Steven Trefz

The shortest road trip of the 2023 season is the 11th, and it takes us down the interstate to Milwaukee. It’s time to run a two-game victory lap against the Brewers in our annual rivalry series. American Family Field. Let’s begin… Image courtesy of Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via Imagn Content Services, LLC August 22-23 @ Milwaukee Brewers (2 games) American Family Field - 2022 attendance was 2,412,420 (ranked 9th out of 15 NL teams, 14th out of all MLB) Nothing says “scheduling issue” than a two-game road trip in the middle of a pennant push. The annual rivalry interleague match-up with the Brewers takes less than 24 hours, and hopefully doesn’t kill the momentum of a lengthy home stretch. American Family Field began as Miller Park in 2001. 2020 brought new cash inflow and a new name. This retractable-roof complex looks like a combination of an airplane hangar, a Metrodome, and an advertisement convention. And yet, when the Brewers got it going on, the place also brings out an energy that can deliver electric baseball. The Twins and Brewers have been rivals since Milwaukee dwelled in the American League. At the start of interleague play, MLB designated certain pairs of teams to play annually. As they say, familiarity breeds contempt. The local fanbases have learned to love the home and away series every season, and they have learned to hate each other. Word on the street is that American Family Field is one of the least friendly places to wear a Twins jersey, or the best, depending on where your ticket seats you. The Brewers isn’t just a fun name, it’s a destination reality. Local and global-level breweries make this city a beer connoisseur's playground. The Harley-Davidson Museum, Milwaukee Art Museum, and Lake Michigan coastline provide alternative travel stops for a variety of tastes. Once inside the ballpark, the immortal “sausage race” has gone digital, but the spirit remains. Bud Selig and Bob Uecker have statues and museums, which I guess is fine. There is a giant slide for the mascot in left field, which I would be curious to see T.C. Bear try to attempt. Not curious enough to drive to Milwaukee. This is an obvious up-and-back driving trip. Leave Tuesday morning, drive eight hours, catch two games, drive home Wednesday night. I wish they could have tied in one of the Chicago series here since they are only an hour apart, but no one asked for my help in making the schedule. They better next year. Now it's your turn to plan! If you have been to American Family Park (formerly Miller park), please post your list of "best seats" and "must sees." Anyone else planning on going to this series? Grace and peace Twins Territory! Thanks for the help! View full article

I'm always curious who downloads my attached schedule ideas...and what nefarious plans they are calculating with them... Thanks for the excitement and welcome Nicole! In the process of adding a bro trip to Universal Studios between the Dodgers/Angels series. Super Mario World anyone???

In late December, as the cold wind howled and the Twins 2023 schedule seemed like a breath of warm air, hope sprung eternal. I made an excel spreadsheet, calculated mileage, ordered books written by crazy people who had attended all 162 games of a season, or visited all 30 stadiums in a year, and I began to count the costs of a dream trip to be in person for all 81 Twins road games in 2023. February now is upon us, and most of reality has entered the picture again. The airline situation has become unreliable and expensive. My mini-van is making new noises that have already proven to be expensive. Once in a lifetime family events have started to enter the summer calendar. And yet, the MLB schedule is relentless. There is no breathing room. Connecting flight gets canceled? You miss the game. Important family event emerges for a weekend in May? You miss the game. Changes at work? How did you plan on paying for those trips? Better miss the game. New opportunity for your work emerge that requires some in-person presence in a non-MLB town? You miss the game. Most humans saw this coming in December already, but were kindly waiting for me to realize it on my own. The only humans that can actually make every Twins game in a season, let alone every road game, are those who are employed specifically for that purpose. Another option is being independently wealthy with no desire to maintain a family life past May. So what is a man with a dream gonna do? Writing the weekly TwinsDaily entries about the 2023 road trips has been a gift. I've been able to methodically and strategically investigate the dream that I was given. I've learned things about the stadiums and communities that both invigorates my journey, and makes me not want to waste my time and money! The books that I've read seem to all point to the fact that being present for the daily grind of an MLB season often leaves you with nothing to write about besides "I took a nap here" and "I avoided a car crash there." Home life was happening for all of the individuals, and yet they couldn't really be present to experience it, because they were in Seattle, or Baltimore, or some campground in the middle of the Midwest because they ran out of cash and read Google Maps wrong. Now that the veil has been lifted, I've begun to envision a compromise. A recalibration if you will. What if a Twins fan from South Dakota tried to go to a Twins road series in every MLB ballpark over a three-year stretch? This combines the "every ballpark" bucket list dream with the "I feel called to experience what my team experiences" dream. It also allows me to not go to Cleveland four times in two years. Once will do just fine. It allows me to say to the MLB scheduling crew, "Texas to Cleveland in September with no off days at the start of my son's first year of high school and marching band competitions just isn't cool." It allows my family to take an extra five days to explore the West Coast before, during, and after the Oakland/Seattle trip. It allows me to tell the White Sox that I won't be there in person to see them lose that series, because I'm going to be doing something amazing with my work someplace else. Before I make this switch, I really need to figure out why I'm doing this trip at all. The Twins don't care. My presence will not impact our bullpen's ability to throw competitive pitches in the 7th and 8th innings. My plane ticket purchases aren't going to help at the trade deadline. The players will enjoy having more fans supporting them in the road ballparks, but they are going to do their best regardless. At least they better... My family cares way more. They care about where I am and why. Trips to Twins games and new places with them definitely has emerged as the reason to do this at all. In order for that to be the main point of this epic adventure, it can't take place all at once. It needs to be savored and treasured, not rushed. I do think that other Twins fans in this frozen hemisphere are interested. It's novel, and something that would be epic. I want to share this story with them...with you. Will it still be a story worth sharing if it requires us to walk together for a little bit longer, over a few more twists and turns? Or is the urgency and impossibility of the travel what is worth sharing? Epic-ness is still involved. I can't miss a National League Park next year if the three-year plan is going to work, and missing one this year would be a major risk. Usefulness is still involved. I can still provide the fans with a deeper look into the ballparks of MLB, while paying particular attention to how Twins Territory is being represented live and in person at the enemy stadiums. As I began to write about the return trips to Central Division ballparks for 2023, I realized that going back to places within the division didn't scream excitement like the first trips to a place. The playoff push in September might alter that scenario, but for now, I'm not losing sleep about only going to Comerica Park once in two years. And I sure as heck am hoping that MLB sees the error of their ways and links that trip next year to the Toronto series, you know, since they are only a ferry ride apart! I'm also am starting to hope again about the Twins' chances. That, in and of itself, changes things about the "why" behind the trip. When I started my planning, we were deep into a winter of not getting the players we needed. Now, we are mostly through a winter of wondering how we pulled that off! Why would I not want to join in on a longer window for success? Two chances for the Twins to see the stars align. Putting all of my eggs in the 2023 basket, at the current price of eggs, doesn't seem very wise. Why not leave open the opportunity for back-to-back World Series campaigns? I want to share a thank you to all of my family and friends who have already committed to 2023 adventures with me. At the very least I'll still be catching 16 road trips, and approximately 48 games of Twins baseball in places that I've never been, often with friends and family that I haven't been able to be in person with for years. If I would have proposed 48 games a year on the road for two years back in December, the same questions of sanity would have arisen. I'm curious what you think TwinsDaily friends? What types of things are you looking forward to the most about my road trips? What makes for the most interesting stories? Is it the travel? The stadiums? The food & drink? The in person account of how clutch hitting in July in Oakland will determine the fate of our next two months of success? I'm seeking wise counsel, from my favorite community. I've attached a New Revised Standard Version of the "All 81 Adventure." Technically its more of a "Great Outdoors 96er." (If you don't get that movie reference, please take the next 90 minutes to redeem that life fault) How does it look to you? Thanks again for helping me plan this epic voyage, for as long and as often as I'm able to take it. Revised 2023-24 Twins Away Game Trips.docx

