Read Ultimate Baseball Road Trip Online
Authors: Josh Pahigian,Kevin O’Connell
Ultimate Baseball Road Trip (92 page)
100 North 6th St.
Owned by switch-hitting former Twins infielder Roy Smalley, who was a member of the 1987 Twins, this place is worth visiting to check out the impressive championship murals that celebrate the ’87 and ’91 teams.
Josh:
At the end of a thirteen-year career Roy’s last action came in the ’87 Series. And he reached base in all four of his plate appearances. How cool is that?
Kevin:
I bet he even got a hit in his last at-bat.
Josh:
Well, no. In his last official AB he reached on an error. But he walked twice after that.
Kevin:
Still, talk about going out on top!
315 North 5th Ave.
If the sun is shining and you’re looking for an outdoor patio, Darby’s fits the bill. You’ll even be able to see Target Field
from your picnic table … on the other side of the highway overpass. The Frickles (fried pickles) and Beer-Battered Sunfish are local favorites but we played it safe and ordered the Wimpy Burger and Pulled Pork. Both were just what we were looking for.
106 North 3rd St.
Don’t let the name fool you, the head-banging “Roc Bar” upstairs offers the cutest barhops you’ll find in the Twin Cities and your best chance of getting lucky after the game. Indeed, if we were doing the trip fifteen years ago we would have been all over this place. As it is, we’ll leave it to our younger readers to carry the torch. Have at it boys!
507 Washington Ave. North
www.cuzzys.com/dntn/dntn_index.html
Now here’s a bar that’s more Kevin’s speed. Sure it’s a dive, but the patrons are friendly, the food is tasty, and the beer is cold. Oh yeah, and there’s a ghost named Betsy that haunts the place. Stop by after you’ve had a few and you’ll see what we mean. Trust us.
918 Hennepin Ave.
With cheap eats, twenty-four beers on tap, and five jumbo TVs, Mackenzie’s offers a friendly atmosphere to get warmed up for the game.
600 Hennepin Ave.
Josh liked the Corned Beef Reuben and Kevin liked the Guinness. And we both liked the fact that they open at 10:00 a.m. when there’s a day game.
14 North 5th St.
If you’re into this whole bar-hopping thing because you seek primarily hot waitresses in skimpy clothes, then Sneaky Pete’s may be your choice. If you’re looking for a really sneaky experience, you can also check out Dream Girls next door. We have opted not to include a web link because this is a family publication, but rest assured this is a place where sufficiently naughty women attend to the pleasure of “gentleman” patrons.
HUBERT’S BAR AND GRILL
601 Chicago Ave.
Even though it’s a bit out of the way for today’s road-warriors, those looking to soak up the full Twins experience should make the short trek to Hubert’s, which from 1984 to 2009 was
the
place to be on game day. The Dome classic now also operates a satellite location inside the Target Center but it was always more of a baseball fan’s joint than a basketball or even football fan’s. Spacious, with a square bar, the joint is decorated with a wealth of local sports memorabilia. We enjoyed especially the pictures from the 1965 World Series between the Twins and Dodgers, the University of Minnesota football relics, and the Big Ten Standings board.
26 South Sixth St.
www.murraysrestaurant.com/home.html
This upscale steak house is as famous for its gaudy orange sign as for its twenty-eight-ounce sirloin strip. Murray’s priced us out of an extended evening visit but if you’re a business traveler with an expense account, you should make a point to settle in at Murray’s for a full-course meal. For our part, we enjoyed the “Twins Special,” which consists of a half-pound burger and bottle of beer for $9.95. Then we went to Target Field and ordered a Murray’s Steak Sandwich at the Murray’s concession stand.
16 South St.
We enjoyed the Twins Special, which consists of mini-brat-sliders at a fair price. Josh ate nine, and that was after devouring a burger at Murray’s. Did we mention the name of our pub (short for publisher)? That’s right. Lyons. Here’s to our next edition of
The Ultimate Baseball Road Trip
, perhaps sometime in the 2020s!
Target Field has been criticized for being a tad cramped. Perhaps that’s because the park was squeezed into a smaller-than-normal geographic footprint due to the constrictive realities of downtown land acquisition. But perhaps the criticism is also the result of misguided fan expectations. Since the concourses at the old Dome were “cozy” when the house was full, fans logically expected more room to roam
on the new yard’s walkways. Instead, they’ve encountered elbow-to-elbow … umm …
camaraderie
with fellow fans on the concourses and many escalators inside a new park that’s been filled to capacity since opening.
Kevin:
Nothing a few seventy-win seasons won’t fix.
Josh:
I seem to remember them having this same problem in Cleveland back in the 1990s.
THE RIGHT-FIELD OVERHANG
At the Twins’ previous home, a blue plastic tarp, known as the “Hefty Bag,” served as the right-field fence, turning balls hit off the wall into adventures for visiting outfielders and doing little to make the experience of playing or watching a game in Minneapolis magical. Today, balls hit to deep right are still cause for fans to hold their breath but for a different, much more romantic, reason. In a nod to the right-field upper deck at old Tiger Stadium, perhaps, the protrusion of the Overlook extends over the warning track by a whopping eight and a half feet. If you don’t think that’s a big deal, head out to Section 101 for a look from the side.
