IndianaTwin

Minnesota Twins- As many of you might know today is earth day and the twins just won a major award for earth day known as the green glove which means the most waste diversion in 2026! Target field is a great eco friendly environment with great features including Pentair which contains recycled water from underneath the grass in the outfield! The twins are one of the best eco friendly and community innovative teams within all of north American sports this is a really cool award and a good initiative for Major League Baseball! They were also named a Community Impact Finalist and a Environmental Stewardship Finalist. Great news for the twins and great imitative for sports to help take care of the place we call home! Down below our some stats for the MLB season about environmental factors.
Donated 180 tons of excess food, providing 300,575 meals to local communities.
Recycled 2,447 tons of cardboard, the same weight as almost 16 million baseballs.
Diverted 10,932 tons of recyclable materials from landfill, the same weight as almost 729,000 World Series trophies.
Composted over 9,200 tons of organic materials, the same weight as almost 14 million baseball gloves.

And so concludes my Golden Anniversary year.
Not the Golden Anniversary of my birth. I’m a little way past that. And not the Golden Anniversary of my wedding. We’re a little way short of that.
Rather, this past July 13 marked the Golden Anniversary of the Detroit Tigers beating the homestanding Kansas City Royals 8-3, in front of 25,834 fans. Woody Fryman was the winning pitcher, scattering 12 hits over nine innings. Future Hall of Famer and 3,000 Hit Club member Al Kaline was the only player in the Tiger lineup not to get a hit. By contrast, little-used left fielder Marv Lane had four of his career 37 hits that night. He also had his only career triple and both of his career stolen bases. For the Royals, Cookie Rojas plated both runs with an inside the park homer and Kurt Bevacqua and Hal McRae each had three hits.
As MLB games go, it was pretty routine. But it was anything but routine for the eight-year-old kid sitting in Aisle 119, Row JJ, Seat 4, attending his first-ever big league game.
How do I know there was a kid in that seat attending his first game? Because I still have the ticket stub.
 
To celebrate this Golden Anniversary, I did two things this summer. First, I decided to go to three specific games to celebrate. I went solo to each of the three, which also provided time for reflection, as I thought baseball memories on the drive to and from.
The first game was at new Comiskey in Chicago. Or call it U.S. Cellular, Guaranteed Rate, whatever. I chose new Comiskey because for a long time, that was where I went to games most often, often catching the Twins when they were in town.
Ironically, I was standing a dozen or so rows back in the left field bleacher during batting practice, watching others clamor for balls hit into the stands. Some Twin staffer grabbed a ball and looked up in the stands. I suppose because I was one of the few people wearing a Twins shirt, he pointed at me and threw it in my direction. When I was a kid, I would have died for that to happen.
 
-------------------------------
 
A second game was at Target Field, where I probably get to games most often these days.
When by myself, I normally just get a cheap ticket and move down to an open seat over the course of the game. This time I actually found a $25 ticket for a seat in the Thrivent Deck.  That got me a padded seat, extra concession stands (with shorter lines and more food options), a concourse with greater access to restrooms and the like and the opportunity to wander through a Hall of Fame of sorts, with memorabilia ranging from Harmon Killebrew’s high school basketball uniform to the gear Joe Mauer wore for his emotional one-pitch return to the catcher spot in the final inning of his final game and lots of other stuff.
That game was topped off by crossing paths with my all-time favorite player as I was leaving. Tony Oliva is a regular at Twins games and was gracious enough to pause for a picture.
-------------------------------

The game I particularly looked forward to was at Royal (now called Kauffman) Stadium. My first hope in looking at the schedule was to go on July 13, but the Royals were on the road. However, I was able to go on July 24.
And here’s where it got extra cool. I wanted to recreate a picture from as close as possible to my seat from 50 years ago. When I looked for tickets, however, I discovered that the sections had been renumbered, so Section 119 was at a different location than it was in 1974.
I found an email address and sent a message to the fan relations office, asking if they had a seat map from 1974, explaining why I was looking for it. A couple days later, one of their people sent a map with the old seat numbers. He even went further, going out to take several pictures from the seat in question and sending them to me. It was indeed the general angle I remembered. When I searched for a ticket near the seat in question, I was able to find one a row behind and a seat to the side, essentially a checkerboard move from one seat to the other.
Then, the person in “my” seat went out to the concession stand just before the game started. I’d struck up a conversation with the family in that row, so I asked to hop into that seat for the opening pitch, taking things up a level. The glove is the one I had taken to the game so many years ago. The Marty Pattin autograph has long worn off.
A couple days after my first email exchange, the Royals took it even another step further in their customer relations. A department manager wrote to ask which game I would be attending and where I would be sitting, saying they wanted to bring me a gift to commemorate the day.
 
Midway through the game, what was probably an intern stopped by with a bag of goodies. She had bags to stop by other seats as well, but they had obviously raided the stash of leftover promotional items. For example, I got bobblehead was from a 2023 giveaway and the cap was what they had given to 2019 season-ticket holders. The picture frame was from when they hosted the All-Star Game in 2012. 
The best gift, however, was the t-shirt given away in 2018 to celebrate radio announcer Denny Matthews’ 50th year of broadcasting, but I’m choosing to see the 50 emblem as my own commemoration of 50 years. It’s fitting to have a broadcaster’s mic as well, since my love of baseball was incubated by listening to Twins on WHO-Des Moines.
 
-------------------------------
 
The second thing I did was put together a list of at least 50 things or memories that capture and reflect the joy I’ve experienced following baseball. Not surprisingly, I blew past that number in a short time, so I consolidated a few on the list that follows.
 
I’d welcome your commenting on any that resonate for you. Or that seem goofy enough to ask about.

1. Going to my first game in Kansas City. Dad and Mom weren’t baseball fans, but we were visiting my uncle in Kansas City, who got us the tickets.
2. Throwing a tennis ball against the side of the house for hours on end, playing imaginary games that always had the Twins winning.
3. Looking forward to Baseball Digest coming in the mail each month. Hoping each Christmas morning that one of my siblings would again renew the subscription as my present.
4. Winning the daily trivia contest on a local radio station several dozen times over a few years, getting two tickets to minor league games in Cedar Rapids each time. Cashing in the voucher for our box seat tickets, going down the steps to the concourse and then back up the steps to the seats, sometimes after turning right in the concourse to the souvenir stand, where a quarter could get the previous week’s copy of The Sporting News.
5. Going to the Rod Carew Game, a 19-12 Twins win over the White Sox in 1977, the year Carew flirted with .400 for much of the year.
6. Wearing the yellow t-shirt with my red Toughskin® jeans during Pee-Wee baseball and then the green pinstriped uniforms for Little League.
7. Being the bat boy for my brother-in-law’s slow pitch softball team, with my own team shirt with my name on the back.
8. Tying my bat on to my bike with baler twine and hooking my glove over the handlebar as I headed off to Vacation Bible School. I enjoyed the stuff we learned, but I have to acknowledge that the softball games before and after were bigger highlights.
9. My parents letting me drive six hours to a baseball game in Minnesota on my own, with my best friend and his brother. I don’t remember which summer it was and whether we were still in high school or had graduated. Going to a game while visiting the future Mrs. IT near the end of her year at Northwestern College in nearby Roseville.
10. Freezing our butts off on my first trip to Wrigley, during a May Term during college. I mean, it’s May at Wrigley — how could it not be shorts weather?
11. The community at Twins Daily, the best fan site there is for following the Twins. For being an online site, it has amazingly civil discussion (most of the time).
12. Playing fantasy baseball for 27 seasons. I don’t think I’ve finished last yet, but I haven’t won 24 of those years.
13. Going to a game with a dear friend, a loan officer, and talking just enough about his credit union so he could write it off as a business expense. Going to lunch with him just over 20 years ago to plan a weekend trip to St. Louis, Kansas City, Minnesota, Milwaukee and Wrigley, but having him not being able to go after he died so unexpectedly just a few weeks later. Taking a glove and ball to his grave when his Cubs made the World Series in 2016.
14. Not sure where to start in the list of memories related to IT Junior. Starting with teaching him the alphabet by saying that “A is for Aaron, B is for Bostock, C is for Carew,” we’ve covered a whole lot of geekiness since then.
15. Lots of memories with younger son (IT Sophomore?), including the joy of being one of his Little League coaches and sitting on a bucket as his catcher while he practiced pitching. I never caught a single inning in Pee Wee or Little League, but it was so much fun to have my own catcher’s mitt to use with him.
16. Weather — Blistering hot in St. Louis in July while taking the boys to their MLB first game at ages 6 and 3. Getting drenched during a rain delay in St. Louis on a later trip, using the giveaway insulated cooler as our “umbrella.” Blistering hot on a Saturday afternoon at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Freezing cold on a spring break trip to Chicago. Sweltering in the back of the upper deck at Wrigley. Lasting through a rain delay on a Sunday evening Twins blowout at Tiger Stadium, where the game ended with only about 100 fans in the entire outfield.
17. Ballpark nachos.
18. Served in a plastic helmet. Pretty sure that studies have shown that food is about 20 percent better when served in a plastic helmet.
19. Speaking of plastic helmets, collecting them as a high school student, wearing them all the time. I’m still not sure why they didn’t become a fashion trend.
20. Playing slow pitch softball in Iowa and Indiana, along with fast pitch in Indiana. Wow, did I stink at the latter.
21. Visiting all 30 major league stadiums. Redoing it when new stadiums opened in Atlanta and Texas. I’ve also been to 15 stadiums that have been closed. Haven’t decided how I’ll handle Sacramento next year. I’d have to count, but it’s probably about 20 minor league parks.
22. And lest 45 MLB parks seem impressive, what’s even more impressive is that Mrs. IT has been to 23 of the 30 current stadiums and a bunch of the closed ones! She doesn’t even like baseball, but it’s just one more reason why she’s a saint.
23. Putting together picture frames of pictures from all the parks, both for my office and for our home.
24. The 1987 World Series, with the Twins winning their first world championship.
25. The 1991 World Series, when the Twins won again.
26. Going to the public library to check out biographies and history books, particularly during oats combining season, when I would check out a dozen or so to read in the field while I waited for Dad to fill the hopper and be ready to dump in the wagon I was pulling. A lot of the biographies were from the adult section, and they used naughty words my parents wouldn’t have approved of.
27. Only realizing much later how much my thoughts about race were shaped by the biographies of Black and Latin players I read as a child, as they described the discrimination they faced, particularly in the minors.
28. All the Matt Christopher books I checked out from my elementary school library. And the My Secrets of Playing Baseball book by Willie Mays probably had my name on the card a dozen times.
29. Coming from school in the fall of 1973, checking the newspaper each day to see if Hank Aaron had hit another homer as he chased Babe Ruth’s record. Trying to figure out what the four columns of numbers in the box score stood for. Trying to figure out abbreviated names like “Ystrzski.”
30. Getting hooked on folk singer John McCutcheon’s music, particularly when I found there is actually someone writing intelligent songs about baseball. And then he did an entire album of baseball songs. And entire concerts of baseball songs. And I even contributed in a tiny way to his most recent song.

The Hammer - April 8, 2024.mp4 31. Listening to as many Twins games as I could as a kid, including late night games from the west coast, all on WHO-Des Moines. Getting rebooked on baseball on the radio by listening to games on MLB Audio these days.
32. Going to the Baseball Hall of Fame several times, including for Kirby Puckett’s induction. Going to an induction for what will probably be the last time when Tony Oliva was inducted. Going to a bunch of other museums as well. The best of the others is the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, but there’s also been ones for Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Bob Feller (sort of — it’s now closed).
33. Developing a friendship with an MLB player, bringing him to church twice as a youth group fundraiser. Learning more about the business side of the game from the unique perspective he provides.
34. Field of Dreams, The Natural, Bull Durham, The Sandlot, Trouble with the Curve, Moneyball, A League of Their Own and all the great baseball movies I’ve seen. Putting together an All-Star team of movie characters — Billy Chapel on the mound, Roy Hobbs in right, Crash Davis behind the plate, etc. 
 
35. Seeing Twins minor leaguer Royce Lewis interact compassionately with a bat boy with Down Syndrome. Total class.
36. The amazing speed of Byron Buxton. Joe Nathan doing his horse-like, “Pbbbbbt,” as he stood on the mound and prepared to throw a pitch.
37. All the players who gave autographs to my sons throughout the years. I always thought Nathan set the tone with Twins relief pitchers. If the leader of the pen was so willing to sign, how could the others not do the same?
38. Baseball cards — getting introduced to them by getting a pack from my brother. A pack with a Rod Carew, no less. Collecting them as a kid. Spreading them all over the floor with my best friend. Getting gifted my brother-in-law’s cards one year for Christmas. Best Christmas present ever! Knowing I traded away several Nolan Ryan and Reggie Jackson rookie cards over the years. Eventually completing the 1976 and 1979 sets, two years when I was particularly active. Recently completing a run of all of Tony Oliva’s cards, making a display in my home office.
39. Having a work travel schedule at several employers that have lent themselves to being able to tag a bunch of games on to work trips.
40. Going to the Field of Dreams movie site several times, playing catch with IT Sophomore, but also with a bunch of people I’ll never know.
41. Baseball-reference.com. Enough said.
42. Going to the Society for American Baseball Research annual conference. Twice.
43. Ballparks — practically the only time I eat peanuts in the shell. Other than when I go to Five Guys.
44. Touring a bunch of parks over the years, including standing atop the Green Monster.
45. Covering plenty of games as a newspaper reporter or sports information director, including games in several minor league parks and a couple of states and games with a future NFL player. Interviewing a couple of major leaguers who were on minor league rehab assignments.
46. Getting to throw out the first pitch at a high school game, to the young man in my church who I serve as a mentor for.
47. Keeping score. Seeing the passion IT Junior has for doing the same. Occasionally sending scoring questions to Stew Thornley, whom I’ve gotten to know through a unique set of circumstances.
48. Having the goofy dream of retiring to Rochester, Minn., spending my evenings selling Diet Coke in the bleachers at Target Field. Probably won’t happen.
49. Having baseball as part of my end-of-life plan. Seriously. I’ve told Mrs. IT and the boys that baseball enjoyment is one of my measures of incapacity. If there’s no likelihood that I’ll ever be able to sense/experience a baseball again, that’s one indicator that it’s okay to pull the plug.
50. When asked how she feels about going to all these games, hearing Mrs. IT say, “I don’t like baseball, but I like some people who like baseball.” See saint reference above. That statement has taught me so much about marriage.
 
(If you’ve made it through all this, thanks for indulging me.)
 

And so concludes my Golden Anniversary year.
Not the Golden Anniversary of my birth. I’m a little way past that. And not the Golden Anniversary of my wedding. We’re a little way short of that.
Rather, this past July 13 marked the Golden Anniversary of the Detroit Tigers beating the homestanding Kansas City Royals 8-3, in front of 25,834 fans. Woody Fryman was the winning pitcher, scattering 12 hits over nine innings. Future Hall of Famer and 3,000 Hit Club member Al Kaline was the only player in the Tiger lineup not to get a hit. By contrast, little-used left fielder Marv Lane had four of his career 37 hits that night. He also had his only career triple and both of his career stolen bases. For the Royals, Cookie Rojas plated both runs with an inside the park homer and Kurt Bevacqua and Hal McRae each had three hits.
As MLB games go, it was pretty routine. But it was anything but routine for the eight-year-old kid sitting in Aisle 119, Row JJ, Seat 4, attending his first-ever big league game.
How do I know there was a kid in that seat attending his first game? Because I still have the ticket stub.
 
To celebrate this Golden Anniversary, I did two things this summer. First, I decided to go to three specific games to celebrate. I went solo to each of the three, which also provided time for reflection, as I thought baseball memories on the drive to and from.
The first game was at new Comiskey in Chicago. Or call it U.S. Cellular, Guaranteed Rate, whatever. I chose new Comiskey because for a long time, that was where I went to games most often, often catching the Twins when they were in town.
Ironically, I was standing a dozen or so rows back in the left field bleacher during batting practice, watching others clamor for balls hit into the stands. Some Twin staffer grabbed a ball and looked up in the stands. I suppose because I was one of the few people wearing a Twins shirt, he pointed at me and threw it in my direction. When I was a kid, I would have died for that to happen.
 
-------------------------------
 
A second game was at Target Field, where I probably get to games most often these days.
When by myself, I normally just get a cheap ticket and move down to an open seat over the course of the game. This time I actually found a $25 ticket for a seat in the Thrivent Deck.  That got me a padded seat, extra concession stands (with shorter lines and more food options), a concourse with greater access to restrooms and the like and the opportunity to wander through a Hall of Fame of sorts, with memorabilia ranging from Harmon Killebrew’s high school basketball uniform to the gear Joe Mauer wore for his emotional one-pitch return to the catcher spot in the final inning of his final game and lots of other stuff.
That game was topped off by crossing paths with my all-time favorite player as I was leaving. Tony Oliva is a regular at Twins games and was gracious enough to pause for a picture.
-------------------------------

The game I particularly looked forward to was at Royal (now called Kauffman) Stadium. My first hope in looking at the schedule was to go on July 13, but the Royals were on the road. However, I was able to go on July 24.
And here’s where it got extra cool. I wanted to recreate a picture from as close as possible to my seat from 50 years ago. When I looked for tickets, however, I discovered that the sections had been renumbered, so Section 119 was at a different location than it was in 1974.
I found an email address and sent a message to the fan relations office, asking if they had a seat map from 1974, explaining why I was looking for it. A couple days later, one of their people sent a map with the old seat numbers. He even went further, going out to take several pictures from the seat in question and sending them to me. It was indeed the general angle I remembered. When I searched for a ticket near the seat in question, I was able to find one a row behind and a seat to the side, essentially a checkerboard move from one seat to the other.
Then, the person in “my” seat went out to the concession stand just before the game started. I’d struck up a conversation with the family in that row, so I asked to hop into that seat for the opening pitch, taking things up a level. The glove is the one I had taken to the game so many years ago. The Marty Pattin autograph has long worn off.
A couple days after my first email exchange, the Royals took it even another step further in their customer relations. A department manager wrote to ask which game I would be attending and where I would be sitting, saying they wanted to bring me a gift to commemorate the day.
 
Midway through the game, what was probably an intern stopped by with a bag of goodies. She had bags to stop by other seats as well, but they had obviously raided the stash of leftover promotional items. For example, I got bobblehead was from a 2023 giveaway and the cap was what they had given to 2019 season-ticket holders. The picture frame was from when they hosted the All-Star Game in 2012. 
The best gift, however, was the t-shirt given away in 2018 to celebrate radio announcer Denny Matthews’ 50th year of broadcasting, but I’m choosing to see the 50 emblem as my own commemoration of 50 years. It’s fitting to have a broadcaster’s mic as well, since my love of baseball was incubated by listening to Twins on WHO-Des Moines.
 
-------------------------------
 
The second thing I did was put together a list of at least 50 things or memories that capture and reflect the joy I’ve experienced following baseball. Not surprisingly, I blew past that number in a short time, so I consolidated a few on the list that follows.
 
I’d welcome your commenting on any that resonate for you. Or that seem goofy enough to ask about.

