On Target

My Midwest trip ended where it started, the Twin Cities.  Minnesota was the last state that has a Major League team that I hadn't been to.  I had planned on getting there this season and then I found out that Dennis and Courtney were moving to Minnesota.  This worked out very well for me as I stayed with Dennis.  Two years ago, I stayed with Dennis in Atlanta and we saw the Braves.  So Dennis joins Jon as the only people to have me for baseball trips in two different cities.

I drove back to Minnesota from Fargo on Saturday morning and returned my car.  After a stop at Dennis's house, we headed out for some beer and then another Man vs. Food spot, the 5-8 Club.  For beer, we went to the Surly Tap Room, which was huge and incredibly busy.  We were hoping to do a tour, but the one we were hoping for was full and we didn't want to wait for the next one.  So we just sat at the bar and had a beer.  We had a Furious, which is one of Courtney's favorite beers.  It was very good.  As for food, Adam Richman visited Matt's Bar and the 5-8 Club, both of which claim to be the home of the original Juicy Lucy (a burger with cheese inside of it).  When I was in Detroit, I went to two places on Man vs. Food that both were known for their Coney Island dogs.  Since the Juicy Lucy was more filling than the Coney Island dogs, I only did one of the two on this trip.  The 5-8 Club sounded better on the show and it also provided options for what kind of cheese you wanted inside.  I went with blue cheese and Dennis went with pepper jack.  It was quite good, but I'd say the best burger I've had from a Man vs. Food spot was at the Vortex Bar and Grill in Atlanta (which I incorrectly called the Voodoo Bar and Grill in the blog post).

The Juicy Lucy with sweet potato fries.  I probably should have taken a picture after taking a bite so you could see the cheese oozing out.

Dennis and I went to the first of two Twins games on Saturday night.  We got there early and went into the Metropolitan Club, which we had access to because Dennis bought the tickets from a season ticket holder.  We had a beer in there and relaxed before going to our seats.  They were honoring the 1965 Twins, who won the American League pennant.  That team lost to the Dodgers in seven in the World Series.  They had Vin Scully on the board telling the story of the World Series.  Pretty awesome.  Sandy Koufax pitched three games in the series.  In Game 2, he gave up two runs (one earned), but they pinch hit for him in the top of the seventh because the Dodgers were down 2-0.  The pinch hitter?  Don Drysdale.  That's amazing.  Drysdale did hit 29 home runs, 26 doubles, and 7 triples in his career, but he had no hits in 10 career World Series at bats.  Anyway, the Dodgers ended up losing that game 5-1.  In Game 5, Koufax pitched a shutout and allowed four hits and a walk while striking out ten.  The Dodgers won 7-0.  Game 7 was Drysdale's day to pitch, but Walter Alston went with Koufax on two days rest.  He thought that if he needed to make a change, it would be easier for Drysdale to come out of the bullpen than it would be for Koufax.  Yeah, that turned out not to matter.  Koufax pitched another shutout with three hits, three walks, and ten strikeouts.  His ERA for the 1965 World Series was 0.38 and his WHIP was 0.75 (his career World Series ERA was 0.95 and his career World Series WHIP was 0.825 in 57 innings).  I've heard a lot of people say that Koufax wasn't the greatest left-handed pitcher of all time.  That's nonsense.  Sure, his WAR might not be as high as some other guys (I hate that stat), but that's just because he didn't last as long.  I'll take 1961-1966 Sandy Koufax over any pitcher ever.

The Metropolitan Club

Vin Scully is the best.  Andy why don't pictures of scoreboards work?

