My first game at Target Field

My buddy Chad in Saint Paul (1) bought season tickets to the inaugural season of Target Field, the new Minnesota Twins ballpark in Minneapolis, and invited me up to see the Twins take on the Oakland A's on Friday night. The game was good, a 4-3 win by the Twins, but the real story was ballpark itself.

Up until April of this year, the Twins had played in The Metrodome my entire life (2).  The Metrodome being a large, bland, indoor facility that they shared with the NFL's Vikings and the NCAA's Golden Gophers.

The Twins' new digs, Target Field, is the exact opposite. Chad's tickets are in the lower level off of left field so we had a great view of the Minneapolis skyline (image above) as well as the game. We only spent half of the game actually sitting in the seats, for the other half we checked out the views from different levels of the facility and enjoying the various perspectives, angles, and beers you find all about.

I don't think there's a bad seat anywhere in the place. My favorite view is probably from the lower deck in the outfield. You can't see the video board but otherwise it's great. I also particularly enjoyed the Metropolitan Club over by right field which has a more diverse bar and great bathrooms (sometimes you need that at a baseball game) and even the upper deck has a great view.

It's amazing how good a stadium can be when it's designed for a single purpose (baseball in this case) rather than as a huge multisport facility.

Now, lets get the Vikings a new stadium, designed specifically for them, and all will be good.

Here's some additional photos that I shared on Flickr:

(1)Actually Oakdale. (2) Yes, the played outdoors in Metropolitan Stadium prior to the Metrodome but I'm pretty sure that before I was born - I didn't bother to look up the date.