (if you don't know who Fogarty is, I'll be terribly embarrassed) that looked STRIKINGLY familiar to the fake-looking SI cover...as I had propagated.
Although, upon further perusal, the Fogarty painting has Mauer at the plate, in the home white jersey and NOT the cream-coloured #25 that's in the fake-looking SI cover.
Of course, I still think the SI cover looks no better than a very detailed painting of TF, as opposed to a real picture. Fogarty could have done two prints I guess.

Luke,
get over it. It's a photograph. It's slightly photoshopped. Not everyone any their mother has the time to become a baseball-art-aficionado, so get embarrassed, because not everyone knows who the hell Terrence (and it is Terrence, not Terrance) Fogarty is.

...*and, not any, but I think you got that...

Joe Mauer 2009 batting statistics:
BA 365 OBA 444 SLG 587
Baseball Prospectus 2010 projection:
BA 318 OBA 412 SLG 491
Recent stats for 2010:
BA 331 OBA 407 SLG 473

I think the Target Field photo has been photoshopped using HDRI, or High Dynamic Range Imaging. That gives it it's Terrrence Fogarty appearance.

I wonder if any team ever made the playoffs losing there last 10 games! The way the Blue Jays are playing I could easily see that happening. If the Royals offense pounds on us, wait till we face the Jays high powered offense. Then get swept in the playoffs against the Yankees and end the year on a 13 game skid. Maybe then we could get rid of Gardy and Bill Smith!

Rays AND yanks lose tonight...come on Twins put a couple on the board!!

luke, I don't know why I'm defending my question here, but clearly it "WAS" not a Fogarty painting. You clearly state that in your response. So why the attack, when your statement was inaccurate?

Why the hate on Bill Smith and Gardy?

I'm with you Josh. Read Posnanski's blog post from Sept. 17, My Annual Gardy Rant. He sums it up pretty well. As does this person who commented on his blog under "anonymous" (below). As my dad likes to say, "Well, Leland/Scioscia/Maddon/etc won the "Ron Gardenhire" Manager of the Year Award this year..."

Basically if your team wins about 100 games a year and wins the World Series year in and year out you have no complaint about the manager of your favorite team. Anything short of that and you will either be annoyed by your manager or hate him. So throughout history we have Joe Torre for about two years, Casey Stengel, Joe McCarthy, and Huggins as perfect managers and that is about it. Everybody else's managers were horrible. Give fans a chance to gripe about their team's manager and they'll take up hours of your time.

Gardy haters need to wake up and smell leadership on the Twins, because isn't not really coming on strong from the players. And if you don't like Billy Smith, perhaps you should come down to Chicago and see if you like how Kenny "I love aging (and failing) sluggers" Williams and Jim "Can't do a damn thing with the highest payroll in the National League" Hendry do their thing. And do you like having a farm system from which to bring up young talent? Well, go to bed being thankful that you're a Twins fan.

Jesus Christo, sorry for the bad grammar and typos. I must be tired.

Has anyone else noticed how much of a baby Ben Revere looks like? I swear, he could be 16!

Legend Club M seats I referenced above for TC Traders Friday are gone, but replaced with great Home Plate Box seats just right of home net, behind Twins dugout, for 15% below face. No can email though.
I was thinking again about the home field advantage and how much different it is than basketball, hockey, even football. The pitcher is much more important. But especially in a best-of-seven, I wonder. If the series goes 4 or 6 games, each team has an equal number of home games in baseball. If it goes 7, the home advantage team gets one more. If it goes 5, the "home advantage" team gets one less.

Thanks theloniousjoe for that. I am always so surprised by the lack of credit and appreciation Gardy, Smith, and the Twins get year in and year out. How many teams can say they are competitive each year, and have a shot at winning the World Series? Look at Cincy for instance, some 16 years since they were in the playoffs. All I ask is that we have a chance each year, they will get over that hump, and being there (in the playoffs) is the only chance to do that. Look at the Braves 91-05, they had a chance, isn't that the first goal of many to lead to a World Series opportunity?

josh - that is where i think you are wrong. sure, the twins have been "competitive" within a often weak AL central division over the last 8 years. the anomoly that is the AL central is part of the reason that twins have even been able to win multiple pennants in the 2000's. but to suggest the twins have really ever had a legit shot at winning the world series in the last 8 years is taking a rather large leap. they have been a team in the playoffs. not a team really capably of winning the whole thing.

that is because their manager (ron gardenhire) and general managers (terry ryan & bill smith) don't know how to win big. and they don't know how to win match-up series. they just know how to win a usually weak division over a long season.

I understand what you are saying, but without getting in to the playoffs you cannot even have a chance. Also, to do what we have done with our payroll limitations (albeit set by tight owners), the fact that we are in the playoffs says a lot. Money doesn't win championships, as we saw when the Marlins beat the Yankees, but it sure can help to build a better team to give them a chance. Billy Smith has only been GM since 2007, and each year Gardenhire pulls miracles with the limitations of payroll and injury issues. As a fan, all I want is that shot, as heartbreaking as it might be if they lose, that is what I look for in a team. Not too long ago we were playing in the ALCS, and within 3 wins of going to the World Series.

As far as not being able to win big, that is the whole chicken and egg debate. Is it the manager not getting his team preppes, the GM not pulling the trigger on the right moves, or the play and attitude of the players?

As a Twins fan who is 27 I have seen two world series in my lifetime that the Twins played in, and only remember the 91 series. I am a fan of baseball and a fan of the Twins. I was even at the dome supporting my favorite team during the spell of 93-2001. That was rough, so again, being there, from MY perspective is all I am looking for, and gives me and many other Twins fans that glimmer of hope.

prepped not preppes, lol it's late!

Beta-
The "weak" division that you seem to want to demean the accomplishment of winning is pretty comparable to every other division in baseball over the last 9 years, with the lone exception of the AL East. People always talk about the "weak AL Central" as though every other division is consistently better. Remember the "weak" division the Twins won in 2006? I believe (except for the Yankees) that the Twins and Tigers had the best records in the AL. Look at the standings and records over the past 9 years. The only division that has been consistently better, year in and year out, is the division with the two highest payrolls in baseball. Other than that, the AL Central has been pretty average, some years stronger than most other divisions, some years a bit weaker, and including both strong and weak years, the Twins have won the division SIX out of NINE times. WHY are people so quick to dismiss this accomplishment? Is it because of the postseason record? Is it because of the Twins' record vs. the AL East in the regular season? Talk to an Indians fan or a Tigers fan and see if they wouldn't be happy with even FOUR of nine division championships in the AL Central over the same time, vs. their one, or none...

Only three divisions have at least three teams with .500+ records. AL East (4), AL Central(3), and NL West(3).

josh - possibly because Gardy and his program lost a whole bunch of games they never should have: i.e. swept by the Tigers and a couple to Kansas City, when his program was in a playoff run.
And possibly because Gardy and his program almost got swept by a high-school varsity team in Kansas City, with an exception of last night.

This team is built to win the AL Central. No more no less. If we win in the playoffs its all fluff. You look at our starters and we have a bunch of number 2's and 3's, with the exeption of Liriano who is so inconsistent. He could shut down whomever in game 1 or implode. We have a payroll over $100 million and dont have a true number 1 starter. Look at the Phillies they have three number 1 starters. Pitching always wins this time of year and to me Bill Smith dropped the ball not getting a number 1 starter and Gardy is continually outmanaged in the playoffs. His record in postseason speaks for itself 6-18. I think as Twins fans we should want more than just the run of the mill AL Central title, we should want World Series titles.