1. Going to my first game in Kansas City. Dad and Mom weren’t baseball fans, but we were visiting my uncle in Kansas City, who got us the tickets.
2. Throwing a tennis ball against the side of the house for hours on end, playing imaginary games that always had the Twins winning.
3. Looking forward to Baseball Digest coming in the mail each month. Hoping each Christmas morning that one of my siblings would again renew the subscription as my present.
4. Winning the daily trivia contest on a local radio station several dozen times over a few years, getting two tickets to minor league games in Cedar Rapids each time. Cashing in the voucher for our box seat tickets, going down the steps to the concourse and then back up the steps to the seats, sometimes after turning right in the concourse to the souvenir stand, where a quarter could get the previous week’s copy of The Sporting News.
5. Going to the Rod Carew Game, a 19-12 Twins win over the White Sox in 1977, the year Carew flirted with .400 for much of the year.
6. Wearing the yellow t-shirt with my red Toughskin® jeans during Pee-Wee baseball and then the green pinstriped uniforms for Little League.
7. Being the bat boy for my brother-in-law’s slow pitch softball team, with my own team shirt with my name on the back.
8. Tying my bat on to my bike with baler twine and hooking my glove over the handlebar as I headed off to Vacation Bible School. I enjoyed the stuff we learned, but I have to acknowledge that the softball games before and after were bigger highlights.
9. My parents letting me drive six hours to a baseball game in Minnesota on my own, with my best friend and his brother. I don’t remember which summer it was and whether we were still in high school or had graduated. Going to a game while visiting the future Mrs. IT near the end of her year at Northwestern College in nearby Roseville.
10. Freezing our butts off on my first trip to Wrigley, during a May Term during college. I mean, it’s May at Wrigley — how could it not be shorts weather?
11. The community at Twins Daily, the best fan site there is for following the Twins. For being an online site, it has amazingly civil discussion (most of the time).
12. Playing fantasy baseball for 27 seasons. I don’t think I’ve finished last yet, but I haven’t won 24 of those years.
13. Going to a game with a dear friend, a loan officer, and talking just enough about his credit union so he could write it off as a business expense. Going to lunch with him just over 20 years ago to plan a weekend trip to St. Louis, Kansas City, Minnesota, Milwaukee and Wrigley, but having him not being able to go after he died so unexpectedly just a few weeks later. Taking a glove and ball to his grave when his Cubs made the World Series in 2016.
14. Not sure where to start in the list of memories related to IT Junior. Starting with teaching him the alphabet by saying that “A is for Aaron, B is for Bostock, C is for Carew,” we’ve covered a whole lot of geekiness since then.
15. Lots of memories with younger son (IT Sophomore?), including the joy of being one of his Little League coaches and sitting on a bucket as his catcher while he practiced pitching. I never caught a single inning in Pee Wee or Little League, but it was so much fun to have my own catcher’s mitt to use with him.
16. Weather — Blistering hot in St. Louis in July while taking the boys to their MLB first game at ages 6 and 3. Getting drenched during a rain delay in St. Louis on a later trip, using the giveaway insulated cooler as our “umbrella.” Blistering hot on a Saturday afternoon at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Freezing cold on a spring break trip to Chicago. Sweltering in the back of the upper deck at Wrigley. Lasting through a rain delay on a Sunday evening Twins blowout at Tiger Stadium, where the game ended with only about 100 fans in the entire outfield.
17. Ballpark nachos.
18. Served in a plastic helmet. Pretty sure that studies have shown that food is about 20 percent better when served in a plastic helmet.
19. Speaking of plastic helmets, collecting them as a high school student, wearing them all the time. I’m still not sure why they didn’t become a fashion trend.
20. Playing slow pitch softball in Iowa and Indiana, along with fast pitch in Indiana. Wow, did I stink at the latter.
21. Visiting all 30 major league stadiums. Redoing it when new stadiums opened in Atlanta and Texas. I’ve also been to 15 stadiums that have been closed. Haven’t decided how I’ll handle Sacramento next year. I’d have to count, but it’s probably about 20 minor league parks.
22. And lest 45 MLB parks seem impressive, what’s even more impressive is that Mrs. IT has been to 23 of the 30 current stadiums and a bunch of the closed ones! She doesn’t even like baseball, but it’s just one more reason why she’s a saint.
23. Putting together picture frames of pictures from all the parks, both for my office and for our home.
24. The 1987 World Series, with the Twins winning their first world championship.
25. The 1991 World Series, when the Twins won again.
26. Going to the public library to check out biographies and history books, particularly during oats combining season, when I would check out a dozen or so to read in the field while I waited for Dad to fill the hopper and be ready to dump in the wagon I was pulling. A lot of the biographies were from the adult section, and they used naughty words my parents wouldn’t have approved of.
27. Only realizing much later how much my thoughts about race were shaped by the biographies of Black and Latin players I read as a child, as they described the discrimination they faced, particularly in the minors.
28. All the Matt Christopher books I checked out from my elementary school library. And the My Secrets of Playing Baseball book by Willie Mays probably had my name on the card a dozen times.
29. Coming from school in the fall of 1973, checking the newspaper each day to see if Hank Aaron had hit another homer as he chased Babe Ruth’s record. Trying to figure out what the four columns of numbers in the box score stood for. Trying to figure out abbreviated names like “Ystrzski.”
30. Getting hooked on folk singer John McCutcheon’s music, particularly when I found there is actually someone writing intelligent songs about baseball. And then he did an entire album of baseball songs. And entire concerts of baseball songs. And I even contributed in a tiny way to his most recent song.

The Hammer - April 8, 2024.mp4 31. Listening to as many Twins games as I could as a kid, including late night games from the west coast, all on WHO-Des Moines. Getting rebooked on baseball on the radio by listening to games on MLB Audio these days.
32. Going to the Baseball Hall of Fame several times, including for Kirby Puckett’s induction. Going to an induction for what will probably be the last time when Tony Oliva was inducted. Going to a bunch of other museums as well. The best of the others is the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, but there’s also been ones for Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Bob Feller (sort of — it’s now closed).
33. Developing a friendship with an MLB player, bringing him to church twice as a youth group fundraiser. Learning more about the business side of the game from the unique perspective he provides.
34. Field of Dreams, The Natural, Bull Durham, The Sandlot, Trouble with the Curve, Moneyball, A League of Their Own and all the great baseball movies I’ve seen. Putting together an All-Star team of movie characters — Billy Chapel on the mound, Roy Hobbs in right, Crash Davis behind the plate, etc. 
 
35. Seeing Twins minor leaguer Royce Lewis interact compassionately with a bat boy with Down Syndrome. Total class.
36. The amazing speed of Byron Buxton. Joe Nathan doing his horse-like, “Pbbbbbt,” as he stood on the mound and prepared to throw a pitch.
37. All the players who gave autographs to my sons throughout the years. I always thought Nathan set the tone with Twins relief pitchers. If the leader of the pen was so willing to sign, how could the others not do the same?
38. Baseball cards — getting introduced to them by getting a pack from my brother. A pack with a Rod Carew, no less. Collecting them as a kid. Spreading them all over the floor with my best friend. Getting gifted my brother-in-law’s cards one year for Christmas. Best Christmas present ever! Knowing I traded away several Nolan Ryan and Reggie Jackson rookie cards over the years. Eventually completing the 1976 and 1979 sets, two years when I was particularly active. Recently completing a run of all of Tony Oliva’s cards, making a display in my home office.
39. Having a work travel schedule at several employers that have lent themselves to being able to tag a bunch of games on to work trips.
40. Going to the Field of Dreams movie site several times, playing catch with IT Sophomore, but also with a bunch of people I’ll never know.
41. Baseball-reference.com. Enough said.
42. Going to the Society for American Baseball Research annual conference. Twice.
43. Ballparks — practically the only time I eat peanuts in the shell. Other than when I go to Five Guys.
44. Touring a bunch of parks over the years, including standing atop the Green Monster.
45. Covering plenty of games as a newspaper reporter or sports information director, including games in several minor league parks and a couple of states and games with a future NFL player. Interviewing a couple of major leaguers who were on minor league rehab assignments.
46. Getting to throw out the first pitch at a high school game, to the young man in my church who I serve as a mentor for.
47. Keeping score. Seeing the passion IT Junior has for doing the same. Occasionally sending scoring questions to Stew Thornley, whom I’ve gotten to know through a unique set of circumstances.
48. Having the goofy dream of retiring to Rochester, Minn., spending my evenings selling Diet Coke in the bleachers at Target Field. Probably won’t happen.
49. Having baseball as part of my end-of-life plan. Seriously. I’ve told Mrs. IT and the boys that baseball enjoyment is one of my measures of incapacity. If there’s no likelihood that I’ll ever be able to sense/experience a baseball again, that’s one indicator that it’s okay to pull the plug.
50. When asked how she feels about going to all these games, hearing Mrs. IT say, “I don’t like baseball, but I like some people who like baseball.” See saint reference above. That statement has taught me so much about marriage.
 
(If you’ve made it through all this, thanks for indulging me.)
 

And so concludes my Golden Anniversary year.
Not the Golden Anniversary of my birth. I’m a little way past that. And not the Golden Anniversary of my wedding. We’re a little way short of that.
Rather, this past July 13 marked the Golden Anniversary of the Detroit Tigers beating the homestanding Kansas City Royals 8-3, in front of 25,834 fans. Woody Fryman was the winning pitcher, scattering 12 hits over nine innings. Future Hall of Famer and 3,000 Hit Club member Al Kaline was the only player in the Tiger lineup not to get a hit. By contrast, little-used left fielder Marv Lane had four of his career 37 hits that night. He also had his only career triple and both of his career stolen bases. For the Royals, Cookie Rojas plated both runs with an inside the park homer and Kurt Bevacqua and Hal McRae each had three hits.
As MLB games go, it was pretty routine. But it was anything but routine for the eight-year-old kid sitting in Aisle 119, Row JJ, Seat 4, attending his first-ever big league game.
How do I know there was a kid in that seat attending his first game? Because I still have the ticket stub.
 
To celebrate this Golden Anniversary, I did two things this summer. First, I decided to go to three specific games to celebrate. I went solo to each of the three, which also provided time for reflection, as I thought baseball memories on the drive to and from.
The first game was at new Comiskey in Chicago. Or call it U.S. Cellular, Guaranteed Rate, whatever. I chose new Comiskey because for a long time, that was where I went to games most often, often catching the Twins when they were in town.
Ironically, I was standing a dozen or so rows back in the left field bleacher during batting practice, watching others clamor for balls hit into the stands. Some Twin staffer grabbed a ball and looked up in the stands. I suppose because I was one of the few people wearing a Twins shirt, he pointed at me and threw it in my direction. When I was a kid, I would have died for that to happen.
 
-------------------------------
 
A second game was at Target Field, where I probably get to games most often these days.
When by myself, I normally just get a cheap ticket and move down to an open seat over the course of the game. This time I actually found a $25 ticket for a seat in the Thrivent Deck.  That got me a padded seat, extra concession stands (with shorter lines and more food options), a concourse with greater access to restrooms and the like and the opportunity to wander through a Hall of Fame of sorts, with memorabilia ranging from Harmon Killebrew’s high school basketball uniform to the gear Joe Mauer wore for his emotional one-pitch return to the catcher spot in the final inning of his final game and lots of other stuff.
That game was topped off by crossing paths with my all-time favorite player as I was leaving. Tony Oliva is a regular at Twins games and was gracious enough to pause for a picture.
-------------------------------

The game I particularly looked forward to was at Royal (now called Kauffman) Stadium. My first hope in looking at the schedule was to go on July 13, but the Royals were on the road. However, I was able to go on July 24.
And here’s where it got extra cool. I wanted to recreate a picture from as close as possible to my seat from 50 years ago. When I looked for tickets, however, I discovered that the sections had been renumbered, so Section 119 was at a different location than it was in 1974.
I found an email address and sent a message to the fan relations office, asking if they had a seat map from 1974, explaining why I was looking for it. A couple days later, one of their people sent a map with the old seat numbers. He even went further, going out to take several pictures from the seat in question and sending them to me. It was indeed the general angle I remembered. When I searched for a ticket near the seat in question, I was able to find one a row behind and a seat to the side, essentially a checkerboard move from one seat to the other.
Then, the person in “my” seat went out to the concession stand just before the game started. I’d struck up a conversation with the family in that row, so I asked to hop into that seat for the opening pitch, taking things up a level. The glove is the one I had taken to the game so many years ago. The Marty Pattin autograph has long worn off.
A couple days after my first email exchange, the Royals took it even another step further in their customer relations. A department manager wrote to ask which game I would be attending and where I would be sitting, saying they wanted to bring me a gift to commemorate the day.
 
Midway through the game, what was probably an intern stopped by with a bag of goodies. She had bags to stop by other seats as well, but they had obviously raided the stash of leftover promotional items. For example, I got bobblehead was from a 2023 giveaway and the cap was what they had given to 2019 season-ticket holders. The picture frame was from when they hosted the All-Star Game in 2012. 
The best gift, however, was the t-shirt given away in 2018 to celebrate radio announcer Denny Matthews’ 50th year of broadcasting, but I’m choosing to see the 50 emblem as my own commemoration of 50 years. It’s fitting to have a broadcaster’s mic as well, since my love of baseball was incubated by listening to Twins on WHO-Des Moines.
 
-------------------------------
 
The second thing I did was put together a list of at least 50 things or memories that capture and reflect the joy I’ve experienced following baseball. Not surprisingly, I blew past that number in a short time, so I consolidated a few on the list that follows.
 
I’d welcome your commenting on any that resonate for you. Or that seem goofy enough to ask about.

1. Going to my first game in Kansas City. Dad and Mom weren’t baseball fans, but we were visiting my uncle in Kansas City, who got us the tickets.
2. Throwing a tennis ball against the side of the house for hours on end, playing imaginary games that always had the Twins winning.
3. Looking forward to Baseball Digest coming in the mail each month. Hoping each Christmas morning that one of my siblings would again renew the subscription as my present.
4. Winning the daily trivia contest on a local radio station several dozen times over a few years, getting two tickets to minor league games in Cedar Rapids each time. Cashing in the voucher for our box seat tickets, going down the steps to the concourse and then back up the steps to the seats, sometimes after turning right in the concourse to the souvenir stand, where a quarter could get the previous week’s copy of The Sporting News.
5. Going to the Rod Carew Game, a 19-12 Twins win over the White Sox in 1977, the year Carew flirted with .400 for much of the year.
6. Wearing the yellow t-shirt with my red Toughskin® jeans during Pee-Wee baseball and then the green pinstriped uniforms for Little League.
7. Being the bat boy for my brother-in-law’s slow pitch softball team, with my own team shirt with my name on the back.
8. Tying my bat on to my bike with baler twine and hooking my glove over the handlebar as I headed off to Vacation Bible School. I enjoyed the stuff we learned, but I have to acknowledge that the softball games before and after were bigger highlights.
9. My parents letting me drive six hours to a baseball game in Minnesota on my own, with my best friend and his brother. I don’t remember which summer it was and whether we were still in high school or had graduated. Going to a game while visiting the future Mrs. IT near the end of her year at Northwestern College in nearby Roseville.
10. Freezing our butts off on my first trip to Wrigley, during a May Term during college. I mean, it’s May at Wrigley — how could it not be shorts weather?
11. The community at Twins Daily, the best fan site there is for following the Twins. For being an online site, it has amazingly civil discussion (most of the time).
12. Playing fantasy baseball for 27 seasons. I don’t think I’ve finished last yet, but I haven’t won 24 of those years.
13. Going to a game with a dear friend, a loan officer, and talking just enough about his credit union so he could write it off as a business expense. Going to lunch with him just over 20 years ago to plan a weekend trip to St. Louis, Kansas City, Minnesota, Milwaukee and Wrigley, but having him not being able to go after he died so unexpectedly just a few weeks later. Taking a glove and ball to his grave when his Cubs made the World Series in 2016.
14. Not sure where to start in the list of memories related to IT Junior. Starting with teaching him the alphabet by saying that “A is for Aaron, B is for Bostock, C is for Carew,” we’ve covered a whole lot of geekiness since then.
15. Lots of memories with younger son (IT Sophomore?), including the joy of being one of his Little League coaches and sitting on a bucket as his catcher while he practiced pitching. I never caught a single inning in Pee Wee or Little League, but it was so much fun to have my own catcher’s mitt to use with him.
16. Weather — Blistering hot in St. Louis in July while taking the boys to their MLB first game at ages 6 and 3. Getting drenched during a rain delay in St. Louis on a later trip, using the giveaway insulated cooler as our “umbrella.” Blistering hot on a Saturday afternoon at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Freezing cold on a spring break trip to Chicago. Sweltering in the back of the upper deck at Wrigley. Lasting through a rain delay on a Sunday evening Twins blowout at Tiger Stadium, where the game ended with only about 100 fans in the entire outfield.
17. Ballpark nachos.
18. Served in a plastic helmet. Pretty sure that studies have shown that food is about 20 percent better when served in a plastic helmet.
19. Speaking of plastic helmets, collecting them as a high school student, wearing them all the time. I’m still not sure why they didn’t become a fashion trend.
20. Playing slow pitch softball in Iowa and Indiana, along with fast pitch in Indiana. Wow, did I stink at the latter.
21. Visiting all 30 major league stadiums. Redoing it when new stadiums opened in Atlanta and Texas. I’ve also been to 15 stadiums that have been closed. Haven’t decided how I’ll handle Sacramento next year. I’d have to count, but it’s probably about 20 minor league parks.
22. And lest 45 MLB parks seem impressive, what’s even more impressive is that Mrs. IT has been to 23 of the 30 current stadiums and a bunch of the closed ones! She doesn’t even like baseball, but it’s just one more reason why she’s a saint.
23. Putting together picture frames of pictures from all the parks, both for my office and for our home.
24. The 1987 World Series, with the Twins winning their first world championship.
25. The 1991 World Series, when the Twins won again.
26. Going to the public library to check out biographies and history books, particularly during oats combining season, when I would check out a dozen or so to read in the field while I waited for Dad to fill the hopper and be ready to dump in the wagon I was pulling. A lot of the biographies were from the adult section, and they used naughty words my parents wouldn’t have approved of.
27. Only realizing much later how much my thoughts about race were shaped by the biographies of Black and Latin players I read as a child, as they described the discrimination they faced, particularly in the minors.
28. All the Matt Christopher books I checked out from my elementary school library. And the My Secrets of Playing Baseball book by Willie Mays probably had my name on the card a dozen times.
29. Coming from school in the fall of 1973, checking the newspaper each day to see if Hank Aaron had hit another homer as he chased Babe Ruth’s record. Trying to figure out what the four columns of numbers in the box score stood for. Trying to figure out abbreviated names like “Ystrzski.”
30. Getting hooked on folk singer John McCutcheon’s music, particularly when I found there is actually someone writing intelligent songs about baseball. And then he did an entire album of baseball songs. And entire concerts of baseball songs. And I even contributed in a tiny way to his most recent song.

The Hammer - April 8, 2024.mp4 31. Listening to as many Twins games as I could as a kid, including late night games from the west coast, all on WHO-Des Moines. Getting rebooked on baseball on the radio by listening to games on MLB Audio these days.
32. Going to the Baseball Hall of Fame several times, including for Kirby Puckett’s induction. Going to an induction for what will probably be the last time when Tony Oliva was inducted. Going to a bunch of other museums as well. The best of the others is the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, but there’s also been ones for Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Bob Feller (sort of — it’s now closed).
33. Developing a friendship with an MLB player, bringing him to church twice as a youth group fundraiser. Learning more about the business side of the game from the unique perspective he provides.
34. Field of Dreams, The Natural, Bull Durham, The Sandlot, Trouble with the Curve, Moneyball, A League of Their Own and all the great baseball movies I’ve seen. Putting together an All-Star team of movie characters — Billy Chapel on the mound, Roy Hobbs in right, Crash Davis behind the plate, etc. 
 
35. Seeing Twins minor leaguer Royce Lewis interact compassionately with a bat boy with Down Syndrome. Total class.
36. The amazing speed of Byron Buxton. Joe Nathan doing his horse-like, “Pbbbbbt,” as he stood on the mound and prepared to throw a pitch.
37. All the players who gave autographs to my sons throughout the years. I always thought Nathan set the tone with Twins relief pitchers. If the leader of the pen was so willing to sign, how could the others not do the same?
38. Baseball cards — getting introduced to them by getting a pack from my brother. A pack with a Rod Carew, no less. Collecting them as a kid. Spreading them all over the floor with my best friend. Getting gifted my brother-in-law’s cards one year for Christmas. Best Christmas present ever! Knowing I traded away several Nolan Ryan and Reggie Jackson rookie cards over the years. Eventually completing the 1976 and 1979 sets, two years when I was particularly active. Recently completing a run of all of Tony Oliva’s cards, making a display in my home office.
39. Having a work travel schedule at several employers that have lent themselves to being able to tag a bunch of games on to work trips.
40. Going to the Field of Dreams movie site several times, playing catch with IT Sophomore, but also with a bunch of people I’ll never know.
41. Baseball-reference.com. Enough said.
42. Going to the Society for American Baseball Research annual conference. Twice.
43. Ballparks — practically the only time I eat peanuts in the shell. Other than when I go to Five Guys.
44. Touring a bunch of parks over the years, including standing atop the Green Monster.
45. Covering plenty of games as a newspaper reporter or sports information director, including games in several minor league parks and a couple of states and games with a future NFL player. Interviewing a couple of major leaguers who were on minor league rehab assignments.
46. Getting to throw out the first pitch at a high school game, to the young man in my church who I serve as a mentor for.
47. Keeping score. Seeing the passion IT Junior has for doing the same. Occasionally sending scoring questions to Stew Thornley, whom I’ve gotten to know through a unique set of circumstances.
48. Having the goofy dream of retiring to Rochester, Minn., spending my evenings selling Diet Coke in the bleachers at Target Field. Probably won’t happen.
49. Having baseball as part of my end-of-life plan. Seriously. I’ve told Mrs. IT and the boys that baseball enjoyment is one of my measures of incapacity. If there’s no likelihood that I’ll ever be able to sense/experience a baseball again, that’s one indicator that it’s okay to pull the plug.
50. When asked how she feels about going to all these games, hearing Mrs. IT say, “I don’t like baseball, but I like some people who like baseball.” See saint reference above. That statement has taught me so much about marriage.
 
(If you’ve made it through all this, thanks for indulging me.)
 