I have been wondering as I’m making these articles: do players ever look forward to or get bummed about certain trips? One persons old school and home is another’s “place where an ex lives.” It will be interesting to see if any of this perspective emerges from the road. Trying to utilize the trip over the next two years for college site searching for my kid will be another layer to this. thanks for checking in!

The tenth road trip of the 2023 Twins season, and the first road trip after the trade deadline heads East through Detroit and Philadelphia. It’s time to sweat and compete against the divisional foe Tigers and the World Series primed Phillies! Comerica Park. Citizens Bank Park. Let’s begin… Image courtesy of Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports August 7-10 @ Detroit Tigers (4 games) Comerica Park - 2022 attendance was 1,551,149 (ranked 10th out of 15 AL teams, 22nd overall MLB) The Twins make their return trip to Detroit during the heat of August’s pennant push. This four-game series should be ripe for the picking by this point in the season. Of course, unless June’s trip re-writes the script, the Twins haven’t been very successful in Detroit since 2020. You can read up on the Comerica Park road trip experience in Trip #7, but for now its important to remember that new members of the team acquired in trades will be making their first road trip with the Twins on this particular journey. The new dynamic gets tested right away with hot days in hostile ballparks. It's 923 miles from Mitchell, South Dakota, to Detroit. Then the team has 587 miles to go to Philadelphia. There are no off days on this seven-game trip, so the road weariness will be on full display. August 11-13 @ Philadelphia Phillies (3 games) Citizens Bank Park - 2022 attendance was 2,276,736 (ranked 10th out of 15 NL teams) I was surprised to discover that the Phillies have lost more games than any other American sports franchise. I only seem to remember the captivating squads of the 90’s, and the World Series attending teams of recent history. However, the giant former home of the Phillies, Veterans Stadium, often saw nothing but epic disappointment. At 67,000, Veterans Stadium had the capacity for greatness, and the vibe of concrete sterility. In 2004, the team began a new chapter with the more intimate and contemporary Citizens Bank Park. The seating at Citizens Bank is described as “sitting over the field,” and the unique wind tunnel alleyways and small left- and right-field corners set the stage for homeruns and excitement. Twins fans can get up close and personal with the visitor’s bullpen in left-center field, or just hang out and listen to the Phillies fans give them grief. Of all of the stadiums that I researched, this one seems to be the least hospitable to away team jerseys and presence in general. Attenders beware! The ballpark also seems to be set up for prime standing room only options, and its main food vendors exist in the open outfield concourse. There’s a kid’s wiffle-ball field in right-field, and a Wall of Fame in left. And of course, keep your head on a swivel unless you want to get accosted by the Phillie Phanatic. Philadelphia itself oozes history and tourist destinations. The start of American democracy and government, the pursuit of freedom and liberty, and the origins of the great cheesesteak all find their home here. You can pretend you are Rocky as you run the steps of the Museum of Art, or just sit there and watch other people exhaust themselves trying. The Twins don’t have much history at Citizens Bank Park. 2019 was the last series there, and playoff history is non-existent. I had a John Kruk man crush for a good decade, but even his role in Phillies lore is quite dated. This year’s team is fresh off of “what might have been” in 2022, and will hopefully have Bryce Harper back by this point in the season. If the Phillies are still rocking Jake Cave in the outfield in August, something has gone terribly wrong for them. It’s 1,400 miles back to Mitchell, South Dakota, from Philadelphia. This trip probably makes more sense via plane, but without off days the chance of missing connecting flights does exist. Hopefully the dog days of August bring two series wins, and smooth travels. Otherwise, this road trip could be the beginning of the end of the season for the Twins. Now it's your turn to plan! If you have been to Comerica Park or Citizens Bank Park, please post your list of "best seats" and "must sees." Anyone else planning on going to these series? Grace and peace Twins Territory! Thanks for the help! View full article

I was just wondering if doing the 2 game trip to Milwaukee this year and next were worth it. You are convincing me to aim at “once is enough.” thanks for chiming in!