I love the folks that just say we should be trying to win the world series. I really think that is every team's goal. My two thoughts:

1) You could be a diehard fan of the Royal, Orioles, or Pirates. All once proud teams, all past world series winners.

2) Since the beginning of World Series play in 1901, only 9 franchises have won more world series than the Senators/Twins. We have won more world series than 17 clubs (we are tied with 4). 8 teams have never won a world series. 4 have never played in one (including the Rangers).

I think it is more fun to be a fan of the Twins right now than a lot of teams.

There is no way to garentee a WS. The Yankees always have top of the rotation starters and one of the best lineups in baseball. They have 1 WS since 2000.

Would you like to be the Brewers right now. They gave up some top prospects to get CC for a chance at a WS. Now they are 40 games out of the NL Wild Card.

What the hell are you guys talking about? Built to only win the division? Our number 9 hitter in the playoffs (JJ Hardy) bats .275 with homerun power. Our lineup is STACKED. What are you guys talking about???

Despite the last week, I would take our staff over any other playoff bound team other than Philly and maybe TB. We will have the best bullpen though.

Rick-

Dr. X hit it on the nose. The SI cover is photoshopped using the HDRI technique. There are a couple typical ways to do it, using what is called Auto Exposure Bracketing (the camera shoots at 3 or more different exposures that are then combined in post processing softwares) or faking it with a single exposure that is then faked at different exposures that can then be combined. Some have spectacular results: clicky my name.

Also, I won't be able to make any playoff games this season but am going to the game tonight. I saw the Twins are selling the homer hankies on the website in bunches of 5,10 and 20 but was curious if they are selling the homer hankies at the games at say the apparel kiosks? Does anyone know?

Don't get me started on the last week of play. Should they have won? Of course they should have. Is it the end of the world that they didn't? Not at all. They are trying to rest players, fit guys in to see what the roster will shape up to be, and believe it or not, other division leaders have had rough patches too.

Here is a look at the last 10 games for some playoff teams:
TB - 5-5
NYY - 4-6
MIN - 4-6
TEX - 5-5

PHI - 7-3
CIN - 5-5
SF - 7-3
ATL - 5-5
SD - 5-5

Let's pump the breaks here on the Twins bashing a bit, and see how things go. Gardy is not at fault for 100% of what they do in the post season. At some point the blame needs to be on the guys on the field. However, every year is a new year, with a new group of guys or new nucleus. And for his record in the post season, again the fact we made it says a lot with the teams we trotted out some years and taking on the Yankees 3 times in the first round, and when playing the Angels look at a roster comparison. I will say that this is the best lineup we have had going into the playoffs, and maybe the best chance to go deep in the playoffs.

Cut this team some slack, we already get respect from everywhere else, we don't need it from home.

Jared, they are selling them at the little shops inside, cost is $2.

I think the biggest difference this year from years past is the DEPTH on the team.

The lineup is stacked from top to bottom and it's nice to see guys like Punto/Casilla/Tolbert ON THE BENCH WHERE THEY BELONG.

In years past, we did not have a Jim Thome or Orlando Hudson or JJ Hardy in the lineup.

I remember one year when Gardy used MICHAEL RYAN off the bench against Mariano Rivera in the 9th inning...swinging at pitches at his head. I am sorry, but guys like Ryan should not be playing in the postseason in that situation.

This year, the Twins finally have a legit lineup from top to bottom and the only thing that will stop them is poor pitching or bad lineup decisions by the manager.

This is their best chance since 2006, so its important they win that first game at home, something they did not accomplish in 2006.

We have nothing to worry about. So the Twins lost a bunch of games...batting order was mixed up, Valencia at DH, Tolbert/Punto got playing time, Twins pitching got beat up by the 3rd highest BA team in AL, Twins were anything but consistent.

That game changes tonight at home. Our rotation is set, last starts before post-season, Mauer is back at DH, Twins fans energized to see their team put on a show, and elevate their game to the next level.

Forgot to mention, we have veteran leadership, which we have not had persay in the past

One thing that bodes very well for the Twins this year, being home. Twins will go into the ALDS playing at home and will have been home for a week. No matter who we play, Yanks or Rays, they will both have been on the road for a week and be playing on the road to open the playoffs. I feel this is going to be a huge advantage.

To Rick:

The way a single image can have two credits is obvious: One to take the photo, and one to manipulate the image so it no longer looks like the photo.

;-)

I do like the Thome SI cover, though - it makes me glad we have a new ballpark!

For this last 4-game homestand Gardy should be playing his A team every game. Meaning Mauer catching and Thome DH'ing. They cannot limp into the post season. No more Punto, Revere, or Tolbert. With Mew York and Tampa not playing the greatest baseball right now, momentum could go a long way.

Also if they are serious about bringing Morneau back for the second round, get him in there to take live pitching against an opposing pitcher, if he can't do it, sorry Justin see you in spring training.

My 21st game will be Sunday! Be nice to see em get on another streak. I heard on ESPN radio this morning that homefield has not meant much at all in the Division and Leaugue championships. Whatever that is worth! Well lets hope the TF advantage works out for us!

What is homefield advantage worth? Well if it goes 5 games anywhere from $50-$1000 a ticket. It will be less expensive for us homers if more games are played on the road.

A potential World Series game 3 at Target Field will start at 6:57pm ET...earliest start time to a World Series game since game 6 of the 1987 World Series.

"persay" ???

Sorry, *per se

This may be a bit off subject, but does anyone know where one could pick up a pair of baseball pants similar to the Saturday home alternates (Ivory w/ navy pinstripes). I've looked online for about an hour and can't seem to find any pants that are not grey or white.

Majestic?

from shooter...

— The Twins, who last month unveiled a bronze statue outside Target Field of the club's first owner in Minnesota, Calvin Griffith, will unveil Sunday a bronze statue of Pohlad — who bought the Twins from Griffith — and superfan wife Eloise outside the ballpark.

Did he mention that Pohlad offered to throw the Twins in the crapper?

Duffman you are not going to wear those pants to the game are you? LOL!

Dear Luke (and anyone else who subscribes to this anti-Gardy-omg-he-can't-manage-the-Twins hysteria),

Let me point out more than a couple glaring holes in your argument.

For starters, you say "Gardy and his program lost a whole bunch of games they never should have." Guess what? Everybody loses games they shouldn't have. But that's just problem #1 with your statement.

But okay, I'll bite anyhow. What games say you that "Gardy and his program" should have won? Your answer? "[Getting] swept by the Tigers and [losing] a couple to Kansas City, when his program was in a playoff run." Okay. More holes. First of all, I might point out the incredibly obvious fact that the Twins were NOT in a "playoff run" during these games. You might say, "well they were still trying to clinch home field advantage." Yes. But they weren't in a playoff run. I don't know if you remember this or not, but the Twins actually clinched the division nine days ago, a full three days before the sweep at the hands of the Tigers even began. And I'm not so sure that the Twins "should have won" those games anyhow. After all, the '87 Twins didn't need to win their last 5 of the season in order to win the World Series.