And so concludes my Golden Anniversary year.
Not the Golden Anniversary of my birth. I’m a little way past that. And not the Golden Anniversary of my wedding. We’re a little way short of that.
Rather, this past July 13 marked the Golden Anniversary of the Detroit Tigers beating the homestanding Kansas City Royals 8-3, in front of 25,834 fans. Woody Fryman was the winning pitcher, scattering 12 hits over nine innings. Future Hall of Famer and 3,000 Hit Club member Al Kaline was the only player in the Tiger lineup not to get a hit. By contrast, little-used left fielder Marv Lane had four of his career 37 hits that night. He also had his only career triple and both of his career stolen bases. For the Royals, Cookie Rojas plated both runs with an inside the park homer and Kurt Bevacqua and Hal McRae each had three hits.
As MLB games go, it was pretty routine. But it was anything but routine for the eight-year-old kid sitting in Aisle 119, Row JJ, Seat 4, attending his first-ever big league game.
How do I know there was a kid in that seat attending his first game? Because I still have the ticket stub.
 
To celebrate this Golden Anniversary, I did two things this summer. First, I decided to go to three specific games to celebrate. I went solo to each of the three, which also provided time for reflection, as I thought baseball memories on the drive to and from.
The first game was at new Comiskey in Chicago. Or call it U.S. Cellular, Guaranteed Rate, whatever. I chose new Comiskey because for a long time, that was where I went to games most often, often catching the Twins when they were in town.
Ironically, I was standing a dozen or so rows back in the left field bleacher during batting practice, watching others clamor for balls hit into the stands. Some Twin staffer grabbed a ball and looked up in the stands. I suppose because I was one of the few people wearing a Twins shirt, he pointed at me and threw it in my direction. When I was a kid, I would have died for that to happen.
 
-------------------------------
 
A second game was at Target Field, where I probably get to games most often these days.
When by myself, I normally just get a cheap ticket and move down to an open seat over the course of the game. This time I actually found a $25 ticket for a seat in the Thrivent Deck.  That got me a padded seat, extra concession stands (with shorter lines and more food options), a concourse with greater access to restrooms and the like and the opportunity to wander through a Hall of Fame of sorts, with memorabilia ranging from Harmon Killebrew’s high school basketball uniform to the gear Joe Mauer wore for his emotional one-pitch return to the catcher spot in the final inning of his final game and lots of other stuff.
That game was topped off by crossing paths with my all-time favorite player as I was leaving. Tony Oliva is a regular at Twins games and was gracious enough to pause for a picture.
-------------------------------

The game I particularly looked forward to was at Royal (now called Kauffman) Stadium. My first hope in looking at the schedule was to go on July 13, but the Royals were on the road. However, I was able to go on July 24.
And here’s where it got extra cool. I wanted to recreate a picture from as close as possible to my seat from 50 years ago. When I looked for tickets, however, I discovered that the sections had been renumbered, so Section 119 was at a different location than it was in 1974.
I found an email address and sent a message to the fan relations office, asking if they had a seat map from 1974, explaining why I was looking for it. A couple days later, one of their people sent a map with the old seat numbers. He even went further, going out to take several pictures from the seat in question and sending them to me. It was indeed the general angle I remembered. When I searched for a ticket near the seat in question, I was able to find one a row behind and a seat to the side, essentially a checkerboard move from one seat to the other.
Then, the person in “my” seat went out to the concession stand just before the game started. I’d struck up a conversation with the family in that row, so I asked to hop into that seat for the opening pitch, taking things up a level. The glove is the one I had taken to the game so many years ago. The Marty Pattin autograph has long worn off.
A couple days after my first email exchange, the Royals took it even another step further in their customer relations. A department manager wrote to ask which game I would be attending and where I would be sitting, saying they wanted to bring me a gift to commemorate the day.
 
Midway through the game, what was probably an intern stopped by with a bag of goodies. She had bags to stop by other seats as well, but they had obviously raided the stash of leftover promotional items. For example, I got bobblehead was from a 2023 giveaway and the cap was what they had given to 2019 season-ticket holders. The picture frame was from when they hosted the All-Star Game in 2012. 
The best gift, however, was the t-shirt given away in 2018 to celebrate radio announcer Denny Matthews’ 50th year of broadcasting, but I’m choosing to see the 50 emblem as my own commemoration of 50 years. It’s fitting to have a broadcaster’s mic as well, since my love of baseball was incubated by listening to Twins on WHO-Des Moines.
 
-------------------------------
 
The second thing I did was put together a list of at least 50 things or memories that capture and reflect the joy I’ve experienced following baseball. Not surprisingly, I blew past that number in a short time, so I consolidated a few on the list that follows.
 
I’d welcome your commenting on any that resonate for you. Or that seem goofy enough to ask about.

1. Going to my first game in Kansas City. Dad and Mom weren’t baseball fans, but we were visiting my uncle in Kansas City, who got us the tickets.
2. Throwing a tennis ball against the side of the house for hours on end, playing imaginary games that always had the Twins winning.
3. Looking forward to Baseball Digest coming in the mail each month. Hoping each Christmas morning that one of my siblings would again renew the subscription as my present.
4. Winning the daily trivia contest on a local radio station several dozen times over a few years, getting two tickets to minor league games in Cedar Rapids each time. Cashing in the voucher for our box seat tickets, going down the steps to the concourse and then back up the steps to the seats, sometimes after turning right in the concourse to the souvenir stand, where a quarter could get the previous week’s copy of The Sporting News.
5. Going to the Rod Carew Game, a 19-12 Twins win over the White Sox in 1977, the year Carew flirted with .400 for much of the year.
6. Wearing the yellow t-shirt with my red Toughskin® jeans during Pee-Wee baseball and then the green pinstriped uniforms for Little League.
7. Being the bat boy for my brother-in-law’s slow pitch softball team, with my own team shirt with my name on the back.
8. Tying my bat on to my bike with baler twine and hooking my glove over the handlebar as I headed off to Vacation Bible School. I enjoyed the stuff we learned, but I have to acknowledge that the softball games before and after were bigger highlights.
9. My parents letting me drive six hours to a baseball game in Minnesota on my own, with my best friend and his brother. I don’t remember which summer it was and whether we were still in high school or had graduated. Going to a game while visiting the future Mrs. IT near the end of her year at Northwestern College in nearby Roseville.
10. Freezing our butts off on my first trip to Wrigley, during a May Term during college. I mean, it’s May at Wrigley — how could it not be shorts weather?
11. The community at Twins Daily, the best fan site there is for following the Twins. For being an online site, it has amazingly civil discussion (most of the time).
12. Playing fantasy baseball for 27 seasons. I don’t think I’ve finished last yet, but I haven’t won 24 of those years.
13. Going to a game with a dear friend, a loan officer, and talking just enough about his credit union so he could write it off as a business expense. Going to lunch with him just over 20 years ago to plan a weekend trip to St. Louis, Kansas City, Minnesota, Milwaukee and Wrigley, but having him not being able to go after he died so unexpectedly just a few weeks later. Taking a glove and ball to his grave when his Cubs made the World Series in 2016.
14. Not sure where to start in the list of memories related to IT Junior. Starting with teaching him the alphabet by saying that “A is for Aaron, B is for Bostock, C is for Carew,” we’ve covered a whole lot of geekiness since then.
15. Lots of memories with younger son (IT Sophomore?), including the joy of being one of his Little League coaches and sitting on a bucket as his catcher while he practiced pitching. I never caught a single inning in Pee Wee or Little League, but it was so much fun to have my own catcher’s mitt to use with him.
16. Weather — Blistering hot in St. Louis in July while taking the boys to their MLB first game at ages 6 and 3. Getting drenched during a rain delay in St. Louis on a later trip, using the giveaway insulated cooler as our “umbrella.” Blistering hot on a Saturday afternoon at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Freezing cold on a spring break trip to Chicago. Sweltering in the back of the upper deck at Wrigley. Lasting through a rain delay on a Sunday evening Twins blowout at Tiger Stadium, where the game ended with only about 100 fans in the entire outfield.
17. Ballpark nachos.
18. Served in a plastic helmet. Pretty sure that studies have shown that food is about 20 percent better when served in a plastic helmet.
19. Speaking of plastic helmets, collecting them as a high school student, wearing them all the time. I’m still not sure why they didn’t become a fashion trend.
20. Playing slow pitch softball in Iowa and Indiana, along with fast pitch in Indiana. Wow, did I stink at the latter.
21. Visiting all 30 major league stadiums. Redoing it when new stadiums opened in Atlanta and Texas. I’ve also been to 15 stadiums that have been closed. Haven’t decided how I’ll handle Sacramento next year. I’d have to count, but it’s probably about 20 minor league parks.
22. And lest 45 MLB parks seem impressive, what’s even more impressive is that Mrs. IT has been to 23 of the 30 current stadiums and a bunch of the closed ones! She doesn’t even like baseball, but it’s just one more reason why she’s a saint.
23. Putting together picture frames of pictures from all the parks, both for my office and for our home.
24. The 1987 World Series, with the Twins winning their first world championship.
25. The 1991 World Series, when the Twins won again.
26. Going to the public library to check out biographies and history books, particularly during oats combining season, when I would check out a dozen or so to read in the field while I waited for Dad to fill the hopper and be ready to dump in the wagon I was pulling. A lot of the biographies were from the adult section, and they used naughty words my parents wouldn’t have approved of.
27. Only realizing much later how much my thoughts about race were shaped by the biographies of Black and Latin players I read as a child, as they described the discrimination they faced, particularly in the minors.
28. All the Matt Christopher books I checked out from my elementary school library. And the My Secrets of Playing Baseball book by Willie Mays probably had my name on the card a dozen times.
29. Coming from school in the fall of 1973, checking the newspaper each day to see if Hank Aaron had hit another homer as he chased Babe Ruth’s record. Trying to figure out what the four columns of numbers in the box score stood for. Trying to figure out abbreviated names like “Ystrzski.”
30. Getting hooked on folk singer John McCutcheon’s music, particularly when I found there is actually someone writing intelligent songs about baseball. And then he did an entire album of baseball songs. And entire concerts of baseball songs. And I even contributed in a tiny way to his most recent song.

The Hammer - April 8, 2024.mp4 31. Listening to as many Twins games as I could as a kid, including late night games from the west coast, all on WHO-Des Moines. Getting rebooked on baseball on the radio by listening to games on MLB Audio these days.
32. Going to the Baseball Hall of Fame several times, including for Kirby Puckett’s induction. Going to an induction for what will probably be the last time when Tony Oliva was inducted. Going to a bunch of other museums as well. The best of the others is the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, but there’s also been ones for Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Bob Feller (sort of — it’s now closed).
33. Developing a friendship with an MLB player, bringing him to church twice as a youth group fundraiser. Learning more about the business side of the game from the unique perspective he provides.
34. Field of Dreams, The Natural, Bull Durham, The Sandlot, Trouble with the Curve, Moneyball, A League of Their Own and all the great baseball movies I’ve seen. Putting together an All-Star team of movie characters — Billy Chapel on the mound, Roy Hobbs in right, Crash Davis behind the plate, etc. 
 
35. Seeing Twins minor leaguer Royce Lewis interact compassionately with a bat boy with Down Syndrome. Total class.
36. The amazing speed of Byron Buxton. Joe Nathan doing his horse-like, “Pbbbbbt,” as he stood on the mound and prepared to throw a pitch.
37. All the players who gave autographs to my sons throughout the years. I always thought Nathan set the tone with Twins relief pitchers. If the leader of the pen was so willing to sign, how could the others not do the same?
38. Baseball cards — getting introduced to them by getting a pack from my brother. A pack with a Rod Carew, no less. Collecting them as a kid. Spreading them all over the floor with my best friend. Getting gifted my brother-in-law’s cards one year for Christmas. Best Christmas present ever! Knowing I traded away several Nolan Ryan and Reggie Jackson rookie cards over the years. Eventually completing the 1976 and 1979 sets, two years when I was particularly active. Recently completing a run of all of Tony Oliva’s cards, making a display in my home office.
39. Having a work travel schedule at several employers that have lent themselves to being able to tag a bunch of games on to work trips.
40. Going to the Field of Dreams movie site several times, playing catch with IT Sophomore, but also with a bunch of people I’ll never know.
41. Baseball-reference.com. Enough said.
42. Going to the Society for American Baseball Research annual conference. Twice.
43. Ballparks — practically the only time I eat peanuts in the shell. Other than when I go to Five Guys.
44. Touring a bunch of parks over the years, including standing atop the Green Monster.
45. Covering plenty of games as a newspaper reporter or sports information director, including games in several minor league parks and a couple of states and games with a future NFL player. Interviewing a couple of major leaguers who were on minor league rehab assignments.
46. Getting to throw out the first pitch at a high school game, to the young man in my church who I serve as a mentor for.
47. Keeping score. Seeing the passion IT Junior has for doing the same. Occasionally sending scoring questions to Stew Thornley, whom I’ve gotten to know through a unique set of circumstances.
48. Having the goofy dream of retiring to Rochester, Minn., spending my evenings selling Diet Coke in the bleachers at Target Field. Probably won’t happen.
49. Having baseball as part of my end-of-life plan. Seriously. I’ve told Mrs. IT and the boys that baseball enjoyment is one of my measures of incapacity. If there’s no likelihood that I’ll ever be able to sense/experience a baseball again, that’s one indicator that it’s okay to pull the plug.
50. When asked how she feels about going to all these games, hearing Mrs. IT say, “I don’t like baseball, but I like some people who like baseball.” See saint reference above. That statement has taught me so much about marriage.
 
(If you’ve made it through all this, thanks for indulging me.)
 

And so concludes my Golden Anniversary year.
Not the Golden Anniversary of my birth. I’m a little way past that. And not the Golden Anniversary of my wedding. We’re a little way short of that.
Rather, this past July 13 marked the Golden Anniversary of the Detroit Tigers beating the homestanding Kansas City Royals 8-3, in front of 25,834 fans. Woody Fryman was the winning pitcher, scattering 12 hits over nine innings. Future Hall of Famer and 3,000 Hit Club member Al Kaline was the only player in the Tiger lineup not to get a hit. By contrast, little-used left fielder Marv Lane had four of his career 37 hits that night. He also had his only career triple and both of his career stolen bases. For the Royals, Cookie Rojas plated both runs with an inside the park homer and Kurt Bevacqua and Hal McRae each had three hits.
As MLB games go, it was pretty routine. But it was anything but routine for the eight-year-old kid sitting in Aisle 119, Row JJ, Seat 4, attending his first-ever big league game.
How do I know there was a kid in that seat attending his first game? Because I still have the ticket stub.
 
To celebrate this Golden Anniversary, I did two things this summer. First, I decided to go to three specific games to celebrate. I went solo to each of the three, which also provided time for reflection, as I thought baseball memories on the drive to and from.
The first game was at new Comiskey in Chicago. Or call it U.S. Cellular, Guaranteed Rate, whatever. I chose new Comiskey because for a long time, that was where I went to games most often, often catching the Twins when they were in town.
Ironically, I was standing a dozen or so rows back in the left field bleacher during batting practice, watching others clamor for balls hit into the stands. Some Twin staffer grabbed a ball and looked up in the stands. I suppose because I was one of the few people wearing a Twins shirt, he pointed at me and threw it in my direction. When I was a kid, I would have died for that to happen.
 
-------------------------------
 
A second game was at Target Field, where I probably get to games most often these days.
When by myself, I normally just get a cheap ticket and move down to an open seat over the course of the game. This time I actually found a $25 ticket for a seat in the Thrivent Deck.  That got me a padded seat, extra concession stands (with shorter lines and more food options), a concourse with greater access to restrooms and the like and the opportunity to wander through a Hall of Fame of sorts, with memorabilia ranging from Harmon Killebrew’s high school basketball uniform to the gear Joe Mauer wore for his emotional one-pitch return to the catcher spot in the final inning of his final game and lots of other stuff.
That game was topped off by crossing paths with my all-time favorite player as I was leaving. Tony Oliva is a regular at Twins games and was gracious enough to pause for a picture.
-------------------------------

The game I particularly looked forward to was at Royal (now called Kauffman) Stadium. My first hope in looking at the schedule was to go on July 13, but the Royals were on the road. However, I was able to go on July 24.
And here’s where it got extra cool. I wanted to recreate a picture from as close as possible to my seat from 50 years ago. When I looked for tickets, however, I discovered that the sections had been renumbered, so Section 119 was at a different location than it was in 1974.
I found an email address and sent a message to the fan relations office, asking if they had a seat map from 1974, explaining why I was looking for it. A couple days later, one of their people sent a map with the old seat numbers. He even went further, going out to take several pictures from the seat in question and sending them to me. It was indeed the general angle I remembered. When I searched for a ticket near the seat in question, I was able to find one a row behind and a seat to the side, essentially a checkerboard move from one seat to the other.
Then, the person in “my” seat went out to the concession stand just before the game started. I’d struck up a conversation with the family in that row, so I asked to hop into that seat for the opening pitch, taking things up a level. The glove is the one I had taken to the game so many years ago. The Marty Pattin autograph has long worn off.
A couple days after my first email exchange, the Royals took it even another step further in their customer relations. A department manager wrote to ask which game I would be attending and where I would be sitting, saying they wanted to bring me a gift to commemorate the day.
 
Midway through the game, what was probably an intern stopped by with a bag of goodies. She had bags to stop by other seats as well, but they had obviously raided the stash of leftover promotional items. For example, I got bobblehead was from a 2023 giveaway and the cap was what they had given to 2019 season-ticket holders. The picture frame was from when they hosted the All-Star Game in 2012. 
The best gift, however, was the t-shirt given away in 2018 to celebrate radio announcer Denny Matthews’ 50th year of broadcasting, but I’m choosing to see the 50 emblem as my own commemoration of 50 years. It’s fitting to have a broadcaster’s mic as well, since my love of baseball was incubated by listening to Twins on WHO-Des Moines.
 
-------------------------------
 
The second thing I did was put together a list of at least 50 things or memories that capture and reflect the joy I’ve experienced following baseball. Not surprisingly, I blew past that number in a short time, so I consolidated a few on the list that follows.
 
I’d welcome your commenting on any that resonate for you. Or that seem goofy enough to ask about.

1. Going to my first game in Kansas City. Dad and Mom weren’t baseball fans, but we were visiting my uncle in Kansas City, who got us the tickets.
2. Throwing a tennis ball against the side of the house for hours on end, playing imaginary games that always had the Twins winning.
3. Looking forward to Baseball Digest coming in the mail each month. Hoping each Christmas morning that one of my siblings would again renew the subscription as my present.
4. Winning the daily trivia contest on a local radio station several dozen times over a few years, getting two tickets to minor league games in Cedar Rapids each time. Cashing in the voucher for our box seat tickets, going down the steps to the concourse and then back up the steps to the seats, sometimes after turning right in the concourse to the souvenir stand, where a quarter could get the previous week’s copy of The Sporting News.
5. Going to the Rod Carew Game, a 19-12 Twins win over the White Sox in 1977, the year Carew flirted with .400 for much of the year.
6. Wearing the yellow t-shirt with my red Toughskin® jeans during Pee-Wee baseball and then the green pinstriped uniforms for Little League.
7. Being the bat boy for my brother-in-law’s slow pitch softball team, with my own team shirt with my name on the back.
8. Tying my bat on to my bike with baler twine and hooking my glove over the handlebar as I headed off to Vacation Bible School. I enjoyed the stuff we learned, but I have to acknowledge that the softball games before and after were bigger highlights.
9. My parents letting me drive six hours to a baseball game in Minnesota on my own, with my best friend and his brother. I don’t remember which summer it was and whether we were still in high school or had graduated. Going to a game while visiting the future Mrs. IT near the end of her year at Northwestern College in nearby Roseville.
10. Freezing our butts off on my first trip to Wrigley, during a May Term during college. I mean, it’s May at Wrigley — how could it not be shorts weather?
11. The community at Twins Daily, the best fan site there is for following the Twins. For being an online site, it has amazingly civil discussion (most of the time).
12. Playing fantasy baseball for 27 seasons. I don’t think I’ve finished last yet, but I haven’t won 24 of those years.
13. Going to a game with a dear friend, a loan officer, and talking just enough about his credit union so he could write it off as a business expense. Going to lunch with him just over 20 years ago to plan a weekend trip to St. Louis, Kansas City, Minnesota, Milwaukee and Wrigley, but having him not being able to go after he died so unexpectedly just a few weeks later. Taking a glove and ball to his grave when his Cubs made the World Series in 2016.
14. Not sure where to start in the list of memories related to IT Junior. Starting with teaching him the alphabet by saying that “A is for Aaron, B is for Bostock, C is for Carew,” we’ve covered a whole lot of geekiness since then.
15. Lots of memories with younger son (IT Sophomore?), including the joy of being one of his Little League coaches and sitting on a bucket as his catcher while he practiced pitching. I never caught a single inning in Pee Wee or Little League, but it was so much fun to have my own catcher’s mitt to use with him.
16. Weather — Blistering hot in St. Louis in July while taking the boys to their MLB first game at ages 6 and 3. Getting drenched during a rain delay in St. Louis on a later trip, using the giveaway insulated cooler as our “umbrella.” Blistering hot on a Saturday afternoon at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Freezing cold on a spring break trip to Chicago. Sweltering in the back of the upper deck at Wrigley. Lasting through a rain delay on a Sunday evening Twins blowout at Tiger Stadium, where the game ended with only about 100 fans in the entire outfield.
17. Ballpark nachos.
18. Served in a plastic helmet. Pretty sure that studies have shown that food is about 20 percent better when served in a plastic helmet.
19. Speaking of plastic helmets, collecting them as a high school student, wearing them all the time. I’m still not sure why they didn’t become a fashion trend.
20. Playing slow pitch softball in Iowa and Indiana, along with fast pitch in Indiana. Wow, did I stink at the latter.
21. Visiting all 30 major league stadiums. Redoing it when new stadiums opened in Atlanta and Texas. I’ve also been to 15 stadiums that have been closed. Haven’t decided how I’ll handle Sacramento next year. I’d have to count, but it’s probably about 20 minor league parks.
22. And lest 45 MLB parks seem impressive, what’s even more impressive is that Mrs. IT has been to 23 of the 30 current stadiums and a bunch of the closed ones! She doesn’t even like baseball, but it’s just one more reason why she’s a saint.
23. Putting together picture frames of pictures from all the parks, both for my office and for our home.
24. The 1987 World Series, with the Twins winning their first world championship.
25. The 1991 World Series, when the Twins won again.
26. Going to the public library to check out biographies and history books, particularly during oats combining season, when I would check out a dozen or so to read in the field while I waited for Dad to fill the hopper and be ready to dump in the wagon I was pulling. A lot of the biographies were from the adult section, and they used naughty words my parents wouldn’t have approved of.
27. Only realizing much later how much my thoughts about race were shaped by the biographies of Black and Latin players I read as a child, as they described the discrimination they faced, particularly in the minors.
28. All the Matt Christopher books I checked out from my elementary school library. And the My Secrets of Playing Baseball book by Willie Mays probably had my name on the card a dozen times.
29. Coming from school in the fall of 1973, checking the newspaper each day to see if Hank Aaron had hit another homer as he chased Babe Ruth’s record. Trying to figure out what the four columns of numbers in the box score stood for. Trying to figure out abbreviated names like “Ystrzski.”
30. Getting hooked on folk singer John McCutcheon’s music, particularly when I found there is actually someone writing intelligent songs about baseball. And then he did an entire album of baseball songs. And entire concerts of baseball songs. And I even contributed in a tiny way to his most recent song.

