Twins Game # 2

Wednesday afternoon I got a text from my friend Jen...she asked "do you want to go to the Twins game tomorrow afternoon?" Forecast, 70 and sunny, day game, Twins....ummmm....yeah! We didn't have tickets, she said lets skip all those extra charges and get them off of Craigslist. Ummm....ok. Visions of bogus tickets danced in my head. She contacted about 15 people....decided to go with one guy that would deliver the tickets. OK...sounds good. Except he didn't want to deliver them to Waconia where she lived...but Eden Prairie would be ok. What's your address she asked. Visions of serial killers and getting robbed blind danced in my head. How about meeting at Caribou Coffee. Yes! Deal! Tickets under face value, they looked legit...Target Field here we come! We decided to take the Express bus...only $5.25 for a ride to the game. Except it was Earth Day...our ride was free...woohoo! We got there about an hour early. The plaza was already crowded!

My heart skipped a beat when the scanner didn't accept my ticket on the first swipe....2nd one was good though....whew....real tickets. :-) Before the game we met some of Jen's friends near the left field line. The players were warming up, chatting about the field, the weather, how the other guys mom wears army boots. Who knows. It was fun to take it all in.

This little guy was ready for the game to start. No idea who he is, but he sure was a cute little Twins fan.

We found our seats over by the first base line. The National Anthem was sung and then it was time to....PLAY BALL!

Cuddyer and Morneau...a couple of my favorites.

The Umps got ready, T.C. Bear got the crowd ready....

...the line up was announced....

...and it was time for the game! Twins vs. the Cleveland Indians....last game in the series.

T.C. pumped up the crowd, and shot free T-shirts from his air gun.

The Indians came out ready to play. Hits and walks and....the Twins were down by one run in the first inning. The Twins had a few hits here and there, but didn't have enough on this day. Here is Morneau as a base runner on first. I thought it was cool that both first basemen were #33. It's the little things.

The Twins sign looked cool in the daylight.

Wally the Beer Man was working in our section. He always has a smile on his face. Making people happy one beer at a time. Just kidding. It was fun to see the vending icon though!

Morneau hit a double...the 2nd baseman was making the tag before he had the ball. Oops.

Their base runner was tossed out at first...yeah Morneau. He's one of my favorites...did I mention that?

And then the game was done. Twins lost, 8-1. Can't win them all. And you can't complain about a day outdoors at the ballpark. It didn't hit the predicted 70 degrees, but that's ok.

The pitchers made the hike across the field to the dugout. It wasn't until I was looking at my photos that I noticed this! What the heck is it, a gorilla?

A year ago Eric and I were at a Twins game and noticed a baby blue and pink back pack. You can see it in this post. We found out later from our friend Tonya that the rookie pitchers have to carry an embarrassing backpack with sports drinks and snacks for the rest of the guys. Too funny.

It turns out the Thursday game was a popular one. We found out later that a couple of different sets of friends were at the game, and my nephew Isaac. I wish I had known! After the game we met up with Jen's friends and went out to grab a bit to eat. We returned to an empty plaza...so I had to have my picture taken in the big mitt. I'm quite a catch...hahaha...sorry...couldn't resist. The trouble with going out after the game was that we didn't realize that the express bus only ran for an hour after the last inning. We got to the empty bus stop about an hour and a half later. Oops. It took some time, but we found a map and walked and walked to a bus stop to catch a bus back to the park and ride. We made it eventually, and the ride was still free with our ticket stub. Whew!

On our car ride back home we came across this bike racer dude. You know, the bike racers that like to take up most of the lane, even when there is a bike path next to the rode. Anyway, I couldn't help but think, why in the world would someone that is a fit athletic bike racer want to be sponsored by doughy white Wonder Bread?? Nice polka dots buddy!

Just another one of those unsolved mysteries involving men in lycra. In spite of the lycra, the Twins losing, and our missing our bus...it was a great day! Go Twins!