The ninth road trip of the 2023 Twins season leads through the heart of the Midwest, Kansas City and St. Louis! It’s time to claim the title “Best of the Middle” against the Royals and Cardinals! A return to Kauffman Stadium. Rivalry renewed at Busch Stadium. Let’s begin… Image courtesy of Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports July 28-30 @ Kansas City Royals (3 games) Kauffman Stadium - 2022 attendance was 1,277,986 (ranked 13th out of 15 AL teams, 26th overall MLB) The Royals’ home park’s first season of use was 1973 (Royals Stadium) with artificial turf, renamed Kauffman Stadium in 1994 after the team's first owner. Kentucky bluegrass replaced the turf in 1995. Folks hoping to check this one off your bucket list better hurry up, as they are proposing a Target Field-style move to downtown! It will be interesting to see if this conversation has gained any steam as the season progresses. With this being the Twins’ second trip to Kansas City in 2023, fans get a chance to see the impact of temperature upon stadium characteristics. The end of July brings heat and humidity, along with its extra carry on the long ball and extra stress on pitchers and catchers. By this point in the season, the trajectories of the teams should be clear as well. It’s worth noting that last season the Royals drew two million fewer fans compared to the Cardinals. Yes, two…million…fewer. That sums up a lot of how both fan bases are approaching this season, and how far from competitive balance the league truly is. Will 2023 bring a reversal of fortunes? Not likely. Mitchell, South Dakota, to the Kauffman Stadium gates is 441 miles. Kauffman to St. Louis is only 241 miles. This leg of the season is the perfect midwestern summer road trip. August 1-3 @ St. Louis Cardinals (3 games) Busch Stadium - 2022 attendance was 3,320,551 (ranked 2nd out of 15 NL teams, 2nd overall MLB) St. Louis’ baseball history can be charted back to 1882. 11 World Series trophies later, the Cardinals remain elite among fan bases and baseball cultural icon status. The current Busch Stadium is the third iteration of its namesake, and provides a scenic shout-out to the downtown skyline and this noble heritage. Built in 2006, Busch Stadium sports a Ballpark Village neighborhood attraction and its own Hall of Fame Museum. The majestic views past the outfield concourse give the stadium its style points, the red seats and Clydesdales provide the ambiance, and the fans provide the support. The Cardinals have benefitted from being the only game “in town” for a region that stretches from Oklahoma to Alabama, Indiana to Colorado, and all points in between. Their radio signal strength established a fan base, and their open wallet and excellent farm system has provided the contenders. The Twins don’t really have a history at this particular version of Busch Stadium. When they were in town for the World Series in 1987, it didn’t go particularly well either. Other than being a battle between two potential playoff teams, the main antagonist in this rivalry will probably be the weather. Temps in August easily reach 100 degrees, and at the end of a road trip the physicality of the season will begin to show. This series also encompasses the August 2nd trade deadline. Inevitably some players that will be donning the Twins and Cardinals jerseys at the first game of the series could be gone by the last game. Witnessing this aspect of baseball business in-person will be interesting indeed. Brewery tours, trips up to the top of the Arch, BBQ and BBQ and more BBQ, and time spent feasting on baseball in the heartland. What could be better? It’s 676 miles home again to South Dakota, and I will be praying that the air conditioning in the car has held up for this entire trip! Now it's your turn to plan! If you have been to Kauffman Stadium or Busch Stadium, please post your list of "best seats" and "must sees." Anyone else planning on going to these series? Grace and peace Twins Territory! Thanks for the help! View full article

The eighth road trip of the 2023 Twins season swings down the West Coast through Oakland and Seattle. It’s time to kick off the second half of the season against the A’s and Mariners! Oakland Coliseum. T-Mobile Park. Let’s begin… Image courtesy of D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports July 14-16 @ Oakland Athletics (3 games) Oakland Coliseum - 2022 attendance was 787,982 (ranked 15th out of 15 AL teams, 30th overall MLB) Oakland averaged less than 10,000 fans per game last year. The home of Moneyball has been searching for a new home for the past decade, and the fans have rewarded the team with their indifference. The A’s and Oakland Coliseum formed the backdrop to many childhood heroes before we realized how juiced they were. Lately, the club has been known more for thriftiness than for victories. The Coliseum itself bears the weight of being Al Davis’ Raiders home in the mid-to-late ’90s. The addition of a towering bowl of seats increased capacity while magnifying just how empty the stadium looks today. Interestingly enough, the Coliseum used to mirror Dodger Stadium before “Mount Davis” was erected. Word on the street is that the fans that do attend aren’t there by mistake. They are fans through and through and should make for an interesting road environment. There are unique experiences surrounding the ballpark itself, while the in-stadium experience doesn’t offer much. I won’t go out of my way to mention how the last time the Twins won a playoff series was at the Coliseum, and hopefully, they won’t kill me. Oakland itself boasts connections to the sights and sounds of the Bay Area in general, and there are waterfront and cultural experiences throughout the region. The Oakland Zoo gets solid reviews, and Treasure Island between the two cities carries family connections. This ballpark doesn’t excite me, but picking up three wins to kick off the second half of the season never hurt anyone. I’ve contemplated making the July 12th All-Star Game in Seattle a part of the journey, but I’m going to decline even if I’m voted in this year because, from Oakland, we get to go there anyways! Oakland lies 1,672 miles from my front door, a daunting 25-hour drive. However, there are whispers of an epic family and friends trip through this six-game set. The drive up and down the Pacific Coast Highway beckons, as does the surf and sun. July 17-20 @ Seattle Mariners (4 games) T-Mobile Park - 2022 attendance was 2,286,267 (ranked 6th out of 15 AL teams, 15th overall MLB) Fresh off of hosting the All-Star Game, T-Mobile Park dials up the fan experience with a retractable roof, beautiful sight lines, and stellar food and beverage options. This isn’t your grandpa’s Kingdome, for sure. Success hasn’t been a part of the Mariners’ story, but their current squad is on the way up. Established in 1977, the Mariners endured losing seasons every year until 1991. They hold the less-than-awesome honor of having never been in a World Series. So the town is hungry for change, even if the ballpark is now entering its 24th season. The park hosts the Baseball Museum of the Pacific Northwest and Mariners Hall of Fame, which pays homage to great moments in professional baseball throughout the region. The ‘Pen is a foody and pub crawler’s dream, and there is a Fan Walk with engraved bricks memorializing those who root for the squad. I don’t remember much history between the Mariners and the Twins. They never seem hot at the same time, and their superstars never seem to be competing for attention simultaneously. I’m not heading to these games looking for baseball drama but hoping for some relaxing and captivating scenery and experiences. My family hates heights, so I’ll probably be heading up the Space Needle alone. The Museum of Pop Culture does seem like a worthy stop, and we can’t be in this part of America without the temptation of a Goonies filming site pilgrimage coming up in the conversation. The Seattle Japanese Garden also looks amazing and perfect for healing and restoration, especially if the Twins are leaning away from the playoffs at this point in the season. It’s 808 miles from Oakland to Seattle and 1406 miles back to Mitchell, SD. Throw in some beaches and mountain passes, and I’m guessing the van will need a deep clean after this trip. With the MLB trade deadline looming on August 2nd, this trip provides the last chance to separate the squad from the pack before decisions need to be made. Where will the Twins be as the season turns? There’s only one way to find out: to go there. Now it's your turn to plan! If you have been to Oakland Coliseum or T-Mobile Park, please post your list of "best seats" and "must-sees." Is anyone else planning on going to this series? Grace and peace, Twins Territory! Thanks for the help! View full article