Kevin:
Mark my words: at some point an important game will be decided by a lofted fly ball that settles into the Overlook as an outfielder waits to make the catch.
Josh:
How do you know?
Kevin:
Baseball just has a way of shining a spotlight on its own idiosyncrasies.
High above the field in center a giant neon version of the Twins logo lights up in red, white and blue to celebrate Twins’ home runs and other game-events. As far as logos go, this one is more creative than most and a bit more cryptic. On the surface it looks like two pear-shaped middle-aged fellas in baseball garb shaking hands over a flowing brook. But upon closer inspection the “M” on the sleeve of one gent and the “S,” “T,” and “P” on the chest of the other come into focus. This is the embodiment of Minneapolis and St. Paul joining hands to become “The Twin Cities.” And the bridge-spanned stream? That’s the Mighty Mississippi.
The logo was created in 1961 by a freelance illustrator from St. Paul named Ray Barton. Mr. Barton received $15 for his effort, thinking the logo would be used in a Twins ad campaign and on Metropolitan Stadium cups. He had no idea it would become the official team insignia. It just sort of happened.
Kevin:
Fifteen bucks? That dude got hosed.
Josh:
But he’s immortalized in team lore. That type of honor is priceless.
Kevin:
I suppose … but fifteen bucks?
Josh:
The Twins had just arrived. They were on a tight budget.
Kevin:
I still say he got jobbed.
The tall black pole on the right-field concourse is the very one that once flew the Stars and Stripes at Metropolitan Stadium. A small plaque at its base marks its historic significance.
You’ll notice that the Twins dugout has been restored to its proper place along the first-base line. That’s where it resided at Metropolitan Stadium before the Twins moved across the diamond during their three decades in the Dome.
Kevin:
Isn’t the home team always on the first-base line?
Josh:
Yeah, that way the home manager knows whether to argue calls at first.
Kevin:
And that’s important because in all the years baseball’s been played first base umpires have overturned exactly zero calls due to managers protesting.
Josh:
Just ask Armando Galarraga.
Kevin:
Or Jim Joyce.
The Twins’ retired numbers hang in left-field foul territory on the glass tower that houses the team’s executive offices. Killebrew’s No. 3 is closest to the foul pole while Jackie Robinson’s 42 is farthest from it. Hrbek is the only member of the Twins to have his number retired despite his status as a non-member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Were the Twins premature in honoring the hulking first baseman or is his inclusion among the short-list of Twins’ greats just dessert for a guy who played on both Minnesota championship teams? We’ll let you decide. He played his entire fourteen-year career with the Twins, racking up 1,749 hits, 293 homers, 1086 RBIs and a .282 average. He made his only All-Star team as a rookie in 1982 but was sort of represented at the Mid-Summer Classic in 1988 when teammate Gary Gaetti famously wrote “Hi Rex” on his batting glove and held it up for the cameras during pregame introductions. More than that, Herbie was a hometown hero who was born in Minneapolis in 1960.
Kevin:
Even Joe Mauer wasn’t born in Minneapolis.
Josh:
I have no problem with teams retiring iconic players’ numbers even if they were something less than baseball royalty.
Kevin:
But if Herbie gets his number retired, there ought to be a plaque with Tom Kelly’s No. 10 on it, too.
Josh:
Did you know Kelly’s career winning percentage was below .500?
Kevin:
Umm … I do now.
Killebrew’s distinctive handwriting appears in jumbo form on the right-field fence. Penned in yellow paint, against the wall’s green backdrop, the legend’s signature appears along with the familiar “HOF ‘84” that he always added to his scribble after he joined the Hall of Fame in 1984.
We love that the Twins have red flowers growing atop the left- and right-field walls in wall-top planters. This idea may have originated at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, but it’s been executed to perfection in Minneapolis.
Visiting fans interested in learning what the local chattering class is yammering about should seek out the Fox Sports North pregame and postgame studio, which sits on the left-field concourse. This is where Blyleven does his pregame interview with the Twins manager each day. The big righty has been calling games beside Dick Bremer in the Twins booth since 1995.
Not only does Joe Mauer put in an All-Star performance on the field, but he’s reportedly one of the best players at the center-field Gaming Zone. That’s right, Target Field has an area inside Gate 3 where patrons can play all of the latest baseball video games.
Kevin:
I’d kill my kids if I took them to a game and they spent it playing video games.
Josh:
Umm … I stopped by in the fourth inning and it’s not just kids down there.
They call the first inning the “thirst inning” in these parts and they have a whole roof deck named in honor of Budweiser. Aside from the corporate moniker, it’s a unique part of the park that fans should find time to visit. This left-field perch is a great place to view downtown if your seat below faces away from the skyline. The bird’s eye view of the field and the long rectangular fire pit are also attractions.
Josh:
The fire pit, I like. But I’m lukewarm on those concourse heaters.
Kevin:
Lukewarm. Very clever, my man.
Josh:
Minneapolis’s average April low is 36 degrees. In Detroit, it’s 38. In Boston, 41.
Kevin:
Yeah, but 36 degrees is plenty warm enough to thaw out from all that ice-fishing.