The Hammer - April 8, 2024.mp4 31. Listening to as many Twins games as I could as a kid, including late night games from the west coast, all on WHO-Des Moines. Getting rebooked on baseball on the radio by listening to games on MLB Audio these days.
32. Going to the Baseball Hall of Fame several times, including for Kirby Puckett’s induction. Going to an induction for what will probably be the last time when Tony Oliva was inducted. Going to a bunch of other museums as well. The best of the others is the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, but there’s also been ones for Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Bob Feller (sort of — it’s now closed).
33. Developing a friendship with an MLB player, bringing him to church twice as a youth group fundraiser. Learning more about the business side of the game from the unique perspective he provides.
34. Field of Dreams, The Natural, Bull Durham, The Sandlot, Trouble with the Curve, Moneyball, A League of Their Own and all the great baseball movies I’ve seen. Putting together an All-Star team of movie characters — Billy Chapel on the mound, Roy Hobbs in right, Crash Davis behind the plate, etc. 
 
35. Seeing Twins minor leaguer Royce Lewis interact compassionately with a bat boy with Down Syndrome. Total class.
36. The amazing speed of Byron Buxton. Joe Nathan doing his horse-like, “Pbbbbbt,” as he stood on the mound and prepared to throw a pitch.
37. All the players who gave autographs to my sons throughout the years. I always thought Nathan set the tone with Twins relief pitchers. If the leader of the pen was so willing to sign, how could the others not do the same?
38. Baseball cards — getting introduced to them by getting a pack from my brother. A pack with a Rod Carew, no less. Collecting them as a kid. Spreading them all over the floor with my best friend. Getting gifted my brother-in-law’s cards one year for Christmas. Best Christmas present ever! Knowing I traded away several Nolan Ryan and Reggie Jackson rookie cards over the years. Eventually completing the 1976 and 1979 sets, two years when I was particularly active. Recently completing a run of all of Tony Oliva’s cards, making a display in my home office.
39. Having a work travel schedule at several employers that have lent themselves to being able to tag a bunch of games on to work trips.
40. Going to the Field of Dreams movie site several times, playing catch with IT Sophomore, but also with a bunch of people I’ll never know.
41. Baseball-reference.com. Enough said.
42. Going to the Society for American Baseball Research annual conference. Twice.
43. Ballparks — practically the only time I eat peanuts in the shell. Other than when I go to Five Guys.
44. Touring a bunch of parks over the years, including standing atop the Green Monster.
45. Covering plenty of games as a newspaper reporter or sports information director, including games in several minor league parks and a couple of states and games with a future NFL player. Interviewing a couple of major leaguers who were on minor league rehab assignments.
46. Getting to throw out the first pitch at a high school game, to the young man in my church who I serve as a mentor for.
47. Keeping score. Seeing the passion IT Junior has for doing the same. Occasionally sending scoring questions to Stew Thornley, whom I’ve gotten to know through a unique set of circumstances.
48. Having the goofy dream of retiring to Rochester, Minn., spending my evenings selling Diet Coke in the bleachers at Target Field. Probably won’t happen.
49. Having baseball as part of my end-of-life plan. Seriously. I’ve told Mrs. IT and the boys that baseball enjoyment is one of my measures of incapacity. If there’s no likelihood that I’ll ever be able to sense/experience a baseball again, that’s one indicator that it’s okay to pull the plug.
50. When asked how she feels about going to all these games, hearing Mrs. IT say, “I don’t like baseball, but I like some people who like baseball.” See saint reference above. That statement has taught me so much about marriage.
 
(If you’ve made it through all this, thanks for indulging me.)
 

And so concludes my Golden Anniversary year.
Not the Golden Anniversary of my birth. I’m a little way past that. And not the Golden Anniversary of my wedding. We’re a little way short of that.
Rather, this past July 13 marked the Golden Anniversary of the Detroit Tigers beating the homestanding Kansas City Royals 8-3, in front of 25,834 fans. Woody Fryman was the winning pitcher, scattering 12 hits over nine innings. Future Hall of Famer and 3,000 Hit Club member Al Kaline was the only player in the Tiger lineup not to get a hit. By contrast, little-used left fielder Marv Lane had four of his career 37 hits that night. He also had his only career triple and both of his career stolen bases. For the Royals, Cookie Rojas plated both runs with an inside the park homer and Kurt Bevacqua and Hal McRae each had three hits.
As MLB games go, it was pretty routine. But it was anything but routine for the eight-year-old kid sitting in Aisle 119, Row JJ, Seat 4, attending his first-ever big league game.
How do I know there was a kid in that seat attending his first game? Because I still have the ticket stub.
 
To celebrate this Golden Anniversary, I did two things this summer. First, I decided to go to three specific games to celebrate. I went solo to each of the three, which also provided time for reflection, as I thought baseball memories on the drive to and from.
The first game was at new Comiskey in Chicago. Or call it U.S. Cellular, Guaranteed Rate, whatever. I chose new Comiskey because for a long time, that was where I went to games most often, often catching the Twins when they were in town.
Ironically, I was standing a dozen or so rows back in the left field bleacher during batting practice, watching others clamor for balls hit into the stands. Some Twin staffer grabbed a ball and looked up in the stands. I suppose because I was one of the few people wearing a Twins shirt, he pointed at me and threw it in my direction. When I was a kid, I would have died for that to happen.
 
-------------------------------
 
A second game was at Target Field, where I probably get to games most often these days.
When by myself, I normally just get a cheap ticket and move down to an open seat over the course of the game. This time I actually found a $25 ticket for a seat in the Thrivent Deck.  That got me a padded seat, extra concession stands (with shorter lines and more food options), a concourse with greater access to restrooms and the like and the opportunity to wander through a Hall of Fame of sorts, with memorabilia ranging from Harmon Killebrew’s high school basketball uniform to the gear Joe Mauer wore for his emotional one-pitch return to the catcher spot in the final inning of his final game and lots of other stuff.
That game was topped off by crossing paths with my all-time favorite player as I was leaving. Tony Oliva is a regular at Twins games and was gracious enough to pause for a picture.
-------------------------------

The game I particularly looked forward to was at Royal (now called Kauffman) Stadium. My first hope in looking at the schedule was to go on July 13, but the Royals were on the road. However, I was able to go on July 24.
And here’s where it got extra cool. I wanted to recreate a picture from as close as possible to my seat from 50 years ago. When I looked for tickets, however, I discovered that the sections had been renumbered, so Section 119 was at a different location than it was in 1974.
I found an email address and sent a message to the fan relations office, asking if they had a seat map from 1974, explaining why I was looking for it. A couple days later, one of their people sent a map with the old seat numbers. He even went further, going out to take several pictures from the seat in question and sending them to me. It was indeed the general angle I remembered. When I searched for a ticket near the seat in question, I was able to find one a row behind and a seat to the side, essentially a checkerboard move from one seat to the other.
Then, the person in “my” seat went out to the concession stand just before the game started. I’d struck up a conversation with the family in that row, so I asked to hop into that seat for the opening pitch, taking things up a level. The glove is the one I had taken to the game so many years ago. The Marty Pattin autograph has long worn off.
A couple days after my first email exchange, the Royals took it even another step further in their customer relations. A department manager wrote to ask which game I would be attending and where I would be sitting, saying they wanted to bring me a gift to commemorate the day.
 
Midway through the game, what was probably an intern stopped by with a bag of goodies. She had bags to stop by other seats as well, but they had obviously raided the stash of leftover promotional items. For example, I got bobblehead was from a 2023 giveaway and the cap was what they had given to 2019 season-ticket holders. The picture frame was from when they hosted the All-Star Game in 2012. 
The best gift, however, was the t-shirt given away in 2018 to celebrate radio announcer Denny Matthews’ 50th year of broadcasting, but I’m choosing to see the 50 emblem as my own commemoration of 50 years. It’s fitting to have a broadcaster’s mic as well, since my love of baseball was incubated by listening to Twins on WHO-Des Moines.
 
-------------------------------
 
The second thing I did was put together a list of at least 50 things or memories that capture and reflect the joy I’ve experienced following baseball. Not surprisingly, I blew past that number in a short time, so I consolidated a few on the list that follows.
 
I’d welcome your commenting on any that resonate for you. Or that seem goofy enough to ask about.

1. Going to my first game in Kansas City. Dad and Mom weren’t baseball fans, but we were visiting my uncle in Kansas City, who got us the tickets.
2. Throwing a tennis ball against the side of the house for hours on end, playing imaginary games that always had the Twins winning.
3. Looking forward to Baseball Digest coming in the mail each month. Hoping each Christmas morning that one of my siblings would again renew the subscription as my present.
4. Winning the daily trivia contest on a local radio station several dozen times over a few years, getting two tickets to minor league games in Cedar Rapids each time. Cashing in the voucher for our box seat tickets, going down the steps to the concourse and then back up the steps to the seats, sometimes after turning right in the concourse to the souvenir stand, where a quarter could get the previous week’s copy of The Sporting News.
5. Going to the Rod Carew Game, a 19-12 Twins win over the White Sox in 1977, the year Carew flirted with .400 for much of the year.
6. Wearing the yellow t-shirt with my red Toughskin® jeans during Pee-Wee baseball and then the green pinstriped uniforms for Little League.
7. Being the bat boy for my brother-in-law’s slow pitch softball team, with my own team shirt with my name on the back.
8. Tying my bat on to my bike with baler twine and hooking my glove over the handlebar as I headed off to Vacation Bible School. I enjoyed the stuff we learned, but I have to acknowledge that the softball games before and after were bigger highlights.
9. My parents letting me drive six hours to a baseball game in Minnesota on my own, with my best friend and his brother. I don’t remember which summer it was and whether we were still in high school or had graduated. Going to a game while visiting the future Mrs. IT near the end of her year at Northwestern College in nearby Roseville.
10. Freezing our butts off on my first trip to Wrigley, during a May Term during college. I mean, it’s May at Wrigley — how could it not be shorts weather?
11. The community at Twins Daily, the best fan site there is for following the Twins. For being an online site, it has amazingly civil discussion (most of the time).
12. Playing fantasy baseball for 27 seasons. I don’t think I’ve finished last yet, but I haven’t won 24 of those years.
13. Going to a game with a dear friend, a loan officer, and talking just enough about his credit union so he could write it off as a business expense. Going to lunch with him just over 20 years ago to plan a weekend trip to St. Louis, Kansas City, Minnesota, Milwaukee and Wrigley, but having him not being able to go after he died so unexpectedly just a few weeks later. Taking a glove and ball to his grave when his Cubs made the World Series in 2016.
14. Not sure where to start in the list of memories related to IT Junior. Starting with teaching him the alphabet by saying that “A is for Aaron, B is for Bostock, C is for Carew,” we’ve covered a whole lot of geekiness since then.
15. Lots of memories with younger son (IT Sophomore?), including the joy of being one of his Little League coaches and sitting on a bucket as his catcher while he practiced pitching. I never caught a single inning in Pee Wee or Little League, but it was so much fun to have my own catcher’s mitt to use with him.
16. Weather — Blistering hot in St. Louis in July while taking the boys to their MLB first game at ages 6 and 3. Getting drenched during a rain delay in St. Louis on a later trip, using the giveaway insulated cooler as our “umbrella.” Blistering hot on a Saturday afternoon at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Freezing cold on a spring break trip to Chicago. Sweltering in the back of the upper deck at Wrigley. Lasting through a rain delay on a Sunday evening Twins blowout at Tiger Stadium, where the game ended with only about 100 fans in the entire outfield.
17. Ballpark nachos.
18. Served in a plastic helmet. Pretty sure that studies have shown that food is about 20 percent better when served in a plastic helmet.
19. Speaking of plastic helmets, collecting them as a high school student, wearing them all the time. I’m still not sure why they didn’t become a fashion trend.
20. Playing slow pitch softball in Iowa and Indiana, along with fast pitch in Indiana. Wow, did I stink at the latter.
21. Visiting all 30 major league stadiums. Redoing it when new stadiums opened in Atlanta and Texas. I’ve also been to 15 stadiums that have been closed. Haven’t decided how I’ll handle Sacramento next year. I’d have to count, but it’s probably about 20 minor league parks.
22. And lest 45 MLB parks seem impressive, what’s even more impressive is that Mrs. IT has been to 23 of the 30 current stadiums and a bunch of the closed ones! She doesn’t even like baseball, but it’s just one more reason why she’s a saint.
23. Putting together picture frames of pictures from all the parks, both for my office and for our home.
24. The 1987 World Series, with the Twins winning their first world championship.
25. The 1991 World Series, when the Twins won again.
26. Going to the public library to check out biographies and history books, particularly during oats combining season, when I would check out a dozen or so to read in the field while I waited for Dad to fill the hopper and be ready to dump in the wagon I was pulling. A lot of the biographies were from the adult section, and they used naughty words my parents wouldn’t have approved of.
27. Only realizing much later how much my thoughts about race were shaped by the biographies of Black and Latin players I read as a child, as they described the discrimination they faced, particularly in the minors.
28. All the Matt Christopher books I checked out from my elementary school library. And the My Secrets of Playing Baseball book by Willie Mays probably had my name on the card a dozen times.
29. Coming from school in the fall of 1973, checking the newspaper each day to see if Hank Aaron had hit another homer as he chased Babe Ruth’s record. Trying to figure out what the four columns of numbers in the box score stood for. Trying to figure out abbreviated names like “Ystrzski.”
30. Getting hooked on folk singer John McCutcheon’s music, particularly when I found there is actually someone writing intelligent songs about baseball. And then he did an entire album of baseball songs. And entire concerts of baseball songs. And I even contributed in a tiny way to his most recent song.

The Hammer - April 8, 2024.mp4 31. Listening to as many Twins games as I could as a kid, including late night games from the west coast, all on WHO-Des Moines. Getting rebooked on baseball on the radio by listening to games on MLB Audio these days.
32. Going to the Baseball Hall of Fame several times, including for Kirby Puckett’s induction. Going to an induction for what will probably be the last time when Tony Oliva was inducted. Going to a bunch of other museums as well. The best of the others is the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, but there’s also been ones for Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Bob Feller (sort of — it’s now closed).
33. Developing a friendship with an MLB player, bringing him to church twice as a youth group fundraiser. Learning more about the business side of the game from the unique perspective he provides.
34. Field of Dreams, The Natural, Bull Durham, The Sandlot, Trouble with the Curve, Moneyball, A League of Their Own and all the great baseball movies I’ve seen. Putting together an All-Star team of movie characters — Billy Chapel on the mound, Roy Hobbs in right, Crash Davis behind the plate, etc. 
 
35. Seeing Twins minor leaguer Royce Lewis interact compassionately with a bat boy with Down Syndrome. Total class.
36. The amazing speed of Byron Buxton. Joe Nathan doing his horse-like, “Pbbbbbt,” as he stood on the mound and prepared to throw a pitch.
37. All the players who gave autographs to my sons throughout the years. I always thought Nathan set the tone with Twins relief pitchers. If the leader of the pen was so willing to sign, how could the others not do the same?
38. Baseball cards — getting introduced to them by getting a pack from my brother. A pack with a Rod Carew, no less. Collecting them as a kid. Spreading them all over the floor with my best friend. Getting gifted my brother-in-law’s cards one year for Christmas. Best Christmas present ever! Knowing I traded away several Nolan Ryan and Reggie Jackson rookie cards over the years. Eventually completing the 1976 and 1979 sets, two years when I was particularly active. Recently completing a run of all of Tony Oliva’s cards, making a display in my home office.
39. Having a work travel schedule at several employers that have lent themselves to being able to tag a bunch of games on to work trips.
40. Going to the Field of Dreams movie site several times, playing catch with IT Sophomore, but also with a bunch of people I’ll never know.
41. Baseball-reference.com. Enough said.
42. Going to the Society for American Baseball Research annual conference. Twice.
43. Ballparks — practically the only time I eat peanuts in the shell. Other than when I go to Five Guys.
44. Touring a bunch of parks over the years, including standing atop the Green Monster.
45. Covering plenty of games as a newspaper reporter or sports information director, including games in several minor league parks and a couple of states and games with a future NFL player. Interviewing a couple of major leaguers who were on minor league rehab assignments.
46. Getting to throw out the first pitch at a high school game, to the young man in my church who I serve as a mentor for.
47. Keeping score. Seeing the passion IT Junior has for doing the same. Occasionally sending scoring questions to Stew Thornley, whom I’ve gotten to know through a unique set of circumstances.
48. Having the goofy dream of retiring to Rochester, Minn., spending my evenings selling Diet Coke in the bleachers at Target Field. Probably won’t happen.
49. Having baseball as part of my end-of-life plan. Seriously. I’ve told Mrs. IT and the boys that baseball enjoyment is one of my measures of incapacity. If there’s no likelihood that I’ll ever be able to sense/experience a baseball again, that’s one indicator that it’s okay to pull the plug.
50. When asked how she feels about going to all these games, hearing Mrs. IT say, “I don’t like baseball, but I like some people who like baseball.” See saint reference above. That statement has taught me so much about marriage.
 
(If you’ve made it through all this, thanks for indulging me.)
 

And so concludes my Golden Anniversary year.
Not the Golden Anniversary of my birth. I’m a little way past that. And not the Golden Anniversary of my wedding. We’re a little way short of that.
Rather, this past July 13 marked the Golden Anniversary of the Detroit Tigers beating the homestanding Kansas City Royals 8-3, in front of 25,834 fans. Woody Fryman was the winning pitcher, scattering 12 hits over nine innings. Future Hall of Famer and 3,000 Hit Club member Al Kaline was the only player in the Tiger lineup not to get a hit. By contrast, little-used left fielder Marv Lane had four of his career 37 hits that night. He also had his only career triple and both of his career stolen bases. For the Royals, Cookie Rojas plated both runs with an inside the park homer and Kurt Bevacqua and Hal McRae each had three hits.
As MLB games go, it was pretty routine. But it was anything but routine for the eight-year-old kid sitting in Aisle 119, Row JJ, Seat 4, attending his first-ever big league game.
How do I know there was a kid in that seat attending his first game? Because I still have the ticket stub.
 
To celebrate this Golden Anniversary, I did two things this summer. First, I decided to go to three specific games to celebrate. I went solo to each of the three, which also provided time for reflection, as I thought baseball memories on the drive to and from.
The first game was at new Comiskey in Chicago. Or call it U.S. Cellular, Guaranteed Rate, whatever. I chose new Comiskey because for a long time, that was where I went to games most often, often catching the Twins when they were in town.
Ironically, I was standing a dozen or so rows back in the left field bleacher during batting practice, watching others clamor for balls hit into the stands. Some Twin staffer grabbed a ball and looked up in the stands. I suppose because I was one of the few people wearing a Twins shirt, he pointed at me and threw it in my direction. When I was a kid, I would have died for that to happen.
 