I've been kicking around the same question lately. WinsAboveReplacement has such precedence in the computations, that fan "rooting interest" hasn't quite kept up as a priority. And yet, as someone who travels six hours just to go to Target Field, having some idea of who will be playing when you get there DOES matter when planning the trip. Now, admittedly, several families go just to go...and couldn't name four guys on the roster either way :) I would love to get my hands on player jersey/t-shirt sales, and the rest of the metrics at the disposal of the club. I'm looking forward to seeing how players are represented in the attire and energies of their local fan bases this season as I catch some road games. It would be possible, one would think, to ask TV viewers why and who they watch for in games, especially on the verge of the Twins' new TV contract. Or do they have the data, and it says fans pay to watch the "laundry" that is the Twins jersey, regardless of who is in it? In another vein, the Adam Thielen conversation this week speaks to some of the ways Midwestern folk deal with "loss and grief" around local players and local squads. Curious to see what others think. Thanks for bringing it up!

The Twins away game idea emerged as a "rooting for laundry" dream. Roster moves over the past month have started to imply that something more might be underfoot for our 2023 squad. All of a sudden, I have new names to learn and new expectations to decipher. A trip to re-introduce myself to this nation that I call home now is beginning to reek of fanboy angst... Are the Twins for real in 2023 all of a sudden? I wasn't anticipating a need to feel nervous at these ball games. I was just going to enjoy the relationship-building travel and some delicious food along the way. Now I might have to worry about a playoff race? I was just going to cheer on Luis Arraez as he wiggled his way to breaking up some Dodger pitcher's no-hitter in a 9-0 game, but now I might have to be on the edge of my seat with a series victory on the line in Chavez Ravine? I was breathing a sigh of relief at not having to witness Carlos Correa Giants jerseys in year one, and then it was Mets jerseys for a few weeks, and now I'm left kicking myself for not buying every jersey while they were still on clearance. The worst part is, Carlos will know after 81 games of seeing me in the one Correa jersey that I have, that I gave up on him when he said he signed with two other teams. I'm not a true believer. Increased team expectations for 2023 mean that frigid April bullpen debacles in Kansas City sting that much more. Random acts of lineup malfunction in Chicago in May mean increased blood pressure in September. I'm pretty sure that the Twins aren't yet finished with shaping this year's roster. I'm guessing that at least one more familiar face that my kid's loved cheering for will be someone I now get to see in a new home on the road this season. There will be more where that came from during the trade deadline in July/August for sure. Why? Because when Correa re-signed the tables turned and the season took on an urgency that wasn't a part of my earlier trip calculations. I'm fine with it. Trust me. I like winning. But instead of being "the weird dude in Twins gear at our ballpark when the Twins have moderate to no shot at winning the game," I'm more often than not going to be "the weird dude in Twins gear at our ballpark when the Twins are making local fans angry for shelling out cash to watch our team beat their team in their park so they are gonna verbally (not physically please) take it out on that weird dude" guy. It's going to be very hard for the Twins to go unnoticed this season on the national level. Will this help our team rise to the occasion? Or will the added attention multiply our faults? Will it drive up my ticket prices and lodging costs? Or will locals stay away because they don't want to cry in their own stadium? Time will tell, and I for one can't wait to get it started! Pitchers and catchers report in less than a month, on my birthday, Februrary 16th. I can't think of a better gift in the middle of such a long harsh winter on the Dakota plains. Grace and peace Twins Territory, wherever you are!

Thank you for this awesome advice! This week is "logistics" week in our house...time to figure out who is joining me for which legs of the journey. Have you been to Camden Yards quite a bit? Ever been to Truist?