Now if your point is that the Twins just simply shouldn't get swept by the Tigers and lose two to KC, then fine. But we already addressed that, and established the fact that everyone loses games they shouldn't lose. So what is your point? That somehow Gardy is responsible for the five-game losing streak? During five-game losing streak: Twins were outscored 46-21. Earlier this week Gardy blasted his pitchers for sucking so bad over that stretch. But somehow it's his fault that they gave up 46 runs in five days? I don't care how many brilliant pitching changes a manager makes in a game, there is nothing he can do about his pitchers sucking that bad.

What amazes me most about statements like this, is that they not only imply that somehow Gardy is solely to blame for this recent five-game losing streak caused by the Twins terrible pitching (the first one of the season I might add), but they also demonstrate that the speaker has an incredibly short term memory. Either that, or somehow they've rationalized in their heads that zero credit is due to Gardy for the 47-18 streak the Twins went on starting with the big "turning point" game won by Pavano in Detroit on July 11. If I understand this mindset correctly, only the players (not Gardy) are to be commended for the .723 winning percentage from 7/11-9/22, but only Gardy (not the players) is to be blamed for the five-game losing streak that immediately followed. Yes, this makes perfect sense.

Now I don't necessarily attend the Church of St. Gardenhire every Sunday, but if you assert that during long winning periods, he is somehow powerless and his presence is merely inconsequential, then you can't possibly assert that during a very short losing streak he somehow becomes all-powerful and is in complete control of the outcome of the game.

OK, so the Twins clinched the Central Division NINE days ago. And what the hell have they done since? Not a damn thing. It's a damn good thing the MLB playoff system doesn't strip teams of division titles because they SUCK so bad in games they SHOULD win!
OK, maybe "playoff run" was a bit too much, since yes, they had clinched the division. I'll tighten the statement, how about "championship run"? If your team is on a legitimate championship run, what are you supposed to think, when you get beat 10-1 by a team that PERENNIALLY loses 100 games in a season (93 so far this year)?
Does the Twins bullpen suck? YES! The way we're going, we're going to be the usual 1-2-3 then down and out.
But, if we're going to go up against the Yankees, AGAIN, we CANNOT be losing games to second-rate, junior varsity high school teams like Kansas City.
This ballclub seems to always let the damn Royals just walk all over them. Gardy needs to use some of the get-in-your-face, I'm-pissed-off kind of attitude that gets him ejected from games and start throwing it at his players.
Firedog has it right, this ballclub is simply built to win a Division championship. Compare that to the Cleveland Indians, who won the first FIVE Central Division titles that were handed out. They made it to the World Series twice, 1995 and 1997. They lost, but they made it there.
Look at the Twins' history in winning the Central Division: six times. With the exception of this year, only ONCE have the Twins made it past the ALDS. Once.
Who does that fall upon? The players, who like Mike says, we've got a pretty deep lineup (when all are healthy) this year. You could say that Gardy HAS at least had a good core of players up through the years and our six division titles. But, who does it fall upon when those players aren't cultivated to go beyond the first round of the playoffs?
Rant over.

BTW - correction on my statement, when I said "with the exception of this year" I was not insinuating that we will or won't make it past the DS, I meant with the exception that we don't know what will happen this year.

Sitting at the game tonight, I told my wife it would be sweet if the Target building (or the one with the webcam) was feasable to have the lights turned on to show "TWINS" down the floors.

Neutral corners, gentlemen, neutral corners. Now take deep breaths. Deeep breaths.

Does anyone know what advertisement is going up on Target Center facing TF near the plaza? Looks like the start of an "s"? Too dark out to send a picture...

The ad is for Sanford Health. Interesting because Sanford doesn't have a presence in the metro area, but it is huge in SD and outstate MN.

You're missing the point, Luke.

A) They don't need to have done a damn thing in the past 8 days. You ask: "And what the hell have they done since? Not a damn thing. It's a damn good thing the MLB playoff system doesn't strip teams of division titles because they SUCK so bad in games they SHOULD win!" THIS IS THE MOST MORONIC COMMENT YOU'VE MADE. It's like saying, "boy, it's a good thing that you can't lose if you're up by 6 runs in the ninth and you give up 5 runs." No, it's not a good thing, it just IS. That's the way they game is designed. If the baseball playoff system stripped teams of their titles based on how they played after they clinched, then teams would take those games more seriously, and in all likelihood, if those games actually mattered, the Twins WOULD NOT HAVE LOST those five in a row. BUT THEY DIDN'T MATTER. AND THAT'S WHY IT DOESN'T MATTER THAT THEY LOST.

B) "This ballclub seems to always let the damn Royals just walk all over them." REALLY? REALLY LUKE? Have you paid one iota of attention over the past 10 years???

Twins vs. Royals since 2001:

2001: 13-6
2002: 14-5
2003: 8-11
2004: 12-7
2005: 13-6
2006: 12-7
2007: 9-9
2008: 12-6
2009: 12-6
2010: 13-5

You should just stop.

"This ballclub is simply built to win a Division championship."

Okay. One could argue that that's all you can really build a ballclub to do. If a ballclub is built to win a division, they have a legitimate shot at winning the world series. I don't see how anyone could argue that. You just have to get hot at the right time. Look at the '04 Red Sox. Wild card winner, almost got swept out of the ALCS, then got hot and won eight straight. How about the '06 Cardinals. Basically backed into the playoffs with an 83-78 record, and then went 11-5 in the postseason, obviously winning the World Series. And what about the 2007 Rockies? Were they "built to win the division, but not the World Series?" They lost the World Series after all, got swept no less, after winning 21 of 22 straight games. If not for the FOX-TV-friendly retarded playoff schedule, the Rockies probably would've won the World Series.

The point? The postseason is a crapshoot. The hottest team wins. The hotter your starting pitchers and your lineup, the better off you are. But a team "built to win in the playoff" is just as capable of getting swept out of the first round. See: 2006 Twins. Are you telling me that the 2006 Twins were not built to win in the postseason? Ace American League Cy Young Award winner and pitching triple crown winner, American League MVP, American League batting champion...what more do you want going into the playoffs?!

"But, who does it fall upon when those players aren't cultivated to go beyond the first round of the playoffs?"

Billy Smith. Not Gardenhire. You should learn about the roles within a baseball organization.

Any more questions?

Sorry for the book everyone. The ignorance was just too staggering for me to leave it alone.

Twins Rookie Dress Up Day!!!

tk,
is there a new webcam? Or are you referring to the construction webcam #1 on the multifoods tower?

Damn anyone who loses or is losing to the Royals is by no means deserving to go to playoffs....

For those who just took me seriously, go find help.

theloniousjoe

Thank You!

The Manship and Butera pic is just plain classic. The Ben Revere Yo Gabba one is my favorite though. He does not look happy to be in that thing. The best part is that he normally looks like he's twelve years old, and that just makes him look like Steve Urkel. It's awesome!

Alex Burnett actually looks pretty badass in that thing. I certainly wouldn't want to run into him in a boxing ring.

We'll see joe, we'll see.
Incidentally, we're also losing to the Blue Jays.
Hopefully, you're wrong about the hottest team wins crack, because your Minnesota Twins are certainly NOT the hottest team right now.

Dropping games after clinching is alright, I guess, but when the pitchers are getting shelled so badly, I start to worry a bit. I'd like to see them finish the season on a high note going into the playoffs before these types of losses start to become the norm. I just don't want to see these performances become a habit.