So anyway, it was Mariners and Twins.  Mike Montgomery against Kyle Gibson.  I had a Kramarczuk's Polish sausage.  It was pretty good.  The game was tied 1-1 after four.  In the top of the sixth, Nelson Cruz hit a steroid ball to put the Mariners on top 2-1.  That's the way the score stayed until the bottom of the ninth.  The Mariners brought in Carson Smith for the save.  The Twins had other ideas.  Miguel Sano led off with a double.  Shane Robinson pinch ran and got to third on a wild pitch.  After an intentional walk to Eddie Rosario, another wild pitch scored Robinson and put the winning run on second base.  With two outs, Rosario stole third and then scored the winning run on a pinch hit single by Kurt Suzuki.  Pretty good game.  Two hours, 45 minutes, and an crowd of 36,901.

Our view for the game

A panoramic shot of Target Field

I found this after the game.  Charles Schulz was born in Minneapolis.

The next morning, Dennis and I went to mass at the Cathedral of St. Paul (named for one of my favorite saints).  Then we had breakfast at Mickey's Diner, which was in the Mighty Ducks movies.  After that, we were off to Target Field again with Courtney's brother, who will be a sophomore at Notre Dame.  Before the game, I had carnitas tacos from Barrio (which I think is a Twin Cities Mexican place).  They were one of the better things I've eaten at a baseball game this year.  Dennis and I did some walking and found a bar out in left field.  We ordered two Summit Summer Ales (from another Minnesota brewery, fine, but of course not as good as Sam Adams).  The interesting thing about that was that Dennis got a new driver's license in Minnesota, only it hadn't arrived yet.  So he had his old Georgia license with holes punched through it and a temporary form.  The bartender told him that he couldn't accept that (Target Field policy).  But he pointed at me and said, "I can sell you two beers."  So I bought both beers and we walked out of the bar and I handed one to Dennis.

This diner was in the Mighty Ducks movies.  It's been too long since I've seen any of them so I didn't remember it.

The game was a pitcher's duel.  Hisashi Iwakuma against Mike Pelfrey.  Pelfrey went eight scoreless.  Then Glen Perkins gave up a steroid ball to Nelson Cruz in the top of the ninth to make it 1-0.  Iwakuma came out for the ninth to try to finish off the shutout.  With one out Brian Dozier, hit a home run to tie the game.  Iwakuma was two outs away from a complete game victory, which would have been his first career complete game (he would later get his first career complete game, which also turned out to be a no-hitter).  Iwakuma lasted eight and two-thirds and only gave up that one run.  Carson Smith came in and finished off the ninth inning.  The Mariners scored three runs in the 11th on a double by Logan Morrison and a single by Austin Jackson.  Wilhelm's cousin Tom (different spellings, I know) allowed a double in the bottom of the ninth, but got the next three guys out to get the save.  It was three hours and 12 minutes (not bad for 11 innings) with a crowd of 30,325.

I took this picture from a bar on the upper level.

Target Field was very good.  One interesting thing about it was how on the upper concourse,  you have two levels like a lot of stadiums do.  But they have these catwalks that connect the upper level so that you can move around and avoid the traffic on the concourse.  I had never seen that before.  The only weird thing was that they weren't all connected to each other and they ended at weird points.  I have a couple of complaints.  First, there's not more in the outfield concourse on the first level.  There actually is more on the second level.  And then, out in left field is the Budweiser Roof Deck (an unfortunate corporate sponsor, but whatever), but you can only go up there if you have a ticket.  That should be open to everybody.  I definitely wouldn't want to watch the whole game from there, but it would be worth checking out an inning from there.  Target Field is one of the better stadiums in the American League.  I have a few more posts to do and then I'll get to my updated stadium rankings.

On Monday, Dennis and I went to the Mall of America.  It was pretty impressive, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't go anywhere near there from Thanksgiving through Christmas.  There's an indoor amusement park with all sorts of rides (including a Splash Mountain type ride, but probably not as big of a drop).  We didn't go on any rides, but we did play mini golf.  I was three strokes down after 11 holes, but I came back to win.  Later in the day we had milkshakes from the ice cream place right by Dennis's house.  Pretty good stuff.  And that was my first trip to Minnesota.  I'll be back soon for the Dennis-Courtney wedding.

I took this picture from the mini golf course.