The seventh road trip of the 2023 Twins season covers the most amount of days, with three series taking the Twins through Detroit, Atlanta, and Baltimore. It’s time to make a mid-season run against the Tigers, Braves, and Orioles! Comerica Park, Truist Field, Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Let’s begin… Image courtesy of Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports June 23-25 @ Detroit Tigers (3 games) Comerica Park - 2022 attendance was 1,551,149 (ranked 10th out of 15 AL teams, 22nd overall MLB) The latest iteration of Tigers baseball launched in 2000, as Comerica Park attempted to replace a jewel box ballpark icon in Tiger Stadium. How did they do it? Well, for starters, they built a bunch of giant Tiger statues. Then they made the dimensions of the outfield astronomical in nature. The walls were so far back that they realized they messed up and brought them back in 2003. Players’ stats continue to take a hit from the dimensions, and the conversation on bringing in the walls is circulating again. Comerica Park hasn’t been hospitable to the Twins for the past three seasons. Despite Detroit being in the dumps, they have been 14-9 vs. the Twins since 2020. The path back to the top of the central requires a change in this trend. We’ve shared Ron Gardenhire, Jack Morris, Torii Hunter, Robbie Grossman, Jonathan Schoop, Akil Baddoo, Dan Gladden, and now Willi Castro. Familiarity breeds something. Hopefully, in 2023 it breeds wins. Located just a few blocks from the Detroit River/Canadian Border, Comerica Park sits in the downtown district, with plenty of entertainment and eatery options. There is a Motown Museum, The Corner Ballpark (a recreation of Tiger Stadium), the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the Henry Ford Museum just down the road. In-Stadium attractions include a carousel, Ferris Wheel, and the Tigers Hall of Fame. It's 923 miles from Mitchell, SD, to Detroit. There is a 10-11 hour drive from Detroit to our next destination, so it's doable by car. It’s not optimal, but it is a trip through a part of the country that I’ve never been through. The players never experience the “in-between” zones of America on their trips from stadium to stadium. This is one perk of self-travel that I’m going to enjoy. June 26-28 @ Atlanta Braves (3 games) Truist Park - 2022 attendance was 3,129,931 (ranked 3rd out of 15 NL teams, 4th overall MLB) Baseball arrived in Atlanta in 1966, but the national audience for the Braves arrived with TBS. Even a kid in the middle-of-nowhere South Dakota could watch the Braves long before he could watch the Twins. This made the 1991 World Series that much more exciting. The Atlanta Fulton County Stadium we watched in 1991 made way for Turner Field (aka. Olympic Stadium) in 1997. The Braves' most recent move in 2017 took them to the suburbs, to mixed reviews. On the one hand, the Braves got a chance to build a baseball community center with neighborhood revenue-gathering machines. On the other hand, folks now need cars and cash to get to the games. Twins history with Atlanta? These were just the defining moments of any Twins fan alive in the early 90s. Eddie Rosario helped return the World Series to them in 2021. That stung a bit. In between? There was just a whole lot of losing by both squads. Restarting an annual series against the Braves seems like a great way to revive a rivalry! Truist Park resides in a mixed-use entertainment district called “The Battery.” Designed to curate the entire baseball consumer’s experience, it's arguably the wave of the future (see also Globe Life Field in Texas). As a tourist from the Midwest, this format suits me just fine! Yet, the energy of a downtown ballpark creates a different atmosphere. The park is clean and modern in stadium, with Hank Aaron tributes and historic moment monuments scattered throughout. “The Freeze” (@beatthefreeze) race between innings also looks intriguing. Atlanta boasts the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, MLK Jr. National Historical Park, and the Center for Puppetry Arts. I will not see puppets, but to each their own. I’m excited to see the region. After watching the past few election cycles, I’ve memorized Georgia county by county! It will be good to put some names and faces to the actual humans there. It’s 710 miles from Detroit to Atlanta. Lodging in “The Battery” is quite pricey, but the convenience factor is important to consider. Rest and quality nutrition begin to matter more on a ten-day road trip. Hopefully, the Twins are riding a winning streak as they turn back north to Baltimore. June 30-July 2 @ Baltimore Orioles (3 games) Oriole Park at Camden Yards - 2022 attendance was 1,368,367 (ranked 11th out of 15 AL teams, 23rd overall MLB) Oriole Park at Camden Yards will forever be tied with Ken Griffey Jr. in my mind. Not because of anything that transpired there but because the Ken Griffey Jr. Super Nintendo game was the first time I saw the ballpark. Built in 1992, Camden Yards changed aesthetic templates for Major League ballparks. The warehouse in right-center frames a beautiful backdrop for baseball and batter’s dreams. The seats are designed for viewing baseball, but the third-base line is the way to go. Legends Park holds statues of Orioles greats, the walkways bustle with food and fun, and the city itself carries a history of the birthplace of baseball immortality, Babe Ruth. The Inner Harbor and National Aquarium are tourist destinations that boast ships straight out of Pirates of the Caribbean and over 17,000 animals. Locals have been pursuing a Loch Ness-type creature named “Chessie” since the ’30s. Ok, interesting. My friends in the area don’t describe Baltimore as a vacation hotspot, but it sounds like a great 2.5 days to me! It was 676 miles from Atlanta to Baltimore and another 1338 miles home. This trip screams epic, but it also whispers impossible. An excellent trip for the Twins, and they head into the All-Star break in style. A poor showing over these ten days and the trade deadline might mean more than the playoff push. Now it's your turn to plan! If you have been to Comerica Park, Truist Park, or Oriole Park at Camden Yards, please post your list of "best seats" and "must-sees." Is anyone else planning on going to these series? Grace and peace, Twins Territory! Thanks for the help! View full article