The Blue Jays have showed all these whinning Twins players how to hit home runs that Target Field is a band box. I wish we had the Blue Jays roster going into postseason. Twins will get swept in the ALDS, you can take that to the bank!

Dr. X,
I agree with you completely. That's what I'm taking away from this recent skid. I'm less worried about the fact that the Twins are losing, or who they're losing to, and much more worried about the fact that the guys who are going to be our big-game starters are as you say, getting "shelled."

...and there goes another one...

But Luke, how hot you are at the end of the regular season isn't worth a damn. Like I said, the 87 Twins lost their last five, the 06 Cardinals crawled to the finish, the 06 Tigers (who lost the division to OUR BOYS yet won the wild card) lost their last three or four games, and went to the World Series against the Cards.

It doesn't matter how you're playing now. It's not even indicative of how you're going to be playing next Wednesday. But like Bert said a few days ago, and like you said Dr. X, the pitching is struggling right now, not the bats. That's a little concerning to be sure.

Btw, I love it whenever Dazzle starts a sentence by saying "I'm probably going to get in trouble for this, but..." He's probably one of the more refreshingly honest announcers in baseball.

Perhaps even more painful than the current parade of Toronto HRs is the sacrilegious treatment of the 7th inning stretch at Target Field. This wonderful and traditional sing-a-long, ordinarily enjoyed by groups fans in their own special ways -- arm-in-arm, swaying and singing along with the organ music -- is now a nightly barrage of off-key attempts blared out by some random fan handed a microphone. Medica and the Twins organization should be ashamed for thinking up yet another advertising opportunity at the expense of the baseball experience. Harry Caray? Not even close.

After watching the Twins get their heads handed to them so many times in the ALDS by the Yanks, I completely understand anyone's trepidation going into the playoffs. And while there is a strong element of chance in any sporting endeavor, building a team to win a division and then hoping for luck and good hops in the playoffs just doesn't seeem like a winning formula to a fan who has seen his team go down in flames so many times.
A small market team facing huge money clubs needs to get the good calls, the good breaks, and stay healthy throughout. Watching Hudson get spiked tonight just about did it for me, because I now expect minor injuries to result in day-to-day status, benching another starter for four or five games as the recovery "doesn't come along as fast as expected."
I know I'm worrying unnecessarily, but saying everything will be alright as soon as the playoffs begin seems a little like whistling past the graveyard to me.

Oh, firedog. I guess it's time to talk you off the ledge again. You think you would learn from your past mistakes and rants. Twins win the ALDS in five, win the ALCS in six vs. the Rangers, and make it to the Series.

You wanna put a wager on that firedog? The Twins are NOT going to get swept out of the ALDS.

And with the way they're swinging the bats tonight, the Jays have a legitimate shot at the single season team-HR record. 253 now with their SIX tonight, and they're only nine short of Seattle's 1997 record...every team in baseball could apparently learn a thing or two about homerun hitting from the Jays.

So the kid (predictably) throws back Bautista's 54 HR of the season. What a hero.

Lost in all the long rants on this board is this: The Rays are choking off what should've been an easy AL East crown. At least we have a shot, granted still less than 50/50 I'd say, but a feasible shot of hosting the Rays in the LDS and letting Cliff Lee take the Yankees out. That is the preferred option.

Again, firedog, I agree wholeheartedly.
And, joe, I'm not so sure I'm the only one that feels the way I do, Have you taken a gander at 'The Yard' (as Reusse calls it) tonight on TV? I haven't seen that many vacant seats at TF since I went to the Open House in March.
If we end up in the Series this year, and better yet, win the thing, that'll be a bigger miracle than 1980 in Lake Placid. It'll be known as the "Miracle on Grass"

I this whole credit-to-the-players-for-winning/blame-the-manager-for-losing mentality probably comes from the idea that a manager can't play the game for the players, therefore doesn't deserve credit for the win, be he sure as hell can lose the game by mismanaging the starters and the bullpen. Under those circumstances, and those circumstances only, I can understand this rationale. But that only applies insofar as a close game was lost because a manager didn't take a pitcher out and that pitcher ended up giving up a run, and the team ended up losing by a run. Sure, under those circumstances - manager's fault.
But when the Twins have been outscored 61-25 over the last seven games including tonight, there's shit all a manager can do to help the situation.

Torre deserves some credit for 98-00, but those Yankees were some damn good teams with some great players. Alan Trammell probably deserves some the blame for the 03 Tigers, but that was one God-awful group of ball players. Ned Yost certainly deserves some of the blame for the 07 and 08 Brewers' troubles, as there were some poor bullpen managing choices in the final weeks and games of those seasons. Girardi certainly deserves some of the accolades for the 06 Marlins, because as much young and fresh talent as there was on that team, young talent needs leadership and discipline.

...which is exactly why Gardy deserves his fair share of the credit for what the Twins have done in the last nine years. A bunch of those young, fresh, and very under-ripe teams were written off in March, April, May, June, July...

Luke, you're an idiot.

The reason everyone went home early tonight is because the Twins got walloped. It's got nothing to do with how good the team is on the whole.

Did you happen to notice that the Twins sold out yet another home game tonight? It's not because they're in third place and going home next Monday...

For once I agree with mhalga62hioswncklemse....

Everyone is slamming the Twins right now, but did anyone notice that the Rays AND the Yankees are playing just as poorly in the past week? And neither one of those teams has actually clinched the division yet!

Firedog

I would bet the house that they will not get swept in the ALDS.

"If we end up in the Series this year, and better yet, win the thing, that'll be a bigger miracle than 1980 in Lake Placid. It'll be known as the 'Miracle on Grass'." -Luke

antifire,
while you're at it out there on that ledge bringing firedog back in, you might want to grab Luke too...

OH! NOW I UNDERSTAND all this worry about how the Twins are doing! You guys are FOOTBALL FANS!

Is anyone listening to 1500 right now. They're saying exactly what I've been saying all night long.

What I find funny about the naysayers like Luke is while the Twins are struggling, so are the Yankees and Rays. They've also gone 4-6 and 5-5 respectively in their last 10 games. So I guess only the Rangers have any hopes of winning in the playoffs by that way of thinking, huh?

I will see you all on Wednesday night after the box score...

The Twins have about the same chance of going to the ALCS as theloniousjoe and luke starring in a TV series remake of "Perfect Strangers."

Here is a link to the "S" I saw up on Target Center, to which Tyler stated that it was going to be a Sanford ad.

"Mike Opat, who chairs the County Board, said the 2,800-square-foot sign will 'cheapen' the public art and spirit of Target Plaza."

2800 SF sounds large from the looks of the sign that I saw, but then again, it was only the "S"

Hey TTH! I was wondering where you've been during all this banter! You are just about as wrong as your analogy is bewildering, though. Perfect Strangers was a TV series, was it not? Did you mean to say, "a remake of the TV series 'Perfect Strangers'."?

In either case, the Twins have about the same chance of going to the ALCS as your retort does of being annoying...which is to say, a pretty good one!

Rick, didn't know the Pohlad's owned Ford Centre, are they going to fix it up? My buddy and I were in the Tavern tonight on the balcony and were talking about how run down it was and unappealing.

Thankfully I cannot see if from my seats...