-------------------------------
 
A second game was at Target Field, where I probably get to games most often these days.
When by myself, I normally just get a cheap ticket and move down to an open seat over the course of the game. This time I actually found a $25 ticket for a seat in the Thrivent Deck.  That got me a padded seat, extra concession stands (with shorter lines and more food options), a concourse with greater access to restrooms and the like and the opportunity to wander through a Hall of Fame of sorts, with memorabilia ranging from Harmon Killebrew’s high school basketball uniform to the gear Joe Mauer wore for his emotional one-pitch return to the catcher spot in the final inning of his final game and lots of other stuff.
That game was topped off by crossing paths with my all-time favorite player as I was leaving. Tony Oliva is a regular at Twins games and was gracious enough to pause for a picture.
-------------------------------

The game I particularly looked forward to was at Royal (now called Kauffman) Stadium. My first hope in looking at the schedule was to go on July 13, but the Royals were on the road. However, I was able to go on July 24.
And here’s where it got extra cool. I wanted to recreate a picture from as close as possible to my seat from 50 years ago. When I looked for tickets, however, I discovered that the sections had been renumbered, so Section 119 was at a different location than it was in 1974.
I found an email address and sent a message to the fan relations office, asking if they had a seat map from 1974, explaining why I was looking for it. A couple days later, one of their people sent a map with the old seat numbers. He even went further, going out to take several pictures from the seat in question and sending them to me. It was indeed the general angle I remembered. When I searched for a ticket near the seat in question, I was able to find one a row behind and a seat to the side, essentially a checkerboard move from one seat to the other.
Then, the person in “my” seat went out to the concession stand just before the game started. I’d struck up a conversation with the family in that row, so I asked to hop into that seat for the opening pitch, taking things up a level. The glove is the one I had taken to the game so many years ago. The Marty Pattin autograph has long worn off.
A couple days after my first email exchange, the Royals took it even another step further in their customer relations. A department manager wrote to ask which game I would be attending and where I would be sitting, saying they wanted to bring me a gift to commemorate the day.
 
Midway through the game, what was probably an intern stopped by with a bag of goodies. She had bags to stop by other seats as well, but they had obviously raided the stash of leftover promotional items. For example, I got bobblehead was from a 2023 giveaway and the cap was what they had given to 2019 season-ticket holders. The picture frame was from when they hosted the All-Star Game in 2012. 
The best gift, however, was the t-shirt given away in 2018 to celebrate radio announcer Denny Matthews’ 50th year of broadcasting, but I’m choosing to see the 50 emblem as my own commemoration of 50 years. It’s fitting to have a broadcaster’s mic as well, since my love of baseball was incubated by listening to Twins on WHO-Des Moines.
 
-------------------------------
 
The second thing I did was put together a list of at least 50 things or memories that capture and reflect the joy I’ve experienced following baseball. Not surprisingly, I blew past that number in a short time, so I consolidated a few on the list that follows.
 
I’d welcome your commenting on any that resonate for you. Or that seem goofy enough to ask about.

1. Going to my first game in Kansas City. Dad and Mom weren’t baseball fans, but we were visiting my uncle in Kansas City, who got us the tickets.
2. Throwing a tennis ball against the side of the house for hours on end, playing imaginary games that always had the Twins winning.
3. Looking forward to Baseball Digest coming in the mail each month. Hoping each Christmas morning that one of my siblings would again renew the subscription as my present.
4. Winning the daily trivia contest on a local radio station several dozen times over a few years, getting two tickets to minor league games in Cedar Rapids each time. Cashing in the voucher for our box seat tickets, going down the steps to the concourse and then back up the steps to the seats, sometimes after turning right in the concourse to the souvenir stand, where a quarter could get the previous week’s copy of The Sporting News.
5. Going to the Rod Carew Game, a 19-12 Twins win over the White Sox in 1977, the year Carew flirted with .400 for much of the year.
6. Wearing the yellow t-shirt with my red Toughskin® jeans during Pee-Wee baseball and then the green pinstriped uniforms for Little League.
7. Being the bat boy for my brother-in-law’s slow pitch softball team, with my own team shirt with my name on the back.
8. Tying my bat on to my bike with baler twine and hooking my glove over the handlebar as I headed off to Vacation Bible School. I enjoyed the stuff we learned, but I have to acknowledge that the softball games before and after were bigger highlights.
9. My parents letting me drive six hours to a baseball game in Minnesota on my own, with my best friend and his brother. I don’t remember which summer it was and whether we were still in high school or had graduated. Going to a game while visiting the future Mrs. IT near the end of her year at Northwestern College in nearby Roseville.
10. Freezing our butts off on my first trip to Wrigley, during a May Term during college. I mean, it’s May at Wrigley — how could it not be shorts weather?
11. The community at Twins Daily, the best fan site there is for following the Twins. For being an online site, it has amazingly civil discussion (most of the time).
12. Playing fantasy baseball for 27 seasons. I don’t think I’ve finished last yet, but I haven’t won 24 of those years.
13. Going to a game with a dear friend, a loan officer, and talking just enough about his credit union so he could write it off as a business expense. Going to lunch with him just over 20 years ago to plan a weekend trip to St. Louis, Kansas City, Minnesota, Milwaukee and Wrigley, but having him not being able to go after he died so unexpectedly just a few weeks later. Taking a glove and ball to his grave when his Cubs made the World Series in 2016.
14. Not sure where to start in the list of memories related to IT Junior. Starting with teaching him the alphabet by saying that “A is for Aaron, B is for Bostock, C is for Carew,” we’ve covered a whole lot of geekiness since then.
15. Lots of memories with younger son (IT Sophomore?), including the joy of being one of his Little League coaches and sitting on a bucket as his catcher while he practiced pitching. I never caught a single inning in Pee Wee or Little League, but it was so much fun to have my own catcher’s mitt to use with him.
16. Weather — Blistering hot in St. Louis in July while taking the boys to their MLB first game at ages 6 and 3. Getting drenched during a rain delay in St. Louis on a later trip, using the giveaway insulated cooler as our “umbrella.” Blistering hot on a Saturday afternoon at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Freezing cold on a spring break trip to Chicago. Sweltering in the back of the upper deck at Wrigley. Lasting through a rain delay on a Sunday evening Twins blowout at Tiger Stadium, where the game ended with only about 100 fans in the entire outfield.
17. Ballpark nachos.
18. Served in a plastic helmet. Pretty sure that studies have shown that food is about 20 percent better when served in a plastic helmet.
19. Speaking of plastic helmets, collecting them as a high school student, wearing them all the time. I’m still not sure why they didn’t become a fashion trend.
20. Playing slow pitch softball in Iowa and Indiana, along with fast pitch in Indiana. Wow, did I stink at the latter.
21. Visiting all 30 major league stadiums. Redoing it when new stadiums opened in Atlanta and Texas. I’ve also been to 15 stadiums that have been closed. Haven’t decided how I’ll handle Sacramento next year. I’d have to count, but it’s probably about 20 minor league parks.
22. And lest 45 MLB parks seem impressive, what’s even more impressive is that Mrs. IT has been to 23 of the 30 current stadiums and a bunch of the closed ones! She doesn’t even like baseball, but it’s just one more reason why she’s a saint.
23. Putting together picture frames of pictures from all the parks, both for my office and for our home.
24. The 1987 World Series, with the Twins winning their first world championship.
25. The 1991 World Series, when the Twins won again.
26. Going to the public library to check out biographies and history books, particularly during oats combining season, when I would check out a dozen or so to read in the field while I waited for Dad to fill the hopper and be ready to dump in the wagon I was pulling. A lot of the biographies were from the adult section, and they used naughty words my parents wouldn’t have approved of.
27. Only realizing much later how much my thoughts about race were shaped by the biographies of Black and Latin players I read as a child, as they described the discrimination they faced, particularly in the minors.
28. All the Matt Christopher books I checked out from my elementary school library. And the My Secrets of Playing Baseball book by Willie Mays probably had my name on the card a dozen times.
29. Coming from school in the fall of 1973, checking the newspaper each day to see if Hank Aaron had hit another homer as he chased Babe Ruth’s record. Trying to figure out what the four columns of numbers in the box score stood for. Trying to figure out abbreviated names like “Ystrzski.”
30. Getting hooked on folk singer John McCutcheon’s music, particularly when I found there is actually someone writing intelligent songs about baseball. And then he did an entire album of baseball songs. And entire concerts of baseball songs. And I even contributed in a tiny way to his most recent song.

The Hammer - April 8, 2024.mp4 31. Listening to as many Twins games as I could as a kid, including late night games from the west coast, all on WHO-Des Moines. Getting rebooked on baseball on the radio by listening to games on MLB Audio these days.
32. Going to the Baseball Hall of Fame several times, including for Kirby Puckett’s induction. Going to an induction for what will probably be the last time when Tony Oliva was inducted. Going to a bunch of other museums as well. The best of the others is the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, but there’s also been ones for Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Bob Feller (sort of — it’s now closed).
33. Developing a friendship with an MLB player, bringing him to church twice as a youth group fundraiser. Learning more about the business side of the game from the unique perspective he provides.
34. Field of Dreams, The Natural, Bull Durham, The Sandlot, Trouble with the Curve, Moneyball, A League of Their Own and all the great baseball movies I’ve seen. Putting together an All-Star team of movie characters — Billy Chapel on the mound, Roy Hobbs in right, Crash Davis behind the plate, etc. 
 
35. Seeing Twins minor leaguer Royce Lewis interact compassionately with a bat boy with Down Syndrome. Total class.
36. The amazing speed of Byron Buxton. Joe Nathan doing his horse-like, “Pbbbbbt,” as he stood on the mound and prepared to throw a pitch.
37. All the players who gave autographs to my sons throughout the years. I always thought Nathan set the tone with Twins relief pitchers. If the leader of the pen was so willing to sign, how could the others not do the same?
38. Baseball cards — getting introduced to them by getting a pack from my brother. A pack with a Rod Carew, no less. Collecting them as a kid. Spreading them all over the floor with my best friend. Getting gifted my brother-in-law’s cards one year for Christmas. Best Christmas present ever! Knowing I traded away several Nolan Ryan and Reggie Jackson rookie cards over the years. Eventually completing the 1976 and 1979 sets, two years when I was particularly active. Recently completing a run of all of Tony Oliva’s cards, making a display in my home office.
39. Having a work travel schedule at several employers that have lent themselves to being able to tag a bunch of games on to work trips.
40. Going to the Field of Dreams movie site several times, playing catch with IT Sophomore, but also with a bunch of people I’ll never know.
41. Baseball-reference.com. Enough said.
42. Going to the Society for American Baseball Research annual conference. Twice.
43. Ballparks — practically the only time I eat peanuts in the shell. Other than when I go to Five Guys.
44. Touring a bunch of parks over the years, including standing atop the Green Monster.
45. Covering plenty of games as a newspaper reporter or sports information director, including games in several minor league parks and a couple of states and games with a future NFL player. Interviewing a couple of major leaguers who were on minor league rehab assignments.
46. Getting to throw out the first pitch at a high school game, to the young man in my church who I serve as a mentor for.
47. Keeping score. Seeing the passion IT Junior has for doing the same. Occasionally sending scoring questions to Stew Thornley, whom I’ve gotten to know through a unique set of circumstances.
48. Having the goofy dream of retiring to Rochester, Minn., spending my evenings selling Diet Coke in the bleachers at Target Field. Probably won’t happen.
49. Having baseball as part of my end-of-life plan. Seriously. I’ve told Mrs. IT and the boys that baseball enjoyment is one of my measures of incapacity. If there’s no likelihood that I’ll ever be able to sense/experience a baseball again, that’s one indicator that it’s okay to pull the plug.
50. When asked how she feels about going to all these games, hearing Mrs. IT say, “I don’t like baseball, but I like some people who like baseball.” See saint reference above. That statement has taught me so much about marriage.
 
(If you’ve made it through all this, thanks for indulging me.)
 

And so concludes my Golden Anniversary year.
Not the Golden Anniversary of my birth. I’m a little way past that. And not the Golden Anniversary of my wedding. We’re a little way short of that.
Rather, this past July 13 marked the Golden Anniversary of the Detroit Tigers beating the homestanding Kansas City Royals 8-3, in front of 25,834 fans. Woody Fryman was the winning pitcher, scattering 12 hits over nine innings. Future Hall of Famer and 3,000 Hit Club member Al Kaline was the only player in the Tiger lineup not to get a hit. By contrast, little-used left fielder Marv Lane had four of his career 37 hits that night. He also had his only career triple and both of his career stolen bases. For the Royals, Cookie Rojas plated both runs with an inside the park homer and Kurt Bevacqua and Hal McRae each had three hits.
As MLB games go, it was pretty routine. But it was anything but routine for the eight-year-old kid sitting in Aisle 119, Row JJ, Seat 4, attending his first-ever big league game.
How do I know there was a kid in that seat attending his first game? Because I still have the ticket stub.
 
To celebrate this Golden Anniversary, I did two things this summer. First, I decided to go to three specific games to celebrate. I went solo to each of the three, which also provided time for reflection, as I thought baseball memories on the drive to and from.
The first game was at new Comiskey in Chicago. Or call it U.S. Cellular, Guaranteed Rate, whatever. I chose new Comiskey because for a long time, that was where I went to games most often, often catching the Twins when they were in town.
Ironically, I was standing a dozen or so rows back in the left field bleacher during batting practice, watching others clamor for balls hit into the stands. Some Twin staffer grabbed a ball and looked up in the stands. I suppose because I was one of the few people wearing a Twins shirt, he pointed at me and threw it in my direction. When I was a kid, I would have died for that to happen.
 
-------------------------------
 
A second game was at Target Field, where I probably get to games most often these days.
When by myself, I normally just get a cheap ticket and move down to an open seat over the course of the game. This time I actually found a $25 ticket for a seat in the Thrivent Deck.  That got me a padded seat, extra concession stands (with shorter lines and more food options), a concourse with greater access to restrooms and the like and the opportunity to wander through a Hall of Fame of sorts, with memorabilia ranging from Harmon Killebrew’s high school basketball uniform to the gear Joe Mauer wore for his emotional one-pitch return to the catcher spot in the final inning of his final game and lots of other stuff.
That game was topped off by crossing paths with my all-time favorite player as I was leaving. Tony Oliva is a regular at Twins games and was gracious enough to pause for a picture.
-------------------------------

The game I particularly looked forward to was at Royal (now called Kauffman) Stadium. My first hope in looking at the schedule was to go on July 13, but the Royals were on the road. However, I was able to go on July 24.
And here’s where it got extra cool. I wanted to recreate a picture from as close as possible to my seat from 50 years ago. When I looked for tickets, however, I discovered that the sections had been renumbered, so Section 119 was at a different location than it was in 1974.
I found an email address and sent a message to the fan relations office, asking if they had a seat map from 1974, explaining why I was looking for it. A couple days later, one of their people sent a map with the old seat numbers. He even went further, going out to take several pictures from the seat in question and sending them to me. It was indeed the general angle I remembered. When I searched for a ticket near the seat in question, I was able to find one a row behind and a seat to the side, essentially a checkerboard move from one seat to the other.
Then, the person in “my” seat went out to the concession stand just before the game started. I’d struck up a conversation with the family in that row, so I asked to hop into that seat for the opening pitch, taking things up a level. The glove is the one I had taken to the game so many years ago. The Marty Pattin autograph has long worn off.
A couple days after my first email exchange, the Royals took it even another step further in their customer relations. A department manager wrote to ask which game I would be attending and where I would be sitting, saying they wanted to bring me a gift to commemorate the day.
 
Midway through the game, what was probably an intern stopped by with a bag of goodies. She had bags to stop by other seats as well, but they had obviously raided the stash of leftover promotional items. For example, I got bobblehead was from a 2023 giveaway and the cap was what they had given to 2019 season-ticket holders. The picture frame was from when they hosted the All-Star Game in 2012. 
The best gift, however, was the t-shirt given away in 2018 to celebrate radio announcer Denny Matthews’ 50th year of broadcasting, but I’m choosing to see the 50 emblem as my own commemoration of 50 years. It’s fitting to have a broadcaster’s mic as well, since my love of baseball was incubated by listening to Twins on WHO-Des Moines.
 
-------------------------------
 
The second thing I did was put together a list of at least 50 things or memories that capture and reflect the joy I’ve experienced following baseball. Not surprisingly, I blew past that number in a short time, so I consolidated a few on the list that follows.
 
I’d welcome your commenting on any that resonate for you. Or that seem goofy enough to ask about.

1. Going to my first game in Kansas City. Dad and Mom weren’t baseball fans, but we were visiting my uncle in Kansas City, who got us the tickets.
2. Throwing a tennis ball against the side of the house for hours on end, playing imaginary games that always had the Twins winning.
3. Looking forward to Baseball Digest coming in the mail each month. Hoping each Christmas morning that one of my siblings would again renew the subscription as my present.
4. Winning the daily trivia contest on a local radio station several dozen times over a few years, getting two tickets to minor league games in Cedar Rapids each time. Cashing in the voucher for our box seat tickets, going down the steps to the concourse and then back up the steps to the seats, sometimes after turning right in the concourse to the souvenir stand, where a quarter could get the previous week’s copy of The Sporting News.
5. Going to the Rod Carew Game, a 19-12 Twins win over the White Sox in 1977, the year Carew flirted with .400 for much of the year.
6. Wearing the yellow t-shirt with my red Toughskin® jeans during Pee-Wee baseball and then the green pinstriped uniforms for Little League.
7. Being the bat boy for my brother-in-law’s slow pitch softball team, with my own team shirt with my name on the back.
8. Tying my bat on to my bike with baler twine and hooking my glove over the handlebar as I headed off to Vacation Bible School. I enjoyed the stuff we learned, but I have to acknowledge that the softball games before and after were bigger highlights.
9. My parents letting me drive six hours to a baseball game in Minnesota on my own, with my best friend and his brother. I don’t remember which summer it was and whether we were still in high school or had graduated. Going to a game while visiting the future Mrs. IT near the end of her year at Northwestern College in nearby Roseville.
10. Freezing our butts off on my first trip to Wrigley, during a May Term during college. I mean, it’s May at Wrigley — how could it not be shorts weather?
11. The community at Twins Daily, the best fan site there is for following the Twins. For being an online site, it has amazingly civil discussion (most of the time).
12. Playing fantasy baseball for 27 seasons. I don’t think I’ve finished last yet, but I haven’t won 24 of those years.
13. Going to a game with a dear friend, a loan officer, and talking just enough about his credit union so he could write it off as a business expense. Going to lunch with him just over 20 years ago to plan a weekend trip to St. Louis, Kansas City, Minnesota, Milwaukee and Wrigley, but having him not being able to go after he died so unexpectedly just a few weeks later. Taking a glove and ball to his grave when his Cubs made the World Series in 2016.
14. Not sure where to start in the list of memories related to IT Junior. Starting with teaching him the alphabet by saying that “A is for Aaron, B is for Bostock, C is for Carew,” we’ve covered a whole lot of geekiness since then.
15. Lots of memories with younger son (IT Sophomore?), including the joy of being one of his Little League coaches and sitting on a bucket as his catcher while he practiced pitching. I never caught a single inning in Pee Wee or Little League, but it was so much fun to have my own catcher’s mitt to use with him.
16. Weather — Blistering hot in St. Louis in July while taking the boys to their MLB first game at ages 6 and 3. Getting drenched during a rain delay in St. Louis on a later trip, using the giveaway insulated cooler as our “umbrella.” Blistering hot on a Saturday afternoon at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Freezing cold on a spring break trip to Chicago. Sweltering in the back of the upper deck at Wrigley. Lasting through a rain delay on a Sunday evening Twins blowout at Tiger Stadium, where the game ended with only about 100 fans in the entire outfield.
17. Ballpark nachos.
18. Served in a plastic helmet. Pretty sure that studies have shown that food is about 20 percent better when served in a plastic helmet.
19. Speaking of plastic helmets, collecting them as a high school student, wearing them all the time. I’m still not sure why they didn’t become a fashion trend.
20. Playing slow pitch softball in Iowa and Indiana, along with fast pitch in Indiana. Wow, did I stink at the latter.
21. Visiting all 30 major league stadiums. Redoing it when new stadiums opened in Atlanta and Texas. I’ve also been to 15 stadiums that have been closed. Haven’t decided how I’ll handle Sacramento next year. I’d have to count, but it’s probably about 20 minor league parks.
22. And lest 45 MLB parks seem impressive, what’s even more impressive is that Mrs. IT has been to 23 of the 30 current stadiums and a bunch of the closed ones! She doesn’t even like baseball, but it’s just one more reason why she’s a saint.
23. Putting together picture frames of pictures from all the parks, both for my office and for our home.
24. The 1987 World Series, with the Twins winning their first world championship.
25. The 1991 World Series, when the Twins won again.
26. Going to the public library to check out biographies and history books, particularly during oats combining season, when I would check out a dozen or so to read in the field while I waited for Dad to fill the hopper and be ready to dump in the wagon I was pulling. A lot of the biographies were from the adult section, and they used naughty words my parents wouldn’t have approved of.
27. Only realizing much later how much my thoughts about race were shaped by the biographies of Black and Latin players I read as a child, as they described the discrimination they faced, particularly in the minors.
28. All the Matt Christopher books I checked out from my elementary school library. And the My Secrets of Playing Baseball book by Willie Mays probably had my name on the card a dozen times.
29. Coming from school in the fall of 1973, checking the newspaper each day to see if Hank Aaron had hit another homer as he chased Babe Ruth’s record. Trying to figure out what the four columns of numbers in the box score stood for. Trying to figure out abbreviated names like “Ystrzski.”
30. Getting hooked on folk singer John McCutcheon’s music, particularly when I found there is actually someone writing intelligent songs about baseball. And then he did an entire album of baseball songs. And entire concerts of baseball songs. And I even contributed in a tiny way to his most recent song.

