We went to a baseball game on August 18th, Twins vs Cincinnati. I don’t know when the last time was that I went to a MLB game. I’ve been to lots of spring training games now, from being in Florida, but a regular game? I think it was years ago, here in Minneapolis one time when we were visiting, at their old domed stadium.
Their new stadium, Target Field, is nice. A little retro but not overly so. Big and airy. Lots of screens to catch replays and watch the score.
I won these tickets by doing a step contest in Shorewood in May. A bunch of little towns in Hennepin County did a competition to encourage people to get out and move. You recorded your steps every day for the month of May. Of course I was training for Grandma’s Marathon, so I had LOTS of steps! I ended up being the senior with the most steps in Shorewood. I won passes to the Aquatic Center, and I also won baseball tickets. Yay!
I had four tickets so we took Erik and Leo with us. This was Leo’s second ball game. Since they caught a foul ball at his first game we had to explain that that was not a normal experience!
In Minnesota parking garages are called ramps. Don’t ask me. There are a bunch of ramps surrounding the stadium. You can exit the highway right into a ramp, and when the game is over, exit the ramp right back on to the highway. Very efficient!
Even with the parking close by it was still a lot of walking to get to our seats, especially for a 3 and a half year old. Leo was a trouper though. No whining, and he marched right along with us.
There are skyways leading to the stadium. This is nice cause you don’t have to cross any streets this way. The only thing was….covid, and the delta variant. Even though Minnesota’s numbers are still pretty good, it made me uneasy to be in an enclosed space with strangers. We had masks, but I didn’t put mine on in the skyway. I think we should have, but it feels a little weird when no one else (or very few people anyway) are wearing them.
We left the skyway and entered Target Plaza, right outside the stadium. It was a sunny, and hot, day, but once we entered the stadium the concourse was shady and breezy. Then I put on my mask, but the rest of our party did not. I have no idea if it was necessary or not, I was just trying to manage my anxiety!
We grabbed some hot dogs and drinks and headed to our seats. They were on the third base line, in foul ball territory. They were close to the ball field, and this would have been great, except it was HOT. We didn’t last long in those seats. Soon we moved back where we could sit in the shade and then we were fine.
The Twins aren’t doing that great this year but they’ve been on a hot streak lately. The first three innings were incredibly boring and moved very very slowly. Then things started to pick up and the teams started scoring. It was a fun game at that point. Runs, hits, in park doubles, a homer or two.
Leo started getting squirrelly around the 5th inning. After all, it was his nap time! He tried to get comfy cuddling with Peepaw, but it was hot and noisy and there was too much going on. He wanted to leave, but the score was tied and we wanted to wait until the 7th inning stretch so that we could sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”. After that we left.
He stayed awake in the car all the way home, but Erik texted us soon after we dropped them off to say that he had crashed hard. It was a big day.
We all had a good time at the ball park. And later we found out the Twins even won, in 11 innings. Whew!
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