Agreed Rick, although I do have to say that at Wrigley, at least the signs on top of the buildings across the street have a "baseball related flavor" to them. The once-painted "Budweiser" rooftop that is now the Horseshoe Casino at least has a "hit it here and win $1 million" phrase that accompanies it. It's the Toyota sign built directly onto the bleachers that is particularly disheartening.

And that Sanford Health ad looks positively atrocious!

Rick,

Did not mean to allude to it as an ugly structure, but with some touch-up work on the outside, fixing of windows, installing central air, and removing the 100 A/C window units that look like there about to fall out, it would look great.

Ford Centre truly is a beautiful building. And this Bergerson guy captured it quite nicely in some of his aerials:

Hmm, this Bergerson guy apparently knows a thing or two about preventing embedding of his photos as well...

This is the one that looks the nicest:

Ford Centre glows red in the sunset

Twinkfan,

I am not, or wasn't until you mentioned it. I am looking for them for Halloween.

For all of you who think the sign on the sign of Target Center is ugly or a poor choice, just remember there is a giant Budweiser sign inside the stadium, plus a massive advertsing board above the grandstand, and the huge Target sign above the batters eye. This sign is not going to stand out more than any of those, in fact it may make Target Center look better.

Thanks Rick,
did I do something wrong in the formatting? God knows, I'm tired as shit...it's been a long day, and they're just going to get longer for the next several. I'm moving the day before the ALDS starts. Not looking forward to that, although I suppose watching game 1 on Wednesday night will be a welcome retreat from packing-moving-unpacking, etc.

Your history perspective on the Ford Centre reminded me of my Larry Millett book, "Lost Twin Cities." Definitely a fascinating book, especially for someone who is only 27 years old and doesn't remember the vast, vast majority of the buildings featured in the book. The book is also a reminder of particularly why buildings like the Ford Centre are so valuable to the city. It's a good thing for the Ford Centre that TF was built when and where it was, otherwise it may have just been a matter of time before it met a similar fate. Unless of course the architectural conservationists already stepped in a while ago...is it a landmark?

The irony of Dave St. Peter complaining about excessive advertisements is incredible. Think about that for a minute...

Ok back to the Ryder Cup (like pulling an all-nighter back in college).

I also don't think the Twins have any right to be "upset" at this billboard. They own the ballpark and milk ad space as much as they can. Why should a completely different entity have to play by different rules? Ridiculous double standard.

Good humor. You can't even make it through a TF gate without being bombarded with advertising. Inside TF looks like a NASCAR racetrack. The Twins sell their soul to Target for a few bucks instead of giving the place real meaning with a decent name. But hey, ain't nobody else better try to make quick buck!

buffalo made a nice point - Yanks and Rays are sucking it up too.
bottom line: let's wait and see...but it aint looking good joe.

Target Field hasn't reached Citi Field levels of ad bombardment, but there are enough that the Twins and others can't really complain about the sanctity of it all now that this new billboard is going up. The real complaint is that the Wolves and Sanford Health are reaching Twins fans without paying the Twins any dough. It's been long known that an ad was going on Target Center. If keeping it blank to "protect the public art space" of Target Center was so important, the Twins could have bid on the space with the intention of keeping it blank.

" --- the Twins could have bid on the space --- "

Excellent point!

Target this, Target that, bulls-eyes, etc. everywhere you look and these morons want us to think of it as "public art space" which the Twins donated to us because they are such wonderful people? Get real!

Going to the game tonight, prepared to BOOO the home nine if they keep playing like crap.

What bugs me the most is if the Twins had done anything over the last week they'd have a good chance at having the best record in all of baseball. As it is, they're limping (at best) into the playoffs.

Or maybe it's part of Gardy's grand scheme to throw off opposing scouts. "So, what did their pitchers throw?" "Belt high fastballs with no movement and hanging breaking balls, mostly..."

As for advertising inside Target Field, a good friend of mine's first comment at her first game was on the lack of advertising inside the ballpark, compared to so many other stadiums. Look at the picture of the Thome SI cover, you see four small ads. In some parks that same view would show a dozen ads or more.

Luke,
bottom line is you've been dead wrong, logically and statistically, on almost all of your arguments. I noticed your most recent stance, "let's wait and see," is about as concrete as the Mississippi. Probably a good way to go though, considering your previous statements included gems like, "this Twins team seems to let the Royals walk all over them..."

Although I'm not impressed by your assertion that "it ain't looking good." It's bright and sunny and 62-degrees right now here in Chicago. Doesn't mean it couldn't be 45 and raining next week.

Well I'm not a fan of all the advertising, but I bet if the Timberwolves were to have worked with the Twins to create something that won't be too distracting there wouldn't have been quite as much of an uproar.

that sign looks bad and is unfortunate, but the twins, city and ballpark authority knew this would probably happen when the ballpark was going through the planning and approvals phase. when the site was still a parking lot you'd go down and stand on the 7th st bridge and it didn't take a rocket scientist to see that arena wall looming over the site just waiting for an ad. that a big billboard is being pasted to that roof is no big suprise and the twins are being holier-than-thou.

I think Schda nailed it. I have no problem with the Timberwolves trying to cash in on advertising on the building, but it would have been nice if they had at least consulted with the Twins and done something a little more tasteful. Hopefully the finished product looks better than these Photoshopped images the Wolves have provided.

People can rip on the ads in Target Field all the want, but I think they all were done pretty well. I actually barely notice them when I go to the game. Those images of what the Sanford Health sign will look like on Target Center? Way overbearing and doesn't fit with its surroundings. I know some people have been wanting to see Target Center decorated up so it wasn't so bare, but this is worse than it is right now by far.

Plus, if I was Target, I would be a little pissed off. Don't they still own naming rights to the arena? Once that sign is up it loooks like the name of the arena is Sanford Health Center. That sign has to trump the size of any Target Center-related branding on the outside of the arena. Hopefully when a new naming rights contract is signed next year for the arena they will put up a decent looking semi-permanent sign referencing the name of the arena.

I think the advertising at Target Field has been rather subtle compared to other ballparks, including the Metrodome.

The Twins gradually decreased the number of ads on the OF walls at the Dome in recent years as they began their transition to Target Field. I remember DSP even saying several times that they were gradually dropping sponsors and focusing more on the premium "title" and "founding" sponsorships.

There are four founding sponsors (Best Buy, FS North, US Bank and T.I.)on the LF videoboard and four sponsors on the sign above the grandstand (Pepsi, Mortenson, MOA, Delta)

Than you have the Best Buy, Budweiser, US Bank and Qwest signs along the OF walls.

However, its a matter of time before MORE ads are installed on the outfield walls...once the revenues peak and ticket sales begin to drop, you will see new advertising spots on the outfield walls magically appear.

Eh, to each their own. I like to think I am unswayed by ads. Nothing I buy is because I saw a cool ad or I feel like I need to have that item to complete some image created by an ad agency.

The only ads I've ever found effective are the ones that tell me about deals. I'm not going to go out and buy Budweiser or Pepsi because an ad campaign tells me to, but if you tell me you have a great sale on something I need, then I'll listen.

Then again, I don't watch reality TV, don't own an iPod or iPhone, have a basic non-smart cell phone and do most of my discretionary shopping at thrift stores, so I guess I'm not the target audience for most of those ads.