The Hammer - April 8, 2024.mp4 31. Listening to as many Twins games as I could as a kid, including late night games from the west coast, all on WHO-Des Moines. Getting rebooked on baseball on the radio by listening to games on MLB Audio these days.
32. Going to the Baseball Hall of Fame several times, including for Kirby Puckett’s induction. Going to an induction for what will probably be the last time when Tony Oliva was inducted. Going to a bunch of other museums as well. The best of the others is the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, but there’s also been ones for Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Bob Feller (sort of — it’s now closed).
33. Developing a friendship with an MLB player, bringing him to church twice as a youth group fundraiser. Learning more about the business side of the game from the unique perspective he provides.
34. Field of Dreams, The Natural, Bull Durham, The Sandlot, Trouble with the Curve, Moneyball, A League of Their Own and all the great baseball movies I’ve seen. Putting together an All-Star team of movie characters — Billy Chapel on the mound, Roy Hobbs in right, Crash Davis behind the plate, etc. 
 
35. Seeing Twins minor leaguer Royce Lewis interact compassionately with a bat boy with Down Syndrome. Total class.
36. The amazing speed of Byron Buxton. Joe Nathan doing his horse-like, “Pbbbbbt,” as he stood on the mound and prepared to throw a pitch.
37. All the players who gave autographs to my sons throughout the years. I always thought Nathan set the tone with Twins relief pitchers. If the leader of the pen was so willing to sign, how could the others not do the same?
38. Baseball cards — getting introduced to them by getting a pack from my brother. A pack with a Rod Carew, no less. Collecting them as a kid. Spreading them all over the floor with my best friend. Getting gifted my brother-in-law’s cards one year for Christmas. Best Christmas present ever! Knowing I traded away several Nolan Ryan and Reggie Jackson rookie cards over the years. Eventually completing the 1976 and 1979 sets, two years when I was particularly active. Recently completing a run of all of Tony Oliva’s cards, making a display in my home office.
39. Having a work travel schedule at several employers that have lent themselves to being able to tag a bunch of games on to work trips.
40. Going to the Field of Dreams movie site several times, playing catch with IT Sophomore, but also with a bunch of people I’ll never know.
41. Baseball-reference.com. Enough said.
42. Going to the Society for American Baseball Research annual conference. Twice.
43. Ballparks — practically the only time I eat peanuts in the shell. Other than when I go to Five Guys.
44. Touring a bunch of parks over the years, including standing atop the Green Monster.
45. Covering plenty of games as a newspaper reporter or sports information director, including games in several minor league parks and a couple of states and games with a future NFL player. Interviewing a couple of major leaguers who were on minor league rehab assignments.
46. Getting to throw out the first pitch at a high school game, to the young man in my church who I serve as a mentor for.
47. Keeping score. Seeing the passion IT Junior has for doing the same. Occasionally sending scoring questions to Stew Thornley, whom I’ve gotten to know through a unique set of circumstances.
48. Having the goofy dream of retiring to Rochester, Minn., spending my evenings selling Diet Coke in the bleachers at Target Field. Probably won’t happen.
49. Having baseball as part of my end-of-life plan. Seriously. I’ve told Mrs. IT and the boys that baseball enjoyment is one of my measures of incapacity. If there’s no likelihood that I’ll ever be able to sense/experience a baseball again, that’s one indicator that it’s okay to pull the plug.
50. When asked how she feels about going to all these games, hearing Mrs. IT say, “I don’t like baseball, but I like some people who like baseball.” See saint reference above. That statement has taught me so much about marriage.
 
(If you’ve made it through all this, thanks for indulging me.)
 

And so concludes my Golden Anniversary year.
Not the Golden Anniversary of my birth. I’m a little way past that. And not the Golden Anniversary of my wedding. We’re a little way short of that.
Rather, this past July 13 marked the Golden Anniversary of the Detroit Tigers beating the homestanding Kansas City Royals 8-3, in front of 25,834 fans. Woody Fryman was the winning pitcher, scattering 12 hits over nine innings. Future Hall of Famer and 3,000 Hit Club member Al Kaline was the only player in the Tiger lineup not to get a hit. By contrast, little-used left fielder Marv Lane had four of his career 37 hits that night. He also had his only career triple and both of his career stolen bases. For the Royals, Cookie Rojas plated both runs with an inside the park homer and Kurt Bevacqua and Hal McRae each had three hits.
As MLB games go, it was pretty routine. But it was anything but routine for the eight-year-old kid sitting in Aisle 119, Row JJ, Seat 4, attending his first-ever big league game.
How do I know there was a kid in that seat attending his first game? Because I still have the ticket stub.
 
To celebrate this Golden Anniversary, I did two things this summer. First, I decided to go to three specific games to celebrate. I went solo to each of the three, which also provided time for reflection, as I thought baseball memories on the drive to and from.
The first game was at new Comiskey in Chicago. Or call it U.S. Cellular, Guaranteed Rate, whatever. I chose new Comiskey because for a long time, that was where I went to games most often, often catching the Twins when they were in town.
Ironically, I was standing a dozen or so rows back in the left field bleacher during batting practice, watching others clamor for balls hit into the stands. Some Twin staffer grabbed a ball and looked up in the stands. I suppose because I was one of the few people wearing a Twins shirt, he pointed at me and threw it in my direction. When I was a kid, I would have died for that to happen.
 
-------------------------------
 
A second game was at Target Field, where I probably get to games most often these days.
When by myself, I normally just get a cheap ticket and move down to an open seat over the course of the game. This time I actually found a $25 ticket for a seat in the Thrivent Deck.  That got me a padded seat, extra concession stands (with shorter lines and more food options), a concourse with greater access to restrooms and the like and the opportunity to wander through a Hall of Fame of sorts, with memorabilia ranging from Harmon Killebrew’s high school basketball uniform to the gear Joe Mauer wore for his emotional one-pitch return to the catcher spot in the final inning of his final game and lots of other stuff.
That game was topped off by crossing paths with my all-time favorite player as I was leaving. Tony Oliva is a regular at Twins games and was gracious enough to pause for a picture.
-------------------------------

The game I particularly looked forward to was at Royal (now called Kauffman) Stadium. My first hope in looking at the schedule was to go on July 13, but the Royals were on the road. However, I was able to go on July 24.
And here’s where it got extra cool. I wanted to recreate a picture from as close as possible to my seat from 50 years ago. When I looked for tickets, however, I discovered that the sections had been renumbered, so Section 119 was at a different location than it was in 1974.
I found an email address and sent a message to the fan relations office, asking if they had a seat map from 1974, explaining why I was looking for it. A couple days later, one of their people sent a map with the old seat numbers. He even went further, going out to take several pictures from the seat in question and sending them to me. It was indeed the general angle I remembered. When I searched for a ticket near the seat in question, I was able to find one a row behind and a seat to the side, essentially a checkerboard move from one seat to the other.
Then, the person in “my” seat went out to the concession stand just before the game started. I’d struck up a conversation with the family in that row, so I asked to hop into that seat for the opening pitch, taking things up a level. The glove is the one I had taken to the game so many years ago. The Marty Pattin autograph has long worn off.
A couple days after my first email exchange, the Royals took it even another step further in their customer relations. A department manager wrote to ask which game I would be attending and where I would be sitting, saying they wanted to bring me a gift to commemorate the day.
 
Midway through the game, what was probably an intern stopped by with a bag of goodies. She had bags to stop by other seats as well, but they had obviously raided the stash of leftover promotional items. For example, I got bobblehead was from a 2023 giveaway and the cap was what they had given to 2019 season-ticket holders. The picture frame was from when they hosted the All-Star Game in 2012. 
The best gift, however, was the t-shirt given away in 2018 to celebrate radio announcer Denny Matthews’ 50th year of broadcasting, but I’m choosing to see the 50 emblem as my own commemoration of 50 years. It’s fitting to have a broadcaster’s mic as well, since my love of baseball was incubated by listening to Twins on WHO-Des Moines.
 
-------------------------------
 
The second thing I did was put together a list of at least 50 things or memories that capture and reflect the joy I’ve experienced following baseball. Not surprisingly, I blew past that number in a short time, so I consolidated a few on the list that follows.
 
I’d welcome your commenting on any that resonate for you. Or that seem goofy enough to ask about.

1. Going to my first game in Kansas City. Dad and Mom weren’t baseball fans, but we were visiting my uncle in Kansas City, who got us the tickets.
2. Throwing a tennis ball against the side of the house for hours on end, playing imaginary games that always had the Twins winning.
3. Looking forward to Baseball Digest coming in the mail each month. Hoping each Christmas morning that one of my siblings would again renew the subscription as my present.
4. Winning the daily trivia contest on a local radio station several dozen times over a few years, getting two tickets to minor league games in Cedar Rapids each time. Cashing in the voucher for our box seat tickets, going down the steps to the concourse and then back up the steps to the seats, sometimes after turning right in the concourse to the souvenir stand, where a quarter could get the previous week’s copy of The Sporting News.
5. Going to the Rod Carew Game, a 19-12 Twins win over the White Sox in 1977, the year Carew flirted with .400 for much of the year.
6. Wearing the yellow t-shirt with my red Toughskin® jeans during Pee-Wee baseball and then the green pinstriped uniforms for Little League.
7. Being the bat boy for my brother-in-law’s slow pitch softball team, with my own team shirt with my name on the back.
8. Tying my bat on to my bike with baler twine and hooking my glove over the handlebar as I headed off to Vacation Bible School. I enjoyed the stuff we learned, but I have to acknowledge that the softball games before and after were bigger highlights.
9. My parents letting me drive six hours to a baseball game in Minnesota on my own, with my best friend and his brother. I don’t remember which summer it was and whether we were still in high school or had graduated. Going to a game while visiting the future Mrs. IT near the end of her year at Northwestern College in nearby Roseville.
10. Freezing our butts off on my first trip to Wrigley, during a May Term during college. I mean, it’s May at Wrigley — how could it not be shorts weather?
11. The community at Twins Daily, the best fan site there is for following the Twins. For being an online site, it has amazingly civil discussion (most of the time).
12. Playing fantasy baseball for 27 seasons. I don’t think I’ve finished last yet, but I haven’t won 24 of those years.
13. Going to a game with a dear friend, a loan officer, and talking just enough about his credit union so he could write it off as a business expense. Going to lunch with him just over 20 years ago to plan a weekend trip to St. Louis, Kansas City, Minnesota, Milwaukee and Wrigley, but having him not being able to go after he died so unexpectedly just a few weeks later. Taking a glove and ball to his grave when his Cubs made the World Series in 2016.
14. Not sure where to start in the list of memories related to IT Junior. Starting with teaching him the alphabet by saying that “A is for Aaron, B is for Bostock, C is for Carew,” we’ve covered a whole lot of geekiness since then.
15. Lots of memories with younger son (IT Sophomore?), including the joy of being one of his Little League coaches and sitting on a bucket as his catcher while he practiced pitching. I never caught a single inning in Pee Wee or Little League, but it was so much fun to have my own catcher’s mitt to use with him.
16. Weather — Blistering hot in St. Louis in July while taking the boys to their MLB first game at ages 6 and 3. Getting drenched during a rain delay in St. Louis on a later trip, using the giveaway insulated cooler as our “umbrella.” Blistering hot on a Saturday afternoon at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Freezing cold on a spring break trip to Chicago. Sweltering in the back of the upper deck at Wrigley. Lasting through a rain delay on a Sunday evening Twins blowout at Tiger Stadium, where the game ended with only about 100 fans in the entire outfield.
17. Ballpark nachos.
18. Served in a plastic helmet. Pretty sure that studies have shown that food is about 20 percent better when served in a plastic helmet.
19. Speaking of plastic helmets, collecting them as a high school student, wearing them all the time. I’m still not sure why they didn’t become a fashion trend.
20. Playing slow pitch softball in Iowa and Indiana, along with fast pitch in Indiana. Wow, did I stink at the latter.
21. Visiting all 30 major league stadiums. Redoing it when new stadiums opened in Atlanta and Texas. I’ve also been to 15 stadiums that have been closed. Haven’t decided how I’ll handle Sacramento next year. I’d have to count, but it’s probably about 20 minor league parks.
22. And lest 45 MLB parks seem impressive, what’s even more impressive is that Mrs. IT has been to 23 of the 30 current stadiums and a bunch of the closed ones! She doesn’t even like baseball, but it’s just one more reason why she’s a saint.
23. Putting together picture frames of pictures from all the parks, both for my office and for our home.
24. The 1987 World Series, with the Twins winning their first world championship.
25. The 1991 World Series, when the Twins won again.
26. Going to the public library to check out biographies and history books, particularly during oats combining season, when I would check out a dozen or so to read in the field while I waited for Dad to fill the hopper and be ready to dump in the wagon I was pulling. A lot of the biographies were from the adult section, and they used naughty words my parents wouldn’t have approved of.
27. Only realizing much later how much my thoughts about race were shaped by the biographies of Black and Latin players I read as a child, as they described the discrimination they faced, particularly in the minors.
28. All the Matt Christopher books I checked out from my elementary school library. And the My Secrets of Playing Baseball book by Willie Mays probably had my name on the card a dozen times.
29. Coming from school in the fall of 1973, checking the newspaper each day to see if Hank Aaron had hit another homer as he chased Babe Ruth’s record. Trying to figure out what the four columns of numbers in the box score stood for. Trying to figure out abbreviated names like “Ystrzski.”
30. Getting hooked on folk singer John McCutcheon’s music, particularly when I found there is actually someone writing intelligent songs about baseball. And then he did an entire album of baseball songs. And entire concerts of baseball songs. And I even contributed in a tiny way to his most recent song.

The Hammer - April 8, 2024.mp4 31. Listening to as many Twins games as I could as a kid, including late night games from the west coast, all on WHO-Des Moines. Getting rebooked on baseball on the radio by listening to games on MLB Audio these days.
32. Going to the Baseball Hall of Fame several times, including for Kirby Puckett’s induction. Going to an induction for what will probably be the last time when Tony Oliva was inducted. Going to a bunch of other museums as well. The best of the others is the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, but there’s also been ones for Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Bob Feller (sort of — it’s now closed).
33. Developing a friendship with an MLB player, bringing him to church twice as a youth group fundraiser. Learning more about the business side of the game from the unique perspective he provides.
34. Field of Dreams, The Natural, Bull Durham, The Sandlot, Trouble with the Curve, Moneyball, A League of Their Own and all the great baseball movies I’ve seen. Putting together an All-Star team of movie characters — Billy Chapel on the mound, Roy Hobbs in right, Crash Davis behind the plate, etc. 
 
35. Seeing Twins minor leaguer Royce Lewis interact compassionately with a bat boy with Down Syndrome. Total class.
36. The amazing speed of Byron Buxton. Joe Nathan doing his horse-like, “Pbbbbbt,” as he stood on the mound and prepared to throw a pitch.
37. All the players who gave autographs to my sons throughout the years. I always thought Nathan set the tone with Twins relief pitchers. If the leader of the pen was so willing to sign, how could the others not do the same?
38. Baseball cards — getting introduced to them by getting a pack from my brother. A pack with a Rod Carew, no less. Collecting them as a kid. Spreading them all over the floor with my best friend. Getting gifted my brother-in-law’s cards one year for Christmas. Best Christmas present ever! Knowing I traded away several Nolan Ryan and Reggie Jackson rookie cards over the years. Eventually completing the 1976 and 1979 sets, two years when I was particularly active. Recently completing a run of all of Tony Oliva’s cards, making a display in my home office.
39. Having a work travel schedule at several employers that have lent themselves to being able to tag a bunch of games on to work trips.
40. Going to the Field of Dreams movie site several times, playing catch with IT Sophomore, but also with a bunch of people I’ll never know.
41. Baseball-reference.com. Enough said.
42. Going to the Society for American Baseball Research annual conference. Twice.
43. Ballparks — practically the only time I eat peanuts in the shell. Other than when I go to Five Guys.
44. Touring a bunch of parks over the years, including standing atop the Green Monster.
45. Covering plenty of games as a newspaper reporter or sports information director, including games in several minor league parks and a couple of states and games with a future NFL player. Interviewing a couple of major leaguers who were on minor league rehab assignments.
46. Getting to throw out the first pitch at a high school game, to the young man in my church who I serve as a mentor for.
47. Keeping score. Seeing the passion IT Junior has for doing the same. Occasionally sending scoring questions to Stew Thornley, whom I’ve gotten to know through a unique set of circumstances.
48. Having the goofy dream of retiring to Rochester, Minn., spending my evenings selling Diet Coke in the bleachers at Target Field. Probably won’t happen.
49. Having baseball as part of my end-of-life plan. Seriously. I’ve told Mrs. IT and the boys that baseball enjoyment is one of my measures of incapacity. If there’s no likelihood that I’ll ever be able to sense/experience a baseball again, that’s one indicator that it’s okay to pull the plug.
50. When asked how she feels about going to all these games, hearing Mrs. IT say, “I don’t like baseball, but I like some people who like baseball.” See saint reference above. That statement has taught me so much about marriage.
 
(If you’ve made it through all this, thanks for indulging me.)
 

And so concludes my Golden Anniversary year.
Not the Golden Anniversary of my birth. I’m a little way past that. And not the Golden Anniversary of my wedding. We’re a little way short of that.
Rather, this past July 13 marked the Golden Anniversary of the Detroit Tigers beating the homestanding Kansas City Royals 8-3, in front of 25,834 fans. Woody Fryman was the winning pitcher, scattering 12 hits over nine innings. Future Hall of Famer and 3,000 Hit Club member Al Kaline was the only player in the Tiger lineup not to get a hit. By contrast, little-used left fielder Marv Lane had four of his career 37 hits that night. He also had his only career triple and both of his career stolen bases. For the Royals, Cookie Rojas plated both runs with an inside the park homer and Kurt Bevacqua and Hal McRae each had three hits.
As MLB games go, it was pretty routine. But it was anything but routine for the eight-year-old kid sitting in Aisle 119, Row JJ, Seat 4, attending his first-ever big league game.
How do I know there was a kid in that seat attending his first game? Because I still have the ticket stub.
 
To celebrate this Golden Anniversary, I did two things this summer. First, I decided to go to three specific games to celebrate. I went solo to each of the three, which also provided time for reflection, as I thought baseball memories on the drive to and from.
The first game was at new Comiskey in Chicago. Or call it U.S. Cellular, Guaranteed Rate, whatever. I chose new Comiskey because for a long time, that was where I went to games most often, often catching the Twins when they were in town.
Ironically, I was standing a dozen or so rows back in the left field bleacher during batting practice, watching others clamor for balls hit into the stands. Some Twin staffer grabbed a ball and looked up in the stands. I suppose because I was one of the few people wearing a Twins shirt, he pointed at me and threw it in my direction. When I was a kid, I would have died for that to happen.
 
-------------------------------
 
A second game was at Target Field, where I probably get to games most often these days.
When by myself, I normally just get a cheap ticket and move down to an open seat over the course of the game. This time I actually found a $25 ticket for a seat in the Thrivent Deck.  That got me a padded seat, extra concession stands (with shorter lines and more food options), a concourse with greater access to restrooms and the like and the opportunity to wander through a Hall of Fame of sorts, with memorabilia ranging from Harmon Killebrew’s high school basketball uniform to the gear Joe Mauer wore for his emotional one-pitch return to the catcher spot in the final inning of his final game and lots of other stuff.
That game was topped off by crossing paths with my all-time favorite player as I was leaving. Tony Oliva is a regular at Twins games and was gracious enough to pause for a picture.
-------------------------------

The game I particularly looked forward to was at Royal (now called Kauffman) Stadium. My first hope in looking at the schedule was to go on July 13, but the Royals were on the road. However, I was able to go on July 24.
And here’s where it got extra cool. I wanted to recreate a picture from as close as possible to my seat from 50 years ago. When I looked for tickets, however, I discovered that the sections had been renumbered, so Section 119 was at a different location than it was in 1974.
I found an email address and sent a message to the fan relations office, asking if they had a seat map from 1974, explaining why I was looking for it. A couple days later, one of their people sent a map with the old seat numbers. He even went further, going out to take several pictures from the seat in question and sending them to me. It was indeed the general angle I remembered. When I searched for a ticket near the seat in question, I was able to find one a row behind and a seat to the side, essentially a checkerboard move from one seat to the other.
Then, the person in “my” seat went out to the concession stand just before the game started. I’d struck up a conversation with the family in that row, so I asked to hop into that seat for the opening pitch, taking things up a level. The glove is the one I had taken to the game so many years ago. The Marty Pattin autograph has long worn off.
A couple days after my first email exchange, the Royals took it even another step further in their customer relations. A department manager wrote to ask which game I would be attending and where I would be sitting, saying they wanted to bring me a gift to commemorate the day.
 
