Target Field Replaces Orfield Laboratories' Anechoic Chamber as Quietest Place on Earth

There is a specially constructed room at Orfield Laboratories in south Minneapolis that has long been considered the quietest place in the world. This “anechoic chamber” absorbs all sound, making it so silent that you can hear your heartbeat, your joints, and even your lungs as they fill with air. It has a negative decibel reading.

As of this week, there is some competition, and it’s just a few miles up the road.

“I’m frankly stunned to say that Target Field may, in fact, be quieter,” said Mike Role, a spokesperson for Orfield. “It’s an open-air stadium in a large city. But the silence speaks for itself, I guess.”

With attendance plummeting after the trade deadline fire sale, what few fans are left report conditions like those experienced by those spending prolonged time in the chamber, including dizziness, nausea, and disorientation.

“When Simeon Woods Richardson gave up the lead on Tuesday, I heard two things: the crack of the bat and Rocco Baldelli’s world-weary sigh,” said Tim Franklin. “I was sitting in dead center field, by myself. I yelled at Glen Perkins in the press box. He waved. Then the hallucinations began.”

“It’s eerie, there’s no getting around it,” said Tucker Krebsbach, an usher at the stadium. “You stand and you stand. The quiet gets so overwhelming that I need to sit down. When Sue Nelson (longtime Minnesota Twins organist) plays a note, it’s like the 4th of July.”

NASA has used anechoic chambers like Orfield’s to help astronauts prepare for the silence of space. They say the current conditions for Minnesota home games share some similarities.

“The mental dangers are often much more hazardous than the physical ones,” said Deborah Jenks, a NASA analyst. “That omnipresent isolation and profound silence can drive the most stable person to realms of pure madness and total fear. And that’s just Target Field. Space is dangerous, too."

Image license here.