The sixth road trip of the 2023 Twins season covers over 4200 miles AND an extra country! It’s time to go from dome to dome against the Tampa Bay Rays and Toronto Blue Jays. Tropicana Field. Rogers Center. Grab your passports, and let’s begin… Image courtesy of © Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports June 6-8 @ Tampa Bay Rays (3 games) Tropicana Field - 2022 attendance was 1,128,127 (ranked 14th out of 15 AL teams, 28th overall MLB) It made sense on paper. Home of Spring Training and epi-center of major league baseball for two months each year, so why not put an actual franchise in town? 1998 brought MLB and the Tampa/St. Pete metro area its own ballclub: The Tampa Bay Devil Rays. They celebrated by losing at least 90 games in each of their first 10 seasons! Then after a 2008 name change to the Rays (think “sunshine,” not “animal”), the tide turned in many respects. Their first World Series appearance and a constant stream of small market success stories defined the next decade. Attendance, however, hasn’t followed suit. Tropicana Field boasts the notorious label of being “unattractive” and “nondescript.” A concrete dome, with Astroturf (that even the Astros stopped using…), optical illusions from the seating arrangement, and catwalks that giveth (Jason Kubel in 2010) and taketh away (Miguel Sano in 2015). Tropicana Field defines “quirky.” But apparently, the game experience itself can be a lot of fun. Dancing grounds crews, a live ray tank in the outfield (think “animal,” not “sunshine”), a Ted Williams and Hitters Halls of Fame, and plenty of room to roam make the Tropicana experience a good buy. If you can time the series right, you can also catch a few minor league games in the area while you are there. I’m not sure that the Twins have a “history” at Tropicana Field. The Rays’ rise coincided with the Twins’ decline most recently. Rocco Baldelli grew up in the organization. Delmon Young and the Nelson Cruz/Joe Ryan trade stick out a bit. But whenever the rumor mill kicks up an idea to have the Rays play half of their season in Tampa and half in Montreal, or when a “new Nashville team” emerges as buyers, I’m forced to remember the days of contraction threats made against the Twins. We’ve been in a crappy dome before, one with World Series appearances, cherished memories of young teams on the rise, and a roof that messes up the actual play on the field. So my heart goes out to the fanbase there. I’m not ashamed to admit that this is actually the stadium I’m most excited to see this year, just so I can see for myself what all the fuss is about. I’m bummed that the Mighty Mussels are playing at the exact same times, so I can’t check them out. I’ll have to settle for the Salvador Dali Museum, the Sunken Gardens, or the Florida Aquarium. (I checked that out with my eldest son on our last trip here and loved it.) The Big Cat Rescue also is pretty sweet, except for that my grandma and grandpa-in-law used to live next to it, and the wake-up roars at 5 am weren’t so pleasant. At 1704 miles from Mitchell, I’m flying into Tampa, and definitely flying the 1357 miles into Toronto for the next series. The last time I was in Tampa for spring training, no rental cars existed in the town for about 36 hours. What could go wrong!!? June 9-11 @ Toronto Blue Jays (3 games) Rogers Centre - 2022 attendance was 2,653,830 (ranked 3rd out of 15 AL teams, 8th overall MLB) When Toronto got their MLB franchise in 1977, they started out in a retro-fitted football field called Exhibition Stadium. 1989 brought the SkyDome (renamed Rogers Centre in 2005), soon to gain classic replay status for Joe Carter ’s World Series winner and back-to-back championships. In the 2010’s, the Blue Jays even boasted the highest attendance in the American League! The SkyDome/Rogers Centre boasts about being the first stadium in the world with a fully retractable motorized roof, hosts a hotel with rooms that look out onto the field, and rests within the Old Downtown neighborhood of the 4th largest city in North America. The field itself? A bit cookie-cutter in form, with excellent food and tourist vibes throughout the concourses. The Twins’ history with Rogers Centre includes the American League Championship Series three road game victories that propelled them to the 1991 World Series, 50-50 success over the past 4 seasons, and a small dose of covid vaccine controversy. With travel restrictions lifted, and a Blue Jay squad with aspirational World Series goals, this should make for a fun mid-season match-up! The sounds, tastes, and sights of Toronto are pretty epic it sounds like. CN Tower observation deck, Lake Ontario beaches and waterfront, the Hockey Hall of Fame, and an actual “distillery district,” all exist within a few blocks of the ballpark. I have a passport. I’m ready to go. This one is an obviously “getaway day” flight from Tampa, with a less than 24-hour turnaround. Getting the 1153 miles back to South Dakota will be interesting. I’m wondering if this might be a good trip to catch a home game in Minneapolis before this series, with connecting flights being more direct and cheaper from there to both Tampa and Toronto. We have Cleveland @ Target Field on Sunday, June 4th at 1 pm as a potential “launching pad” for this road trip…or a potential flat tire…tbd. Now it's your turn to plan! If you have been to Tropicana Field or Rogers Centre, please post your list of "best seats" and "must sees." Anyone else planning on going to these series? Grace and peace, Twins Territory! Thanks for the help! View full article

The 1987 squad and the 2020 Covid team are the two outliers in Twins history where they made the playoffs with a less than .460 mark on the road. That 1987 team in particular looks more like a miracle the more I study it! The Twins have also had seasons where they finished above .460 on the road and didn’t make the playoffs: 1962, 1963, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1979, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2001, 2005. The expansion of number of playoff teams obviously tracks through these statistics. With the new full-interleague schedule starting this year, combined with the reduced central division scheduling, I think we will see this trend continue forward though as a modern reality.