Midway through the game, what was probably an intern stopped by with a bag of goodies. She had bags to stop by other seats as well, but they had obviously raided the stash of leftover promotional items. For example, I got bobblehead was from a 2023 giveaway and the cap was what they had given to 2019 season-ticket holders. The picture frame was from when they hosted the All-Star Game in 2012. 
The best gift, however, was the t-shirt given away in 2018 to celebrate radio announcer Denny Matthews’ 50th year of broadcasting, but I’m choosing to see the 50 emblem as my own commemoration of 50 years. It’s fitting to have a broadcaster’s mic as well, since my love of baseball was incubated by listening to Twins on WHO-Des Moines.
 
-------------------------------
 
The second thing I did was put together a list of at least 50 things or memories that capture and reflect the joy I’ve experienced following baseball. Not surprisingly, I blew past that number in a short time, so I consolidated a few on the list that follows.
 
I’d welcome your commenting on any that resonate for you. Or that seem goofy enough to ask about.

1. Going to my first game in Kansas City. Dad and Mom weren’t baseball fans, but we were visiting my uncle in Kansas City, who got us the tickets.
2. Throwing a tennis ball against the side of the house for hours on end, playing imaginary games that always had the Twins winning.
3. Looking forward to Baseball Digest coming in the mail each month. Hoping each Christmas morning that one of my siblings would again renew the subscription as my present.
4. Winning the daily trivia contest on a local radio station several dozen times over a few years, getting two tickets to minor league games in Cedar Rapids each time. Cashing in the voucher for our box seat tickets, going down the steps to the concourse and then back up the steps to the seats, sometimes after turning right in the concourse to the souvenir stand, where a quarter could get the previous week’s copy of The Sporting News.
5. Going to the Rod Carew Game, a 19-12 Twins win over the White Sox in 1977, the year Carew flirted with .400 for much of the year.
6. Wearing the yellow t-shirt with my red Toughskin® jeans during Pee-Wee baseball and then the green pinstriped uniforms for Little League.
7. Being the bat boy for my brother-in-law’s slow pitch softball team, with my own team shirt with my name on the back.
8. Tying my bat on to my bike with baler twine and hooking my glove over the handlebar as I headed off to Vacation Bible School. I enjoyed the stuff we learned, but I have to acknowledge that the softball games before and after were bigger highlights.
9. My parents letting me drive six hours to a baseball game in Minnesota on my own, with my best friend and his brother. I don’t remember which summer it was and whether we were still in high school or had graduated. Going to a game while visiting the future Mrs. IT near the end of her year at Northwestern College in nearby Roseville.
10. Freezing our butts off on my first trip to Wrigley, during a May Term during college. I mean, it’s May at Wrigley — how could it not be shorts weather?
11. The community at Twins Daily, the best fan site there is for following the Twins. For being an online site, it has amazingly civil discussion (most of the time).
12. Playing fantasy baseball for 27 seasons. I don’t think I’ve finished last yet, but I haven’t won 24 of those years.
13. Going to a game with a dear friend, a loan officer, and talking just enough about his credit union so he could write it off as a business expense. Going to lunch with him just over 20 years ago to plan a weekend trip to St. Louis, Kansas City, Minnesota, Milwaukee and Wrigley, but having him not being able to go after he died so unexpectedly just a few weeks later. Taking a glove and ball to his grave when his Cubs made the World Series in 2016.
14. Not sure where to start in the list of memories related to IT Junior. Starting with teaching him the alphabet by saying that “A is for Aaron, B is for Bostock, C is for Carew,” we’ve covered a whole lot of geekiness since then.
15. Lots of memories with younger son (IT Sophomore?), including the joy of being one of his Little League coaches and sitting on a bucket as his catcher while he practiced pitching. I never caught a single inning in Pee Wee or Little League, but it was so much fun to have my own catcher’s mitt to use with him.
16. Weather — Blistering hot in St. Louis in July while taking the boys to their MLB first game at ages 6 and 3. Getting drenched during a rain delay in St. Louis on a later trip, using the giveaway insulated cooler as our “umbrella.” Blistering hot on a Saturday afternoon at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Freezing cold on a spring break trip to Chicago. Sweltering in the back of the upper deck at Wrigley. Lasting through a rain delay on a Sunday evening Twins blowout at Tiger Stadium, where the game ended with only about 100 fans in the entire outfield.
17. Ballpark nachos.
18. Served in a plastic helmet. Pretty sure that studies have shown that food is about 20 percent better when served in a plastic helmet.
19. Speaking of plastic helmets, collecting them as a high school student, wearing them all the time. I’m still not sure why they didn’t become a fashion trend.
20. Playing slow pitch softball in Iowa and Indiana, along with fast pitch in Indiana. Wow, did I stink at the latter.
21. Visiting all 30 major league stadiums. Redoing it when new stadiums opened in Atlanta and Texas. I’ve also been to 15 stadiums that have been closed. Haven’t decided how I’ll handle Sacramento next year. I’d have to count, but it’s probably about 20 minor league parks.
22. And lest 45 MLB parks seem impressive, what’s even more impressive is that Mrs. IT has been to 23 of the 30 current stadiums and a bunch of the closed ones! She doesn’t even like baseball, but it’s just one more reason why she’s a saint.
23. Putting together picture frames of pictures from all the parks, both for my office and for our home.
24. The 1987 World Series, with the Twins winning their first world championship.
25. The 1991 World Series, when the Twins won again.
26. Going to the public library to check out biographies and history books, particularly during oats combining season, when I would check out a dozen or so to read in the field while I waited for Dad to fill the hopper and be ready to dump in the wagon I was pulling. A lot of the biographies were from the adult section, and they used naughty words my parents wouldn’t have approved of.
27. Only realizing much later how much my thoughts about race were shaped by the biographies of Black and Latin players I read as a child, as they described the discrimination they faced, particularly in the minors.
28. All the Matt Christopher books I checked out from my elementary school library. And the My Secrets of Playing Baseball book by Willie Mays probably had my name on the card a dozen times.
29. Coming from school in the fall of 1973, checking the newspaper each day to see if Hank Aaron had hit another homer as he chased Babe Ruth’s record. Trying to figure out what the four columns of numbers in the box score stood for. Trying to figure out abbreviated names like “Ystrzski.”
30. Getting hooked on folk singer John McCutcheon’s music, particularly when I found there is actually someone writing intelligent songs about baseball. And then he did an entire album of baseball songs. And entire concerts of baseball songs. And I even contributed in a tiny way to his most recent song.

The Hammer - April 8, 2024.mp4 31. Listening to as many Twins games as I could as a kid, including late night games from the west coast, all on WHO-Des Moines. Getting rebooked on baseball on the radio by listening to games on MLB Audio these days.
32. Going to the Baseball Hall of Fame several times, including for Kirby Puckett’s induction. Going to an induction for what will probably be the last time when Tony Oliva was inducted. Going to a bunch of other museums as well. The best of the others is the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, but there’s also been ones for Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Bob Feller (sort of — it’s now closed).
33. Developing a friendship with an MLB player, bringing him to church twice as a youth group fundraiser. Learning more about the business side of the game from the unique perspective he provides.
34. Field of Dreams, The Natural, Bull Durham, The Sandlot, Trouble with the Curve, Moneyball, A League of Their Own and all the great baseball movies I’ve seen. Putting together an All-Star team of movie characters — Billy Chapel on the mound, Roy Hobbs in right, Crash Davis behind the plate, etc. 
 
35. Seeing Twins minor leaguer Royce Lewis interact compassionately with a bat boy with Down Syndrome. Total class.
36. The amazing speed of Byron Buxton. Joe Nathan doing his horse-like, “Pbbbbbt,” as he stood on the mound and prepared to throw a pitch.
37. All the players who gave autographs to my sons throughout the years. I always thought Nathan set the tone with Twins relief pitchers. If the leader of the pen was so willing to sign, how could the others not do the same?
38. Baseball cards — getting introduced to them by getting a pack from my brother. A pack with a Rod Carew, no less. Collecting them as a kid. Spreading them all over the floor with my best friend. Getting gifted my brother-in-law’s cards one year for Christmas. Best Christmas present ever! Knowing I traded away several Nolan Ryan and Reggie Jackson rookie cards over the years. Eventually completing the 1976 and 1979 sets, two years when I was particularly active. Recently completing a run of all of Tony Oliva’s cards, making a display in my home office.
39. Having a work travel schedule at several employers that have lent themselves to being able to tag a bunch of games on to work trips.
40. Going to the Field of Dreams movie site several times, playing catch with IT Sophomore, but also with a bunch of people I’ll never know.
41. Baseball-reference.com. Enough said.
42. Going to the Society for American Baseball Research annual conference. Twice.
43. Ballparks — practically the only time I eat peanuts in the shell. Other than when I go to Five Guys.
44. Touring a bunch of parks over the years, including standing atop the Green Monster.
45. Covering plenty of games as a newspaper reporter or sports information director, including games in several minor league parks and a couple of states and games with a future NFL player. Interviewing a couple of major leaguers who were on minor league rehab assignments.
46. Getting to throw out the first pitch at a high school game, to the young man in my church who I serve as a mentor for.
47. Keeping score. Seeing the passion IT Junior has for doing the same. Occasionally sending scoring questions to Stew Thornley, whom I’ve gotten to know through a unique set of circumstances.
48. Having the goofy dream of retiring to Rochester, Minn., spending my evenings selling Diet Coke in the bleachers at Target Field. Probably won’t happen.
49. Having baseball as part of my end-of-life plan. Seriously. I’ve told Mrs. IT and the boys that baseball enjoyment is one of my measures of incapacity. If there’s no likelihood that I’ll ever be able to sense/experience a baseball again, that’s one indicator that it’s okay to pull the plug.
50. When asked how she feels about going to all these games, hearing Mrs. IT say, “I don’t like baseball, but I like some people who like baseball.” See saint reference above. That statement has taught me so much about marriage.
 
(If you’ve made it through all this, thanks for indulging me.)
 

And so concludes my Golden Anniversary year.
Not the Golden Anniversary of my birth. I’m a little way past that. And not the Golden Anniversary of my wedding. We’re a little way short of that.
Rather, this past July 13 marked the Golden Anniversary of the Detroit Tigers beating the homestanding Kansas City Royals 8-3, in front of 25,834 fans. Woody Fryman was the winning pitcher, scattering 12 hits over nine innings. Future Hall of Famer and 3,000 Hit Club member Al Kaline was the only player in the Tiger lineup not to get a hit. By contrast, little-used left fielder Marv Lane had four of his career 37 hits that night. He also had his only career triple and both of his career stolen bases. For the Royals, Cookie Rojas plated both runs with an inside the park homer and Kurt Bevacqua and Hal McRae each had three hits.
As MLB games go, it was pretty routine. But it was anything but routine for the eight-year-old kid sitting in Aisle 119, Row JJ, Seat 4, attending his first-ever big league game.
How do I know there was a kid in that seat attending his first game? Because I still have the ticket stub.
 
To celebrate this Golden Anniversary, I did two things this summer. First, I decided to go to three specific games to celebrate. I went solo to each of the three, which also provided time for reflection, as I thought baseball memories on the drive to and from.
The first game was at new Comiskey in Chicago. Or call it U.S. Cellular, Guaranteed Rate, whatever. I chose new Comiskey because for a long time, that was where I went to games most often, often catching the Twins when they were in town.
Ironically, I was standing a dozen or so rows back in the left field bleacher during batting practice, watching others clamor for balls hit into the stands. Some Twin staffer grabbed a ball and looked up in the stands. I suppose because I was one of the few people wearing a Twins shirt, he pointed at me and threw it in my direction. When I was a kid, I would have died for that to happen.
 
-------------------------------
 
A second game was at Target Field, where I probably get to games most often these days.
When by myself, I normally just get a cheap ticket and move down to an open seat over the course of the game. This time I actually found a $25 ticket for a seat in the Thrivent Deck.  That got me a padded seat, extra concession stands (with shorter lines and more food options), a concourse with greater access to restrooms and the like and the opportunity to wander through a Hall of Fame of sorts, with memorabilia ranging from Harmon Killebrew’s high school basketball uniform to the gear Joe Mauer wore for his emotional one-pitch return to the catcher spot in the final inning of his final game and lots of other stuff.
That game was topped off by crossing paths with my all-time favorite player as I was leaving. Tony Oliva is a regular at Twins games and was gracious enough to pause for a picture.
-------------------------------

The game I particularly looked forward to was at Royal (now called Kauffman) Stadium. My first hope in looking at the schedule was to go on July 13, but the Royals were on the road. However, I was able to go on July 24.
And here’s where it got extra cool. I wanted to recreate a picture from as close as possible to my seat from 50 years ago. When I looked for tickets, however, I discovered that the sections had been renumbered, so Section 119 was at a different location than it was in 1974.
I found an email address and sent a message to the fan relations office, asking if they had a seat map from 1974, explaining why I was looking for it. A couple days later, one of their people sent a map with the old seat numbers. He even went further, going out to take several pictures from the seat in question and sending them to me. It was indeed the general angle I remembered. When I searched for a ticket near the seat in question, I was able to find one a row behind and a seat to the side, essentially a checkerboard move from one seat to the other.
Then, the person in “my” seat went out to the concession stand just before the game started. I’d struck up a conversation with the family in that row, so I asked to hop into that seat for the opening pitch, taking things up a level. The glove is the one I had taken to the game so many years ago. The Marty Pattin autograph has long worn off.
A couple days after my first email exchange, the Royals took it even another step further in their customer relations. A department manager wrote to ask which game I would be attending and where I would be sitting, saying they wanted to bring me a gift to commemorate the day.
 
Midway through the game, what was probably an intern stopped by with a bag of goodies. She had bags to stop by other seats as well, but they had obviously raided the stash of leftover promotional items. For example, I got bobblehead was from a 2023 giveaway and the cap was what they had given to 2019 season-ticket holders. The picture frame was from when they hosted the All-Star Game in 2012. 
The best gift, however, was the t-shirt given away in 2018 to celebrate radio announcer Denny Matthews’ 50th year of broadcasting, but I’m choosing to see the 50 emblem as my own commemoration of 50 years. It’s fitting to have a broadcaster’s mic as well, since my love of baseball was incubated by listening to Twins on WHO-Des Moines.
 
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The second thing I did was put together a list of at least 50 things or memories that capture and reflect the joy I’ve experienced following baseball. Not surprisingly, I blew past that number in a short time, so I consolidated a few on the list that follows.
 
I’d welcome your commenting on any that resonate for you. Or that seem goofy enough to ask about.

1. Going to my first game in Kansas City. Dad and Mom weren’t baseball fans, but we were visiting my uncle in Kansas City, who got us the tickets.
2. Throwing a tennis ball against the side of the house for hours on end, playing imaginary games that always had the Twins winning.
3. Looking forward to Baseball Digest coming in the mail each month. Hoping each Christmas morning that one of my siblings would again renew the subscription as my present.
4. Winning the daily trivia contest on a local radio station several dozen times over a few years, getting two tickets to minor league games in Cedar Rapids each time. Cashing in the voucher for our box seat tickets, going down the steps to the concourse and then back up the steps to the seats, sometimes after turning right in the concourse to the souvenir stand, where a quarter could get the previous week’s copy of The Sporting News.
5. Going to the Rod Carew Game, a 19-12 Twins win over the White Sox in 1977, the year Carew flirted with .400 for much of the year.
6. Wearing the yellow t-shirt with my red Toughskin® jeans during Pee-Wee baseball and then the green pinstriped uniforms for Little League.
7. Being the bat boy for my brother-in-law’s slow pitch softball team, with my own team shirt with my name on the back.
8. Tying my bat on to my bike with baler twine and hooking my glove over the handlebar as I headed off to Vacation Bible School. I enjoyed the stuff we learned, but I have to acknowledge that the softball games before and after were bigger highlights.
9. My parents letting me drive six hours to a baseball game in Minnesota on my own, with my best friend and his brother. I don’t remember which summer it was and whether we were still in high school or had graduated. Going to a game while visiting the future Mrs. IT near the end of her year at Northwestern College in nearby Roseville.
10. Freezing our butts off on my first trip to Wrigley, during a May Term during college. I mean, it’s May at Wrigley — how could it not be shorts weather?
11. The community at Twins Daily, the best fan site there is for following the Twins. For being an online site, it has amazingly civil discussion (most of the time).
12. Playing fantasy baseball for 27 seasons. I don’t think I’ve finished last yet, but I haven’t won 24 of those years.
13. Going to a game with a dear friend, a loan officer, and talking just enough about his credit union so he could write it off as a business expense. Going to lunch with him just over 20 years ago to plan a weekend trip to St. Louis, Kansas City, Minnesota, Milwaukee and Wrigley, but having him not being able to go after he died so unexpectedly just a few weeks later. Taking a glove and ball to his grave when his Cubs made the World Series in 2016.
14. Not sure where to start in the list of memories related to IT Junior. Starting with teaching him the alphabet by saying that “A is for Aaron, B is for Bostock, C is for Carew,” we’ve covered a whole lot of geekiness since then.
15. Lots of memories with younger son (IT Sophomore?), including the joy of being one of his Little League coaches and sitting on a bucket as his catcher while he practiced pitching. I never caught a single inning in Pee Wee or Little League, but it was so much fun to have my own catcher’s mitt to use with him.
16. Weather — Blistering hot in St. Louis in July while taking the boys to their MLB first game at ages 6 and 3. Getting drenched during a rain delay in St. Louis on a later trip, using the giveaway insulated cooler as our “umbrella.” Blistering hot on a Saturday afternoon at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Freezing cold on a spring break trip to Chicago. Sweltering in the back of the upper deck at Wrigley. Lasting through a rain delay on a Sunday evening Twins blowout at Tiger Stadium, where the game ended with only about 100 fans in the entire outfield.
17. Ballpark nachos.
18. Served in a plastic helmet. Pretty sure that studies have shown that food is about 20 percent better when served in a plastic helmet.
19. Speaking of plastic helmets, collecting them as a high school student, wearing them all the time. I’m still not sure why they didn’t become a fashion trend.
20. Playing slow pitch softball in Iowa and Indiana, along with fast pitch in Indiana. Wow, did I stink at the latter.
21. Visiting all 30 major league stadiums. Redoing it when new stadiums opened in Atlanta and Texas. I’ve also been to 15 stadiums that have been closed. Haven’t decided how I’ll handle Sacramento next year. I’d have to count, but it’s probably about 20 minor league parks.
22. And lest 45 MLB parks seem impressive, what’s even more impressive is that Mrs. IT has been to 23 of the 30 current stadiums and a bunch of the closed ones! She doesn’t even like baseball, but it’s just one more reason why she’s a saint.
23. Putting together picture frames of pictures from all the parks, both for my office and for our home.
24. The 1987 World Series, with the Twins winning their first world championship.
25. The 1991 World Series, when the Twins won again.
26. Going to the public library to check out biographies and history books, particularly during oats combining season, when I would check out a dozen or so to read in the field while I waited for Dad to fill the hopper and be ready to dump in the wagon I was pulling. A lot of the biographies were from the adult section, and they used naughty words my parents wouldn’t have approved of.
27. Only realizing much later how much my thoughts about race were shaped by the biographies of Black and Latin players I read as a child, as they described the discrimination they faced, particularly in the minors.
28. All the Matt Christopher books I checked out from my elementary school library. And the My Secrets of Playing Baseball book by Willie Mays probably had my name on the card a dozen times.
29. Coming from school in the fall of 1973, checking the newspaper each day to see if Hank Aaron had hit another homer as he chased Babe Ruth’s record. Trying to figure out what the four columns of numbers in the box score stood for. Trying to figure out abbreviated names like “Ystrzski.”
30. Getting hooked on folk singer John McCutcheon’s music, particularly when I found there is actually someone writing intelligent songs about baseball. And then he did an entire album of baseball songs. And entire concerts of baseball songs. And I even contributed in a tiny way to his most recent song.

The Hammer - April 8, 2024.mp4 31. Listening to as many Twins games as I could as a kid, including late night games from the west coast, all on WHO-Des Moines. Getting rebooked on baseball on the radio by listening to games on MLB Audio these days.
32. Going to the Baseball Hall of Fame several times, including for Kirby Puckett’s induction. Going to an induction for what will probably be the last time when Tony Oliva was inducted. Going to a bunch of other museums as well. The best of the others is the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, but there’s also been ones for Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Bob Feller (sort of — it’s now closed).
33. Developing a friendship with an MLB player, bringing him to church twice as a youth group fundraiser. Learning more about the business side of the game from the unique perspective he provides.
34. Field of Dreams, The Natural, Bull Durham, The Sandlot, Trouble with the Curve, Moneyball, A League of Their Own and all the great baseball movies I’ve seen. Putting together an All-Star team of movie characters — Billy Chapel on the mound, Roy Hobbs in right, Crash Davis behind the plate, etc. 
 
