I wish I could have been there…

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I was born and raised a Minnesota Twins fan. I can still recall the Twins' first World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers at the old Metropolitan Stadium in 1965. The Dodger's Sandy Koufax pitched a 3 hit shutout in one of his greatest pitching performances ever for a 2-0 win at "the Met" in the decisive game seven. I was crushed.

The Twins played their last game at "the Met" in 1981. The site where the stadium once stood is now the site of the Mall of America. (Home plate has been preserved inside the mall).

The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome opened in 1982. It was immediately derided as the "homer dome" and "humpty" dome because this utilitarian ballpark was better configured for Minnesota Vikings football than it ever was for baseball. But the quirky Metrodome will be forever beloved by Twins fans as the "Thunderdome" where the Twins won two world championships in seven game series against the mighty St. Louis Cardinals in 1987, and the upstart Atlanta Braves in 1991. (Photo: the late, great Kirby Puckett rounding the bases after hitting the game-winning homerun in the 11th inning of game six in 1991).

On Friday, the Twins moved into their brand new outdoor ballpark with real grass and fresh air, Target Field in downtown Minneapolis. While it is not the cathedrals to baseball that the New York Yankees and New York Mets opened last year (at a cost of more than $1 billion per ballpark), Target Field is a gem of a classic-style urban ballpark. I wish I could have been there…

Garrison Keillor of Lake Wobegone fame recently penned an opinion that speaks of the longing for the coming of spring and Opening Day. Garrison Keillor: A beautiful new stadium, publicly financed, at that:

The beauty part of my week (not that you asked) was a visit to the Warehouse District north of downtown Minneapolis where, in my boyhood, I used to ride my bike past printing plants and barrelworks, small factories, a slaughterhouse, lumberyards, auto salvage yards, fascinated by the sight of men at work, and where, now, a new ballpark has arisen where, on April 12, though we are still knee-deep in snow, the Minnesota Twins will open the 2010 campaign, against the mighty Red Sox and their nation.

On Monday I snuck into the park through a door left ajar and attached myself to a group of suits on tour and got to see the whole joint, the steep left-field bleachers, the spruce trees in deep center, the skyboxes (each with a porch, so the nabobs can get fresh air), down to the locker room (with batting cage and pitching machine nearby, just like at a carnival), the spot where the statue of Killebrew will stand, and to me, a skeptic when it comes to public works, this looks to be the Eighth Wonder of the World, a temple on the order of Wrigley or Fenway or the Acropolis, a beautiful little bandbox of a ballpark tucked snugly into streets of old warehouses and the Burlington rail yards, with commuter trains running to its front door, a sight that fills me with unmitigated dizzy delight.

We Minnesotans have been watching baseball in a basement for 28 years, under a fabric dome on a plastic field designed for football, and come April, we'll be sitting in sunlight, or under the stars, with the handsome towers of downtown Minneapolis just beyond center field, and we'll mill on the great concourse just behind the loge seats and eyeball the game while ordering a steak sandwich or an old-fashioned Schweigert hot dog. Hallelujah. Wowser.

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H/t ballparksofbaseball.com for the photo.