The story of where it all went wrong last year begins and ends on the road… Image courtesy of Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports If the Twins want playoffs in 2023 (let alone a World Series Championship), at the very least, one thing must occur. If you toss out whatever the empty stands 2020 season brought us, no team since 2015 has made the playoffs with a road record of less than .460. Not a single team. This statistical oddity stands out more clearly when comparing the 2022 Twins squad against the 2019 Bomba Squad. What would you say if I told you that the Twins' home records for those two seasons were exactly the same!? It's true. Once the shock wore off, I triple-checked it. In the 2019 and 2022 seasons, the Twins were a respectable and playoff-bound 46-35 at home. So what made the difference between the excitement and potential of the 2019 playoff run and last year’s disappointment? To put it bluntly: road trips. In 2019, the Twins were an astounding 55-28 on the road! In 2022, the Twins managed a below-MLB road record average 32-49 mark. (Click here for another, less recent, trip down the rabbit hole of why home teams win 54% of games in the MLB.) That’s a 23-win difference on the road between 2019 and 2022! How on earth does such a thing transpire? Well, for the 2022 Twins, it happened slowly and consistently over the entirety of the season. In fact, the only two road trips that the Twins secured a winning record were the second and third trips of the 2022 season. (They went 4-3 against Tampa Bay and Baltimore and 5-1 against Oakland and Kansas City.) They played around .500 ball on the road the rest of the way until the fateful ninth trip to Los Angeles in mid-August. After going 1-4 against the Dodgers and Angels, the Twins finished their last four road trips 5-19. 5…and…19…. So what went wrong on the road? A couple of abnormal instances pop up when you dig a little deeper. The Twins were 6-23 in road games determined by 2 runs or less. In fact, the “pitchers taking the L on the road” list runs like a who’s who of the Twins bullpen. No one leaves unscathed. Also, during the end of the season road collapse, the Twins were without Byron Buxton. Yet, they managed to go 15-10 at home during this same stretch of games. So what about Byron’s absence made the road woes so magnified? In fact, the Twins went 6-23 overall on the road in 2022 when Byron was out with an injury. I’m enough of a statistician to know that a few instances do not make a correlation, and they definitely don’t make causation. However, where there is smoke, there usually is fire. Do the Twins’ 2023 playoff hopes actually hinge on this obscure and recent part of baseball’s seasonal grind, and Byron's health/our bullpen's strength? Or does Carlos Correa officially being a Twin “for life” now, as opposed to the “soon to be free agent”, bring enough leadership to buoy the Twins through the inevitable injuries this time? I would argue that the soft-science of clubhouse "unity" gets magnified on the road. With the signing and security of locking down Correa and his assistant GM leadership, do the Twins now have a formula for righting this wrong in 2023? We shall see. 31,759 miles and 14 road trips await the Twins this season. The Twins will start their 2023 campaign on the road in Kansas City and Miami, winnable games to be sure. But the next three journeys take the Twins through the Bronx, Fenway, Cleveland, and Dodgers Stadium, to name a few. Reaching their ultimate goal will depend on holding their own in the face of these early tests. Root, root, root for the home team, indeed! But if the Twins' road trips don’t bring them at least 38 wins, you can kiss the playoff dreams goodbye. View full article

The fifth road trip of the 2023 Twins season looks a whole lot spicier than it did a few days ago! The biggest free agent signing in Twins history makes his second return to Houston, but this time definitely feels different as he is now fully signed, sealed and delivered as “our” Carlos Correa! Image courtesy of © Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports At the end of May, Carlos leads us deep into the heart of his old home, the World Series Champions’ stompin’ grounds: Houston, Texas. It’s time to put the squeeze on the Astros! Minute Maid Park. Let’s begin… Minute Maid Park - 2022 attendance was 2,688,998 (ranked 2nd out of 15 AL teams, 7th overall MLB) In the season’s first one-city road trip of the 2023 season, we head to the ballpark that has hosted four of the last six World Series. Yes…you heard that right…four of six. Minute Maid Park carries history, scandal, success, and futility all in one amazingly crafted and retro-fitted setting. I think what’s probably most important for Twins fans to appreciate about baseball in Houston can be traced back to the O.G. stadium: the Astrodome. The sporting world’s first fully enclosed and air-conditioned stadium, the Astrodome changed the game and almost all other games around the world. The Astrodome gave us the first synthetic turf playing surface (hence why we call all the new stuff Astroturf even if it isn’t!), the ability to play ball in any type of weather or geography, and the introduction of year-round civic and sports arenas within a city. The current ballpark was constructed around a former Union Station railway concourse, and harkens to the culture and community that it serves. Oil, agriculture, trains, Bar-B-Q, Mexican food, boom/bust economics, and espionage/waste disposal (couldn’t resist). The retractable roof might come into play in May, with an opportunity for outdoor baseball early and late in the season. This element allows for a natural grass playing surface. Originally named Enron Field in 2000, my kids’ third favorite orange juice stepped up to the plate for naming rights once Enron imploded. Hopefully the Minute Maid Train will fail to leave the station due to a lack of Astros homers, but recent history would argue to bet the “over.” The Twins are a mere 4-16 at Houston since 2015 after being swept there in 2022. While our recent Twins connections with the Astros have more to do with Carlos Correa (who went 1-11 w/ 1 RBI in 2022 in his first return trip to Houston) than any real rivalry, there is a personal connection for me. My first game at Target Field was a Sunday afternoon, August 4, 2013…against a ratty Astros team that boasted such young players as Jose Altuve, Jason Castro, Chris Carter, and Robbie Grossman. The Astros were clearly tanking. The Twins were unclearly tanking. While the Twins won the battle that day 3-2, they’ve lost the war quite decisively over the past decade. If this year’s squad has any hope of reaching postseason success, it might hinge on a three-day road trip in May where they are going to be tested by the best in the business. I didn’t get to Minute Maid Park in time to see the legendary and questionable "Tal’s Hill” in centerfield. The berm & flagpole served for quite a few highlights and lowlights for fielders, and it stretched the dimensions out to 436ft. The hill left the building after the 2016 season, replaced by a restaurant, standing room seating, and a lower medical liability deductible. The dimensions also came in with it to a reasonable 406ft. Interestingly, berms or mounds in the field of play used to be a way to give a better view to standing room overflow fans ON THE FIELD!!! Can you imagine? Showing up to a game, discovering that it was sold out, but being told to “Worry not! Centerfield has some room for you!” It sounds like an alternate reality. I look forward to many things on the Houston trip. Connecting with co-workers at one of our partner schools there, checking out the Space Center, and enjoying some beach and fishing time out at the Gulf of Mexico are potential highlights. Mainly I’m just excited to watch high quality baseball, in a crazy cool stadium, alongside a fan-base that has doubled-down on their team. I’m sure there will be many stops on my tour-de-baseball this year where the hometown fans could care less. Houston ain’t one of those stops. With no connecting series, and Houston’s hub and wheel road layout, making the drive might be the best option. At 1058 miles and 16 hrs from Mitchell,SD, it’s a trek. The next road trip is a solo, globe-trotting mess of airports and logistics, so on a day when the FAA system crashes for several hours, the comfort of having my own wheels and family along for this ride ranks high on my planning priority list. Now it's your turn to plan! And yes...if this is the first time you’ve seen one of my road trip pieces, I’m going to all of these away games. Please join me in person or with some insider info! If you have been to Minute Maid Park, please post your list of "best seats" and "must sees." Anyone else planning on going to this series? Grace and peace Twins Territory! Thanks for the help! Previous Road Trip stories: Road Trip #1 (Kansas City and Miami) Road Trip #2 (New York and Boston) Road Trip #3 (Chicago and Cleveland) Road Trip #4 (Los Angeles and Los Angeles) View full article