I shop at whatever place is closest to me at the time or wherever has the better deal. I don't have a home phone. As for Pepsi or Coke, I prefer Coke, but it's the taste not some ad with polar bears that makes me prefer Coke. And I'll buy either, or even RC Cola or some off-brand pop, if it's the cheapest option.

I shop mostly on the internet. My home phone is tied up with sat. TV and DSL and whoever has the best deal gets the business. I drink lots of Coke & Pepsi - whatever my wife finds on sale. I record most shows I want to watch and then start watching them 1/2 hour after they start so that I can blow through the ads. Life is good.

Regarding the ad on the side of the building getting in the way of the Target Center naming rights, I don't think it's really an issue. The value to Target is that people go to a building called "Target Center" and that's the name you hear on TV and radio during Wolves games and highlights, in all public communication from the Wolves, and in promos for concerts and other events. There has never been much advertising for Target on the building's exterior except for the name above the door and the odd billboard on the exterior.

The Wolves and the operators of the building actually had a legal fight to determine who actually had the right to sell the offending ad space. The Wolves won that war and I've been watching the rear of the arena all summer to see when an ad would appear. I won't deny that the ad doesn't look very attractive in the pictures, although it could be a case of a temporary unlit sign going up now to ensure visibility during the playoffs and then a more permanent and better looking backlit ad would be put in place for next season.

Jorge, I would disagree. Part of the value of naming rights is also seeing your brand out there in shots of skylines and aerial shots at other sporting events (Why do you think so many arenas have the name of the sponsor on the roof?). If I was Target, I would be a bit cheesed by Sanford Health having such a large presence on the outside of the arena when they paid millions for the naming rights to the arena through next year.

Image that sanford sign on the SI cover... makes me sick

Target has not right to be cheesed or otherwise offended. This is business, for cryin' out loud. Target doesn't want another company's ad on the building, then negoiate and pay for exclusivity. You don't think Target has a few laywers around doing that kind of work??

Same with the Twins. There are obvious reasons why the Pohlads went after Ford Centre. You think they didn't realize you could see Target Center from the stands at Target Field? Think they didn't have an opportunity to buy that space loooong before Sanford Health?? They just didn't think it was worth it. And now they want to whine about it? Gimme a break.

And as for the unsightliness, peruse some of the actual ballpark books that Rick has listed to the right. There's a long history fo ballpark advertising. Those signs are as much a part of the fabric of the ballpark (and American) experience as hot dogs and onfield drainage pipes. We might not like them, but in the grand scheme of American commercialism, these signs don't even make the top 100 list of most annoying.

Regarding advertising...on the trip home from the game last night I thought "we haven't been to Wendy's in awhile, and I should go see what the Bert Burger is like." It does work.

Is it published what anyone paid for any given advertisement? I would be interested in knowing what the investment would be for a medium sized business wanting to build brand locally.

Last: my million dollar idea...a sponsored thermometer. Why haven't they thought of that? I'd look at that at least three times a game, and probably more.

i wonder how this affects the target center naming rights. the contract is up next year. it's not the ad itself but just it's sheer size that's unfortunate.

Speaking of advertising:

Eight beer vendors -- including Wally -- were cited for serving to minors last night

Three comments:

When buying beer last night I tried to show my ID and the gal working the stand had none of it. (And I learned the hard way the aluminum bottles are $8.50-OUCH).

The picture in the article shows Wally wearing a button that says $4/beer. Those were the good old days.

I miss $10 24 ounce Coronas. I'd spend $10 on one beer, but won't spend $15 on two. The Twins are missing out on this one.

All I've seen are artist's renderings of what it might look like. Does anyone have a photo of the actual billboard to share?

OMG! News Radio is my most favorite TV show ever.

I wish the Twins were more respectful of my view of art when I am at the Walker! All I can see is advertisement for "Twins" as I look to the Northeast and see it on the scoreboard...

Unless they have worked really hard today on putting the sign up, it is not complete (or even close). During last night's game we noticed it and the only thing visible was a portion of the very first letter "S". We were trying to figure out what the ad was going to be for - my guess was Sports Authority.

This morning saw the firestorm breaking out in the news and found the answer.

Poor Wally. He must just feel awful.
And THANK YOU Duffman for posting that NewsRadio clip. One of my favorites.

Rick love the old pic of the boys working on the rails! LOL! I can almost see my Holiday Gas station down that road!!!!

Good ole T Denny Stafford! He was going to pay for TCF stadium right? LOL!

$500 fine. What's that - twenty-eight seconds worth of beer sales?

Still 'veiled,' I'd say.
:)

Thome At The Plate by Whipkey Three. Click my name and check it out.

OK, I realize the plaza itself is called Target Plaza, but for all the talk about the plaza being awash in advertising, you can really see the point with Rick's pictures there. It's a beautiful sight with no advertising to be seen (unless you count the subtle Target logos on the ground of the plaza itself). And then you look up from this great space that they've created outside the ballpark and you see that eyesore that they couldn't even be bothered to make match the color of the building. Yuck.

I really don't see what the whole negative reaction to this Sanford sign is all about. It's really not that bad. It's blue lettering on white. There isn't a riot of color bombarding the viewer. There are no slogans. It's just a name on the sign. We're subjected to advertising every day of our lives. It becomes invisible after a while. Can anyone state with any degreee of certainty how many billboards they drive by on their way to work? You'd have to sit and think about it, wouldn't you? In time the sign will all but vanish as it becomes just another part of the background.
As far as advertising inside Target Field is concerned, it only makes the place look more like a classic, urban ballpark. Ebbets Field, Shibe Park, Crosley Field, Polo Grounds, Baker Bowl, Braves Field, even Fenway Park all had prominent ads covering the outfield walls at one time or another. Seeing outfielders pulling in fly balls in front of huge ads is part of the visual record of baseball.
I just don't understand the objections.

Now is somebody will only spell out "and son" on that sign right below it.

An explanation to the painful SSB?
From the Strib:
" Nick Punto's father, Lou Punto, is scheduled to sing the national anthem before Friday's game -- but he might be a game-time decision.
" 'He flew in and his voice was gone,' Nick Punto said.
" Lou Punto, who has singing experience, is treating his voice in hopes of answering the bell.
" 'I don't have that gift,' Nick said, 'but he can sing.'

Just another late season blow to the team, I guess.

ALCS lottery results are out

Damn it! I didn't get the ALCS lottery either.

Hopefully I have good luck again and score friends with codes, who are willing to take me and only charge me face value. :)

Sorry, guys and gals: I am 2-for-2 in "opportunity" lottery picks.

(One of my daughters is 0-for-2, upholding the "50% of us are winners" theory which was posited here earlier.)

Just got an email that I won a chance to buy ALCS tickets on Monday. Anyone want to purchase this password?

Those with passwords should have a better chance at tickets to games that should be played, as it looks like we will get games 3-5.

tk, I'm sure the Twins took this into account and upped the number of "winners," server load be damned! (Although there's also that slim chance that 3 ALDS games will be played at TF, too...) And look for the percentage of "winners" to continue dropping: the pool of those vying for a password grows due to the window for entering open longer for each successive series draw.

Josh, I would imagine that the effort that it takes to actually nail actual tickets would suppress the asking price of a password. Good luck in that sale, but if you have no takers you could simply email it to the address in my sig link.

