Target Field (Minnesota Twins)

Minneapolis

Drive to Dyersville, Iowa

 Dyersville, Iowa

Ballpark Assessment

Category Score (0 to 10)					TOTAL (0 to 50)
Location	Atmosphere	Food	Exterior Architecture	Interior Architecture
8	8	8	9	10	43

The brand new Target Field (new for the 2010 season) does not disappoint.  Located in downtown Minneapolis, the stadium is easily accessible by public transportation.  The interior and exterior architecture of the stadium is amazing.  The unique architecture, water spouts and ornaments  located throughout the stadium give you a lot to look at aside from the game.  Decent food options are available.  As might be expected for a brand new ballpark, the stadium is very clean.  The one missing link is a sense of atmosphere outside of the stadium (bars, memorabilia stores, etc.)  A couple more years of seasoning should fix this.

Game Comments (courtesy of MLB.com)

Game Date: August 1, 2010

Attendance: 40,374

Weather: 86 degrees F, overcast

Length of Game: 2 hours, 14 minutes
Final Score: Minnesota Twins 4, Seatle Mariners 0

Francisco Liriano struck out 11 batters and allowed just two hits to push his scoreless streak to 21 innings, as the Twins won their eighth straight. Seattle was blanked for the third time in six games.

Stories from the Road
The Saturday drive from Chicago to Minneapolis was much longer than I thought.  With a couple of stops along the way for food and audio book purchases, the entire trip took eight hours.  Eight hours!  Are you kidding me?!? On the east coast, I can drive the entire length of the Northeast Corridor (from Boston to DC) in eight hours.  Oh well. Such is the distance between city centers in the midwest.

I finally got to the MSP late in the evening, checked into my hotel (a lovely Sheraton at a rate of 7K Starwood points per night), went to the gym, showered/changed and went back out to drive around the city for a bit.  Not much to report since I didn't know where to go.

The next day, I visited many of the standard tourist attractions including the Minneapolis Scuplture Garden (home to the giant spoon and cherry sculpture), The Basilica of Saint Mary (America's First Basilica), and Target (yes, Target).

Before the Minneapolis game, I had brunch with a college friend of mine who lived next door to me in Donlon Hall during our freshman year, and now works for the Target Corporation.  It was great to catch up about what we are doing, etc.

A side benefit of all this travel is I get to visit states that I have really no business visiting (Side note:  A life goal of mine is to do something in every state in the US).  Iowa is definitely one of those states.  I drove through back roads from Minneapolis, MN to Dyersville, IA to see the legendary Field of Dreams from the movie of the same name.  While the remoteness of the field was not all that shocking (this is Iowa after all), what was surprising was how small the field really is.  It's smaller than many ballfields I played while growing up.  I guess everything really does seem bigger on the big screen.