For the fifth time in six years, the Minnesota Twins clocked out at the end of September—eschewing October overtime. On many occasions I was in the trenches with them, attending 27 contests (most at home, some away). My personal 11-16 record wasn’t exactly sterling—but neither was the club’s. You know the old mantra: “a bad day of fishing is better than a good day of work”? Swap amateur angling for stadium spectating and a lot of fun was still had at the ballpark(s) this particular 162 slate.
The
beginning of the season brought cold, cold, and—you guessed it—a little more cold. I wasn’t done lugging the parka from the parking ramp until late-May. But I bundled up and even convinced some family to shiver along with me. On April 14 we saw two Buck Truck bombs and an Abel/Rogers/Sands shutout of the BoSox!
As April showers (and cold) turned into May flowers—the dogs ate them. I kid, I kid…just trying to scare gintzer more about Bark at the Park Night (when Bailey Ober inexplicably twirled a complete game shutout against the Miami Marlins!). To be fair, I also consumed my share of cased-meat dogs.
June 12 brought me a wild 9-8 win over the St. Louis Cardinals where Buxton doubled twice, homered—and the Twins still needed long balls from Royce Lewis & Brooks Lee in B8 to take a lead!
A few weeks later, I attended the big Joe Ryan versus Shohei Ohtani pitching matchup in front of a sold-out Target Field crowd. The Twins lost and were swept by True Blue—but years from now someone will be impressed at me seeing Ohtani pull double duty (even if that someone is me!).
When the calendar flipped to July, I saw Alan Roden walk off the Cleveland Guardians—then paused to enjoy the All-Star festivities with my unaccustomed-to-billed-headware niece.
Alas, July brought some epic frustrations—like being 2-hit shutout by the Unaffiliated Athletics & 5-hit shutout by Randy Dobnak and the Kansas City Royals.
Fortunately, I was able to pull off two more baseball stadium trips: Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. and Chase Field in Arizona. Great times—like a Buxton salami—in both locales!
As the non-canine and non-sausage dog days of August commenced, I saw the first MLB game and knock from Walker Jenkins.
For the first time, I was also at Target Field without a baseball game—instead, the Tim McGraw concert! My sister and I had a great time and it’s a tribute to Son-of-Tug that his music can bridge a 13-year sibling gap.
A 15-2 victory (featuring a 10-run inning!) over the Tigers was somewhat of a September salve for another late-season collapse. My final night under the North Loop skies was another high-scoring fun affair!
At least there was no Curse of Kyle Lohse (seeing him at the Dome when I pined for Santana, Radke, or even Silva)—my SP distribution was remarkably even…
- Joe Ryan: 7 starts
- Zebby Matthews & Taj Bradley: 4 starts
- Bailey Ober & Connor Prielipp: 3 starts
- Simeon Woods-Richardson & Mike Paredes: 2 starts
- Mick Abel & Dean Kremer: 1 start
Sometimes I complain about the traffic—or the ushers—or the folks oblivious to the water fountain button in the bottom right corner. Sometimes my baseball glove gets stolen out from under my seat. But I still enjoy getting out to the ballgame. There’s a song about it, after all.