Josh,
I want to buy it, email me

"Don't call them Twinkies" was just played during the Mid 2nd at the game

Pardom my ignorance, but is there a respect thing that goes along with not putting the US flag on the center (higher flag pole) and having the US flag on the normal POW flag pole, and Canadian on the Twins Territory pole?

Morneau should be taking some hacks this weekend. If he gets a couple of hits, make him active for the LDS.

If Douggie says "you know what?" one more time, well, you know what? I'm going to tear my freakin hair out. Or, just switch back to Gladden and Gordon...

Rick, met stadium flag pole, where the US flag normal goes is bare. US Flag is on the normal POW (military pole) and Canada flag is on the flag pole that usually has the Twins Territory flag (flag a fan raises when Twins take the field). Is there a reason? Do they not want the US Flag to fly higher than the Canadian flag, is that the reason? Is there some sort of honor code?

I think lost in all the conversation about naming rights, tastefulness, whether the Twins are the pot calling the kettle black, etc, etc, is just the simple point that this Sanford ad is utterly unappealing aesthetically speaking. It's an eyesore. The big "Budweiser" sign above the (Budweiser) roof deck? It actually looks...nice. And this isn't about whether I like Budweiser. I don't. I never drink it. I like good craft beer. But I'm not talking about whether I give two shits about the product being advertised. I'm just talking about whether the advertising looks aesthetically appealing...and the Sanford sign definitely does NOT.

How are you all feeling about game two at Target Field next Tuesday? Pavs is pitching pretty damn well!

There you go, Josh. My apologies if I came off as a smart a** with the (totally inaccurate) economics illustration. Not my intent at all. And hooray for supply and demand.

Eight teams have a losing record over their last 10 games.
One of those teams is in the playoffs.
I'm pretty sure that last sentence is supposed to make me feel okay.
Gonna sleep on that one.
Go Twins.

The Twins first playoff game is on Wednesday, isn't it? Last year the Skanks had the option of playing on Tuesday or Wednesday, and they chose Tuesday which forced the Twins to fly overnight to NY and play the next night. Do the Twins have such an option this year?

Dr X,
Games 1 and 2 are definitely Wednesday/Thursday.

If we play the Yankees, both games should be in Primtime (Game 1 will certainly be). If we play the Rays, I would expect both to be day-games

It's customary to fly national flags at the same height. It did look a little weird, though - I'm so used to seeing the US flag in the middle of the three poles!

Nice night at the ballpark, but got a bit chilly when the breeze picked up in the late innings. The 2011 calendars they were passing out are very nice, it will look good hanging in my cube at work.

And here's my "don't want to think this way but afraid it's going to happen" prediction: Twins go 0-for-October, getting Gardy fired. This team looks like they've just quit after clinching the Central. Talking to a guy next to me at the game, saying how you can't dog it for 10 days and then just 'turn it on' when the playoffs start. This season might come to a very sudden and crashing end next weekend.

Is it possible for the AL East race to come down to a game 163? If so, it's too bad the Twins won't have the option of making TB or NY fly overnight to play on Tuesday. But I suppose baseball can't have the Yankees playing without adequate rest, like the Twins were forced to do last year.

Dr x,
I'm pretty sure the Rays hold the head-to-head tiebreaker so there won't be a Game 163

FTK and everyone else,
It couldn't hurt to start thinking more positively and get ready to really stand behind our team next week! If they play in front of 40,000 skeptics rather than 40,000 revved up fans, that will make a big difference

I ran across this on Craigslist, thinking about buying, what do you think?

You people are lucky the Twins didnt put in some of those electronic advertising signs that change every so often that might have been bad. And if I remember right the MBA owns Target Field not the Twins. But not that it matters much since both those organizations seem to always be on thse same page with stuff like this.

There is no "POW" pole. The POW/MIA flag flies below the US flag on the main (old Met) pole - yours truly saw to that. I don't know about equal heights for national flags, my understanding is that the US flag always occupies the highest position. I could be wrong but it would not be the first violation of proper flag etiquette at TF.

Got my ALCS tix yesterday. Also got a "sorry" e-mail on the lottery.

going to the game sec 302 row 6, hope we can finally get a win in this series

TCMark, I hope I'm wrong, but I've seen nothing out of our guys for the last week.

Another gripe: Whoever sets the pre-game schedule at home games is an idiot. Sitting in 104 last night, crowd is getting into it. Lineups are announced, people are standing and cheering for the players. Then, they start playing the intro to Pink Floyd's "Time", and all the energy in the ballpark just fades to nothing. People sit down, and we wait, and wait, and wait - for what seemed like at least two or three minutes. By the time the players actually take the field the P.A. Guy tries to get the energy level back up, but it just isn't the same.

It was fun to hear Craig Finn and the Baseball Project at the game, though! I was singing along!

I'll be out on the golf course (for the first time in over year - it might be ugly!) this afternoon, hopefully when I turn on the radio in the car on the way home I can hear about a Twins' win.

Okay, so now that 'Magic Number 5' up there is actually saying: 'All seven of the significant games in the AL best record "race" have to go our way.'

Hey, it could happen, but methinks ALCS home field will depend on us playing TX for the pennant...

Should we now be hoping that the Royals win the next two, and we face TB fresh of a sweep from KC?

Not even Bud Selig would force a game 163 on two teams that already qualified for the playoffs, if it just determined positioning/seeding. Only if the issue is which of two tying teams would qualify for the playoffs (i.e., 3 other teams have already qualified) would the extra game be played. So basically, if two teams tie in a division that doesn't have a wild-card eligible team (Al Central most recently) an extra game is used and the tiebreaker just determines home field.

Ben,

Thanks, I was thinking the POW/MIA flag flew below the Minnesota Flag, that is what I confused last night. Regardless, it looked weird to have the center and highest of three poles bare. I wish I could upload a picture.

Pitching stinks, hitting stinks, and now the fielding stinks. It's nice to see all 3 phases coming together!

I am now officially concerned.

At the game and thought it was nice that they have the Gophers game score on the out of town scoreboard.

Looks like the Twins are trying to get the most out of the backstop advertising right now...

Partial US Bank, DQ, and Subway all showing part of their ads :)

Hopefully that sparks them.

There's the spark...

Duffman,
Do we hook pinkies, now, or wha...?

Bout time, 163 hero once again...

Casilla is MR. Clutch! Hopefully this gets them rolling.

That's how we do! keep it up boys

It's nice to have goose bumps again watching this team finish a game strong.

Strong at-bats by Kubel and Morales who both drew walks with an inconsistent strike zone.

Looks like mlb is as anxious as the rest of us to get our postseason calendars nailed down. They've been working on filling in the match-ups as they become final, and game times are set for the WS contests. (Perhaps the latter was done long ago; I hadn't noticed.)
clicky...

OK now I feel better.

TK --- It is VERY odd to see the main pole bare. I'm thinking it must be a MLB thing about not snubbing the Canadians. I am all but certain it is not proper.

"But think long and hard about the Rapid Park parking lot and just what could be built there and what the relationship to the playing field (views in or out) might be..."

Hmm... me thinks Rick has been on the Lambrecht Minikahda "museum" tour as well.

As usual, we can count on Rick for the bottom line.