The fourth road trip of the 2023 Twins season aims to bring suntans and celebrities into the mix, with a week in Los Angeles! It’s time to go to Hollywood against the Dodgers and Angels! Will it be a horror show, comedy, drama, or feel-good classic? Dodgers Stadium. Angel Stadium. Let’s begin… Image courtesy of Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports May 15-17 @ LA Dodgers (3 games) Dodgers Stadium - 2022 attendance was 3,861,408 (ranked 1st out of 15 NL teams, and 1st overall MLB) Like the Twins, the Dodgers got their start in the Northeast and moved westward. First settling in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the Dodgers found their forever home in 1962 at Chavez Ravine. Beautiful, breathtaking, “an aesthetic ideal” mirroring Hollywood itself, Dodgers Stadium tops many ballpark bucket lists. The construction crew literally moved 8,000,000 cubic yards of rock and material amidst the natural landscape, slicing a piece of baseball heaven into place. Jackie Robinson’s presence exists inside and outside of the ballpark, with statues and stories in full display. With the Dodgers being a juggernaut on the field, finding affordable seats will prove equally daunting. The Kirk Gibson Home Run Seat (section 302, right field pavilion, Row D, seat 88) stands (sits?) immortal. If you haven’t re-enacted that iconic scene from the 1988 World Series while playing baseball, or softball, or whiffle ball/ping pong/ice fishing for that matter…then you need to turn in your baseball fan card. Just turn it in. I look forward to seeing where it all took place. There is also the infamous Dodger Dog, made even more infamous by the 2023 Winter Meltdown’s guest of honor Glen Perkins last season. Needless to say, I will have to measure and weigh the consequences of my food reporting accordingly when on-site. The Twins have some World Series history with the Dodgers (sad face emoticon), but our recent efforts to beat them have been even worse. The Dodgers have won 10 in a row against the Twins, dating back to 2011. Yes. We haven’t beaten the Dodgers in over a decade. So hint of a rivalry here, unless you can remember when Koufax was dealing and the Dodgers took all three at home in that ill-fated ’65 World Series. I don’t have much personal history in LA, though I drove around the area for a few days in a rental car with small children once. Let’s just say that it becomes vital to plan bathroom and food stops BEFORE setting out upon the LA freeway system. The Hollywood sign, Disneyland, Rodeo Drive, the Walk of Fame, Universal Studios, the ocean…all worth the trip in and of themselves. Some of them free. Some of them the opposite of free. At 1585 miles from Mitchell, driving to Los Angeles will require a full 24 hours behind the wheel. Renting a car for 7 days doesn’t make my wallet feel great, and it's not a mass transit kind of town. Everything I read about getting around in LA involves a car and a lot of traffic patience. I’m exploring a Vegas “pre-series research weekend” flight leading to a rental car for the week. The good news for this weary traveler is that the next series also involves the shortest “connection” travel between series for this season. 31 miles! Just down the freeway to… May 19-21 @ LA Angels (3 games) Angel Stadium - 2022 attendance was 2,457,461 (ranked 5th out of 15 AL teams, 13th overall MLB) To say that Angel Stadium exists because Disney exists isn’t an overstatement. The birth of Disneyland in 1955 led to the pursuit of community development in the Anaheim area. In 1966, that pursuit involved building a baseball stadium, then known as Anaheim Stadium. The 1980’s brought a change in architecture, as the NFL Rams filled in the outfield seating area to increase capacity. 1998 brought a return to the open-concept outfield, as the Disney corporation placed its imprint upon the setting and installed the “Outfield Extravaganza” rock pile in left-center field. Mike Trout hits baseballs there for a living. Shohei Ohtani embodies a modern version of Babe Ruth there daily as well. Attendance remains high, despite the losing ways of the club in general. Angel Stadium seats 45,050, (approx. 11,000 less than Dodger Stadium), but I wonder what might happen if the Angels could get on a roll again. That being said, a rough April might lead to whispers of trades for Ohtani in his last contract year…which could add some excitement to the mix. Chilly LA nights in the early and late parts of the season mean layering up for this road trip. While the days are cookie-cutter beautiful and mid-70s, the nights will remind me of home. Angel Stadium contains some connection to Twins lore, as it was the ballpark that stole Torii Hunter from us, and the site of the beginning of our playoff futility in 2002 (technically the futility started in Game 2 at the Metrodome, but I’m gonna go ahead and blame Angel Stadium since the Dome is no longer around to defend itself). In 2019, the Bomba Squad unleashed 8 homers during a game at Anaheim en route to their record-breaking season. The Twins did a modified version of this same road trip in August 2022, fresh off the trade deadline and with the season on the line, and came away 1-4. Here’s to hoping for a dramatic reversal in the land of movie immortality. Again, having a car is the name of the game when traveling around Angel Stadium. There is a bus option from downtown LA, but that doesn’t scream “relaxing road trip” to me. Also, with Disneyland right around the corner, there is no shortage of hotel options in Anaheim. At only 2.5 miles slightly SE of Disneyland, a guy has to go, right? Perhaps I can convince a few of the players to join me for some roller coasters??? If that’s a hard pass, maybe I can convince the Rally Monkey to take a stroll with me to the La Brea tar pits to fulfill a promise I made back in 2002… Now it's your turn to plan! If you have been to either Dodger Stadium or Angel Stadium, please post your list of "best seats" and "must sees." Anyone else planning on going to this series? Grace and peace Twins Territory! Thanks for the help! View full article