Anyone prefer to listen to Dazzle and Gordo over the TBS crew? This product has two devices that claim to sync the radio broadcast with the cable or satellite feed. The SportSync Radio ($40) claims to sync 0 to 8 seconds while the DelayPlay ($200) claims to sync from 0 to 16 seconds. I think my digital television would be ok with the SportSync Radio as the delay between radio and satellite should be 8 seconds or less. I shall test this tomorrow with digital satellite WFTC and am 1500 as Dish and FSN will no longer show me the Twins games. My HD television may need more of a delay than 8 seconds. Does anyone know the exact delay between 1) radio and digital cable/satellite 2) radio and HD cable/satellite? Also, does anyone have a review of this product? Thanks

Are we rooting for the Yankees or Sox today? I can't decide!

I think the best situation is for the Rays to lose today and tomorrow. Then we'd host them fresh off a demoralizing sweep to Kansas City, and I think we have the edge in that matchup with games 1 and 2 at home.

CC Sabathia on Wednesday night in primetime scares the heck out of me.

In any instance, I am hoping the Twins play anytime after 1:30pm CT.

Don't look now, but it's still possible that we could have a game-163 for the fourth straight year. Padres beat the Giants this afternoon and are now sitting just one game back with one game to play.

If they win tomorrow, it'd be pretty remarkable that not only did MLB require a one-game playoff in four consecutive years, but that two of the teams to appear in those playoff games each played in two of those playoff games.

NotMendoza,
I prefer to listen to Dazzle and Gordo over Bert and Dick. I just think that radio announcers in general are usually better at calling games, if for no other reason than they are forced to actually descriptively call plays by virtue of their technological medium. If any of you have ever had the displeasure of having to listen to Hawk Harrelson (TV play-by-play for the Sox) call a game, you know what I am talking about.

But perhaps my radio announcer bias also comes from a bit of nostalgia. I grew up spending summer nights hanging out and playing in the back yard with my dad and brothers, listening to Herb Carneal and John Gordon call games. Baseball just sounds better, you could even say it sounds right, coming out of an AM radio.

What would happen if the Giants, Padres, and Braves had the same record after tomorrow? NL West playoff on Monday and the loser plays the Braves for the Wild Card on Tuesday?

FD, that's exactly right. The Monday tiebreaker would be in SD, I'm not sure where the Tuesday tiebreaker would be...

Finished my regular season at TF 20-5-1 (tie being yankee suspension.) I can only assume that my .818 winning percentage will carry over to the playoffs.

It had better. Otherwise you have some explaining to do!

FD,
I just looked at the standings and had the same thought. We could also potentially have a similar situation to the AL East, if the Braves lose tomorrow and the Padres win. The Braves would end the season 1 game back in the Wild Card and the Padres and Giants would be tied atop the division. It looks like the Padres won the season series with the Giants pretty convincingly (11-5 at this point, not sure if that includes today's game), which would mean the Padres would be the NL West winners and the Giants would take the Wild Card.

So Rick, you want the Rays in MN on Wednesday now? Is it because you want them as an opponent (and I can see why), or is it because you want to go to the game? (Which I also understand : )

Actually Rick, both the Rays AND the Red Sox would have to lose tonight in order for the Yankees to win the division (and to guarantee the Rays being our 1st round opponent). If just one of those things happens today but not both (Rays lose their current 4-run lead on the Royals, or the Yankees win tonight), then the Rays are still only 1-game back of the Yankees with a chance to catch them in the standings tomorrow, and of course, if they do, they win the division and the Yankees come to MN.

Alright then. I like your reasoning!

I don't know about you all (I don't even know if any of you give a flying f&%$), but I'm hoping for a Padres and Braves victory tomorrow. I love me some extra baseball!!

The last three game-163s have been some of the best baseball games I've ever seen, and they'll all likely go down as some of the greatest games played in baseball history.

Yeah, both ESPN and MLB.com are slow to update those numbers as the day progresses. It's kind of annoying, because that means they're really only reliable about 20-30 minutes after the last game of the night ends. And in situations such as divisional ties in which the second place team gets the wild card, those numbers are rarely, if ever, completely correct.
One thing I like about it however, and this is only because I'm a purist, is that it forces you to be able to figure this stuff out on paper or in your head. They would never leave that kind of guess work to football fans. They spell everything out for them...

Anyone able to clarify or justify what would get the Twins the earliest game on Wednesday? Dick and Bert stated during the broadcast that the rumor was a 2:30 start.

There's 0% chance (zero!) that a Twins-Rays game would be the primetime game on Weds or Thurs. Minneapolis-Tampa is such a smaller TV market than San Fran, Atlanta, San Diego, and obviously NY

Yes, Rick. I got to know Bruce three years ago, and have known his brother's family for many, many years. I have little doubt his plan will be realized once the economy turns around. I'm sure Bruce is a big reason why the jumbotron is where it is. :)

No tiebreaker game simply to decide which team is wild card and which isn't.

I should clarify. The tiebreaker game is needed only to determine whether a team makes the playoffs or not. So no tiebreaker game to determine "seeding". NL West loser might have to play Braves because one would be left out of the playoffs and only a game can determine that, not regular season head-to-head record or the infamous coin flip. But Tampa would not play New York to determine which is wild card (no. 4 seed) and which is another seed, because both would qualify for the playoffs regardless. Sorry for the confusion on my part.
I would like a day game for the twins for the sun.

Thanks Rick for putting it all together...

Tickets have still not been moving on Stub Hub, many tickets still available and prices haven't really moved much either. I am guessing we will see that all change starting tomorrow night.

Look at Game 1 on Stubhub. There is an 8pack of section 133, row 3 listed.

Can't be a season ticket holder (powerball pavilion)
Couldn't have gotten 8 together in the public lottery (four limit)
Couldn't have gotten 8 together in the partial plan presale (I know from my rep that the maximum you could get was 6 per game, they didn't even have passwords for 8 packs)

Other than the Twins listing their own tix, can't explain it

Also,
For Game 2, TicketKing has Section 140, row 5 (8 pack) and row 6 (6 pack). They must have a very good friend somewhere in Target Field

Tom -

Since it is the playoffs, MLB takes charge of the ticket stock including setting the prices. They also require a large number of tickets be given to MLB that they disperse to other teams, to their "friends" as well as all of their national advertisers. I am guessing that is where you will see many of these smaller blocks of tickets coming from that are listed on Stub Hub and elsewhere.

Rick,

Has it been announced somewhere that is a FOR SURE if we play the yankees it will be night games? I haven't seen that on any official MLB site, and I don't think you want to mislead people.

antifire,
For confirmation, all you needed to do was listen to the announcers' breathless voices on FOX yesterday whenever speaking of anything Yankee.

Ah, Game 163...
Those were the good old days earlier in the decade when your complete postseason ticket strip came with this oddity as a free bonus: tickets to a possible TieBreaker game. Twins never needed one for those years and it always came marked 'VOID.' Maybe you remember them, but click my name for an image.

In the spirit of "I don't notice the ads:" At the game yesterday with two nephews from Iowa, when Rick Anderson went to talk to Duensing, I almost told the boys that $20 from an ATM shouldn't cost you $21.50.

antifire,

It hasn't been announced for sure already, but I would bet $10,000 to win $10 that the Yankees game (whoever they play) will be the primetime game.

I understand it is likely that if it's the Yankees it will be primetime. I have tickets to game 1 and can go if it is night, but not if it is day, so just wanted to make sure before I make definite plans.

Sid is reporting in today's paper that a new video board would go above the trap in RF, replacing the mortenson/pepsi/moa ad sign.