35. Seeing Twins minor leaguer Royce Lewis interact compassionately with a bat boy with Down Syndrome. Total class.
36. The amazing speed of Byron Buxton. Joe Nathan doing his horse-like, “Pbbbbbt,” as he stood on the mound and prepared to throw a pitch.
37. All the players who gave autographs to my sons throughout the years. I always thought Nathan set the tone with Twins relief pitchers. If the leader of the pen was so willing to sign, how could the others not do the same?
38. Baseball cards — getting introduced to them by getting a pack from my brother. A pack with a Rod Carew, no less. Collecting them as a kid. Spreading them all over the floor with my best friend. Getting gifted my brother-in-law’s cards one year for Christmas. Best Christmas present ever! Knowing I traded away several Nolan Ryan and Reggie Jackson rookie cards over the years. Eventually completing the 1976 and 1979 sets, two years when I was particularly active. Recently completing a run of all of Tony Oliva’s cards, making a display in my home office.
39. Having a work travel schedule at several employers that have lent themselves to being able to tag a bunch of games on to work trips.
40. Going to the Field of Dreams movie site several times, playing catch with IT Sophomore, but also with a bunch of people I’ll never know.
41. Baseball-reference.com. Enough said.
42. Going to the Society for American Baseball Research annual conference. Twice.
43. Ballparks — practically the only time I eat peanuts in the shell. Other than when I go to Five Guys.
44. Touring a bunch of parks over the years, including standing atop the Green Monster.
45. Covering plenty of games as a newspaper reporter or sports information director, including games in several minor league parks and a couple of states and games with a future NFL player. Interviewing a couple of major leaguers who were on minor league rehab assignments.
46. Getting to throw out the first pitch at a high school game, to the young man in my church who I serve as a mentor for.
47. Keeping score. Seeing the passion IT Junior has for doing the same. Occasionally sending scoring questions to Stew Thornley, whom I’ve gotten to know through a unique set of circumstances.
48. Having the goofy dream of retiring to Rochester, Minn., spending my evenings selling Diet Coke in the bleachers at Target Field. Probably won’t happen.
49. Having baseball as part of my end-of-life plan. Seriously. I’ve told Mrs. IT and the boys that baseball enjoyment is one of my measures of incapacity. If there’s no likelihood that I’ll ever be able to sense/experience a baseball again, that’s one indicator that it’s okay to pull the plug.
50. When asked how she feels about going to all these games, hearing Mrs. IT say, “I don’t like baseball, but I like some people who like baseball.” See saint reference above. That statement has taught me so much about marriage.
 
(If you’ve made it through all this, thanks for indulging me.)
 

If you have seen my previous posts in this series, you may have noticed a trend. I like simple, clean crisp designs in baseball cards. And the 1988 Topps design certainly fits my preference. However, I would say it’s good not great. Above average is what I would say about 1988 Topps. (Someday I need to define my rankings better. I feel like I say good or bad and like or dislike too often.)
The 1988 Topps design shows the team’s name in capital letters centered at the top and behind the player image. In the case of the Twins players, the team lettering is yellow. The Twins cards feature the player’s name in an orange diagonal banner in the lower right of the card. That’s it for the fronts. Quite simple. The backs have an orange background with card number, player name, position, and biographical information at the top. The central part of the back has the player’s career statistics. The bottom of the back has some player trivia unless the player statistics cover too many years.
The 1988 Topps base set has the same number of cards as 1986 and 1987 – 792 cards. The Topps Traded set has 132 cards, also the same as 1986 and 1987. There are 32 Twins cards in the base set. While the 1987 Topps Traded set had nine Twins cards, the 1988 Traded set has only one, that of the player who shall not be named. The base set has a rookie card of Hall of Fame starting pitcher Tom Glavine. Gene Larkin is probably the best Twins rookie card. The traded set has more key rookie cards than the base set with the best being that of Hall of Fame second baseman Roberto Alomar.
I feel like this set has fewer plain old head shots and a greater number of action pictures. I prefer it that way.
Please keep in mind that this article frequently mentions and provides details of the 1987 season. This is because 1988 baseball cards are mostly of 1987 players.
MOST OBSCURE PLAYER
In 1988, the Twins were, of course, coming off the 1987 World Series victory. Therefore, I don’t think there are many players in the 1988 Topps baseball card sets that qualify as obscure. I really only gave serious consideration for most obscure Twins player in 1988 Topps to back up catcher Tom Nieto and back up outfielder Mark Davidson. As you can see below, I chose Davidson (#19).


In 1987, bullpens were much smaller – many times only five pitchers deep. This allowed teams to employ more positional backups than they do today. For instance, the Twins carried three catchers for much of 1987, including Nieto. There was also enough room on the roster for two or three extra outfielders. In 1987, Davidson was one of those. Rosters today have only four bench players, so things in 1987 were much different. Anyway, Mark Davison was drafted in the 11th round of the 1982 Major League Baseball June Draft. He played three seasons for the Twins. In 1987 and 1988 he played 102 and 100 games, respectively. Those appearances were often as a defensive replacement late in games. He was a particularly good defensive outfielder. His statistics in three seasons with the Twins were .219/.283/.287. He hit two home runs and had 26 RBI. He also stole 14 bases. His WAR was -0.5 and his OPS+ was a paltry 54. The Twins traded Davidson to Houston during the 1989 season for Greg Johnson, who never panned out. Davidson played three nondescript seasons with the Astros.
In the 1987 postseason, Davidson got into three games with only one plate appearance. In game 3 of the American League Championship series, he appeared as a pinch runner for Sal Butera in the 7th inning and was thrown out at home on a fielder’s choice. That was the Twins lone loss in that series. He later appeared as a defensive replacement in game 1 of the World Series, a 10-1 Twins win. His last game action of the 1987 postseason was a game 4 loss at St. Louis. He pinch hit in the 9th inning for the pitcher. He flew out to center field in a 7-2 loss to the Cardinals.
THE BEST
I don’t always select the most valuable Twins card in any set as the best, but in the 1988 Topps set I just like the Kirby Puckett base card (#120). He shows a stance where he is ready and poised to do something awesome.

In 1988, Kirby would go on to the lead the American League in hits with 234. He was 3rd in voting for the Most Valuable Player behind José Canseco and Mike Greenwell.
PERSONAL FAVORITE
For the 1988 Topps set, I am going to cheat and select two cards as my personal co-favorite cards. I love card number 609, the Twins Team Leader card because it shows a couple of my favorite players, Gary Gaetti and Ken Hrbek. But better yet, the back has records some of the important statistics of the 1987 World Series winners. Every name, a Twins legend.


My second co-favorite card of 1988 is the unique record breaker card featuring Hall of Famer Phil Niekro and Joe Niekro commemorating the pair breaking the record for pitching wins for a set of brothers. It is noteworthy that the Niekro brothers broke a record held by another former Twin, Jim Perry, and his Hall of Fame brother, Gaylord Perry.


These sets of brothers ended up with remarkably similar statistics. One of each set up brothers made the Hall of Fame (Phil and Gaylord). The Hall of Famers ended up within four wins of each other and their brothers finished separated by only six wins. The Niekros career win total was 539 versus 529 for the Perrys.
Phil Niekro         318 wins Joe Niekro          221 wins Gaylord Perry   314 wins Jim Perry             215 wins The Perrys each won a Cy Young Award (Gaylord won two but Jim’s came with the Twins in 1970). Having said all that, Joe Niekro was the only one to win a World Series and that was with the Twins in 1987!
What are your favorite Topps cards from 1988? I’d love to see your opinions, thoughts, or comments below.
Go Twins!

Too many Topps sets lack character and are rather bland, hard to differentiate year over year. That’s my problem with the sets from the late 1970s. At least to me, those designs are difficult to set apart in my head, and I have a tough time remembering which design is which year. Let’s take a closer look at the distinct, easily recognizable 1986 Topps and Topps Traded sets.
The top of the 1986 cards features a black box background and the team’s name in block lettering. In the case of the Twins, the team’s name has a red font. The bottom and side borders are white. The player’s name is in capital letters at the bottom and there is a small circle in the lower left with the player’s position. The color of the circle matches the color of the team’s name. Exceptionally clean and concise. The backs (I will include one example below upon the recommendation of IndianaTwin) have the player name in block lettering at the top, the biographical information just below the name, then the player’s statistics, then some player highlights or “Talkin’ Baseball” team trivia at the bottom. All of this is against a red background.
There are a whopping 792 cards in the 1986 Topps baseball card set plus an additional 132 cards in the Topps Traded. There are 27 Twins cards in the two sets. The Traded set has rookie cards of Hall of Famer Barry Bonds, as well as others who looked like they might make the Hall – Jose Canseco and Bo Jackson. Neither made the Hall for different reasons. Rookie cards for Twins player in the main Topps set are Frank Eufemia and a player to be discussed later. The pictures in this set have plenty of action shots and a few straight-up head shots.
MOST OBSCURE PLAYER
After researching the players in this set, I considered five who might be called the most obscure Twins player in the set, including Frank Pastore (who had a very prophetic death), Frank Eufemia, Pete Filson, and Mike Stenhouse. In the end, I selected a player for whom I simply have no memory, Mr. Mark Brown (#451).
  

Mark Brown was a 6th round draft pick in 1980 for the Baltimore Orioles. He made it to the majors for the Orioles in 1984 pitching in nine games, winning one. Brown was traded to the Twins after the 1984 season for Brad Havens. For the Twins, Brown had no decisions, pitched only 15.2 innings in six games in relief, had an ERA of 6.89, and a WHIP of 1.878. His career WAR was -0.1. He wasn’t particularly good, but he also wasn’t given a very extensive chance and was unable to stick in MLB after his age 25 season.
THE BEST
The best and apparently most valuable Twins card in the 1986 Topps set is that of Hall of Famer, and longtime broadcaster, Bert Blyleven (#445).

I like that it’s an action shot, a look of determination on his clean-shaven face. For many years, the Twins had a no beard policy including when Blyleven returned to the Twins in the August 1985 trade from Cleveland. Bert complied with policy and shaved his beard and appeared without a beard for at least the rest of the 1985 season. Then in 1986 he played with a beard and was fined $50 per game. Bert preferred the beard, so he simply paid the team fine. In am unable to verify when, but at some point, the policy was rescinded. My memory says the fines did not exist in the World Series year of 1987.
PERSONAL FAVORITE
For my personal favorite Twins 1986 Topps, I choose the Twins Hall of Famer Kent Hrbek (#430).

To me there’s a certain air of confidence or swagger or arrogance that makes it look like a home run is sure to follow. It’s a semi-action shot that really captures a potential moment. Who really knows what happened next, but I’m confident it was something good for the Twins.
I like the 1986 Topps set design. It’s a plain design that somehow gets your attention. I think that might be because of the black background at the top, the team’s name in block lettering, and the all caps player name at the bottom. It’s super basic but it just works for me.
I’d love to see any of your thoughts and comments below.
Go Twins!

Welcome to my review of the 1979 Topps baseball card set and the Minnesota Twins player cards in that set. Once again, Rod Carew is the Twins lone superstar from that era. Mr. Carew will make an appearance later in this post.
When it comes to my review of any of the late 1970s Topps cards, I have come to the realization that I am not a fan of the design of most years. Some years are better than others, of course. But I have also come to recognize that my opinion is probably clouded by two things. I am a little too young to have been fully invested in those Twins teams of the late 1970s. Secondly, the teams were just not that great. And those two things might have been a chicken and egg thing. Was I not that interested because they were bad, or was I just too young?
For me, this design fits the “just OK” category. I find the design and pictures to be simple, some might say boring. The bottom of the card lists the player’s name and position. Under that is a banner with the player’s team. There are 726 cards in the set with 29 Twins cards.
MOST OBSCURE PLAYER
Throughout my blog series of Topps baseball cards and Twins players, I hope I have not offended anyone by using the phrase “most obscure.” Obviously, these guys I select as the most obscure are far more accomplished than I. But reviewing each year’s players is captivating to me in that some players appear only briefly then fade from our memories. I try to do somewhat of an internet dive and try to figure out what happened to that player and where they went. When I select the most obscure, if I have a few choices, I tend to go with the player who has an interesting story. My choice as the most obscure Twins Player in the 1979 set is local, so if anyone who knows him reads this, I mean no disrespect. For 1979, I chose Gery Serum’s card (#627) as the most obscure Twins player in the Topps set.

As an aside, where the heck is that field in the background of the picture? That looks worse than any rec league field that I played on or that my son plays on nowadays. Sandlots are fine, but shouldn’t a professional be playing on a better field?
Gary Serum is an Upper Midwesterner. He was born in Fargo, ND. He graduated high school in Alexandria, MN. For college, he first attended Moorhead State University then St. Cloud State University. The Twins signed Serum after college as an amateur free agent.
Despite being a free agent, Serum quickly worked his way through the Twins’ minor league system and by 1977 he was called up to the Twins and first appeared on July 22. He played the full season in 1978 for the Twins pitching 184.1 innings with a record of 9-9 including six complete games and one shutout. He pitched part of 1979 for the Twins then never played Major League Baseball again.
After his playing career, Serum opened a restaurant in Anoka, MN, so go check it out. I’m sure many of you have.
THE BEST
Once again, the most valuable Twins card in the 1979 Topps set is a Rod Carew card, the #1 Batting Leaders card with Dave Parker. I do like combo cards. But let’s also acknowledge Mr. Carew’s other last card as a Twin. His base card (#300) is an all-star card. And it’s the end of an era. Carew was traded to the Angels in February of 1979.


The all-star card has a simple difference from the regular base card in that it has another banner on the card labeling the player as an all-star. For some reason, for me personally, that upgrades the card quite a bit over the plain 1979 Topps base card. It seems like a small thing that would not affect my opinion, but for me it makes the card much more compelling than a regular base card and simply better overall.
So, those two Carew cards kind of tie for me as the best of 1979.
PERSONAL FAVORITE
I know I mentioned an autographed Dave Goltz in my 1978 blog entry. Here I am again. But wait, there’s a good reason. As I looked at this card (#27), I thought the player’s face/picture/stance/something was familiar to me. I thought he looked like another player from another era.

After not too long I realized a likeness to Mr. Ebby Calvin “Nuke” LaLoosh from my favorite baseball movie Bull Durham. I’m sure most of you will think I’m nuts. But let me know, is there any resemblance? Is it the way he wears the hat, the striping on the sleeves, or the blue long-sleeved undershirt? Maybe the V-neck?

While I was digging for a picture for Nuke, I came across a USA Today article about the real-life inspiration for the Nuke character – Steve Dalkowski. It’s worth a read. His numbers were crazy.
So, I’m going with my signed 1979 Dave Goltz card as my favorite Twin in the 1979 Topps set exclusively because of my probably incorrect perception that he looks like the fictional character Nuke LaLoosh and that I loved that movie and have seen it too many times.
What do you all think? Does anyone know Gary Serum or his restaurant? What do you all think of Nuke LaLoosh and Bull Durham? I would love to see your opinions, comments, or stories below.
Go Twins.

Unless I missed it, no one on Twins Daily posted anything about the significance of this past Monday in baseball history. Here is an adaptation of something I posted on Facebook that day. There's no Twins connection here, but hopefully this is okay, given the historical significance.
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The eclipse was amazing. But between that and the place the Iowa Women's Basketball team has had in my brain space lately, it nearly snuck by me that today (Monday) is also the 50th anniversary of arguably the second most significant date in baseball history, following only April 15, 1947, the day that Jackie Robinson played his first game.

Five decades ago tonight (Monday), Henry Aaron hit his 715th home run, passing Babe Ruth to become the Home Run King. In the interest of brevity (an unusual thing for me), I’ll not go into the details on the significance of the event, other than to say that Aaron was the victim of incredible hatred and voluminous hate mail for having the audacity to break the most significant record in baseball and perhaps even in all of American sports.

Upon Aaron’s death a few years ago, my favorite singer John McCutcheon, wrote an amazing song, “The Hammer.” It’s shared below. If you’re a baseball fan like me, give it a listen. If you’re more like my wife, who once lovingly said, “I don’t like baseball, but I like some people who like baseball” (and presumably you do, if you at least have me among your Facebook friends), humor me and give it a listen.

The recording concludes with the famous recording of Milo Hamilton’s call of the homer. I also love the call (linked in the comments) by the even-more famous Vin Scully, on the radio for the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers.

Scully said, “What a marvelous moment for baseball. What a marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia. What a marvelous moment for the country and the world. A Black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol.”
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I also added a couple comments to the post. Don't take them as insulting your intelligence -- I pasted exactly as I had them on Facebook, where not all my friends are as baseball-savvy as those here. 
1. Here's a link to the Scully call: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjqYThEVoSQ. 
2. In the interest of keeping the original post reasonably short, I‘ll just say that it wasn’t until I was well into adulthood that I realized how much effect Aaron had on my understanding of race. I’ve written about that a time or two. If you’re interested in reading it (and if I can find it on my hard drive), message me.
3. There’s a reasonable amount of baseball jargon in the song. Ask or PM if you are a Baseball as a Second Language student and need an interpretation. The lineup of greats in the last verse, in order of appearance, is:
First Base and Third Base (“the corners”): Lou Gehrig and Eddie Mathews (John’s a Braves fan, after all). Second Base and Shortstop (“up the middle”): Jackie Robinson and Ernie Banks. Pitcher: Satchel Paige Catcher: Josh Gibson Bullpen: Warren Spahn and Tom Seaver (Cy Young and Christy Mathewson don’t make the team). DH: Babe Ruth. Left and Center Field (“at the wall”): Ted Williams* and Roberto Clemente Right Field: Aaron *I actually contributed to the song. John had shared the song in his e-newsletter soon after it was written, and I reminded him that his original late, great Center Fielder was actually, um, not so late. Thus he made a tweak to add Williams as the third outfielder. We agreed that, based on his reputation, Ty Cobb probably would have had a hard time being eligible for heaven’s baseball team.

The Hammer - April 8, 2024.mp4

Hello again Twins fans! This is another post in my series about Minnesota Twins baseball cards. Please share your opinions, stories, comments, and memories below.
1977 Topps
Overall, I think it’s safe to say the mid to late 70s cards are not my favorite. But 1977 might be little better than the other sets of this era. Again, the Twins do not have a plethora of stars in the 1977 set. The 1977 Topps baseball card design is, I would say, good. I like the large team name, italicized, and outlined in black. In the case of Twins cards, the player names are in red and there is a yellow banner with the player’s position. I just don’t love it, maybe because of the photography. I don’t find many of the pictures interesting. There are 660 standard-sized cards in the set with 25 Twins cards including the Butch Wynegar rookie card. The images below are courtesy of www.tcdb.com.
MOST OBSCURE PLAYER
Similar to prior sets, I found about half a dozen possibilities for the most obscure Twins player in the this set. After extensive research, Jim Gideon is my choice for most obscure player in the 1977 Topps baseball card set.

This is Gideon’s one and only Topps card and he only gets a quarter of it. He’s not even the player on the card who ended up with the most significant Twins career – Dave Johnson pitched in 36 games for the Twins in 1977 and 1978 after being picked up from the Mariners part way through the 1977 season. Gideon never pitched for the Twins. In fact, his only MLB action was a single start with the Texas Rangers in 1975.
Gideon was born and raised in Texas. He went to the University of Texas where he was part of the 1975 team that won the College World Series. He was co-captain that season and was outstanding, finishing with a record of 17-0. No college pitcher has ever had more wins in a season when they had zero losses. He ultimately finished his college career with 40 wins. In 2000 he was inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame.
To continue the Texas theme, the Rangers used their first-round draft pick to select Gideon in the 1975 draft. He made 13 AAA starts before starting that one MLB game on September 14, 1975. He pitched 5.2 innings giving up 7 hits, 5 walks, and 6 runs.
In the middle of the 1976 season, he was traded to the Twins. The details on that trade are summarized later in this blog entry. Because Gideon had been a first-round draft pick just the summer before, I would imagine he was seen as an integral part of the trade.
Gideon played in the Twins minor league system until 1979. He went back to the Rangers in 1982 playing for their AA team before retiring.
THE BEST
I hate to sound like a broken record, but the Rod Carew #120 is the most valuable Twins card in the 1977 set. I also considered the Butch Wynegar rookie card #175. It’s got the rookie cup. Wynegar was a great player early in his career. He started out strong with all-star selections in his first two years, finishing second in rookie of the year voting in 1976. In 1977 he was only 21 years old, but the picture to me looks like he’s 15. Love that card, but I’m going with the Carew all-star card as the best Twins card of the year.

PERSONAL FAVORITE
The Roy Smalley card (#66) is my personal favorite Twins card in the 1977 set.

For the 1976 set, I selected the Dan Ford as my favorite Twins card in large part because of the facial hair. Was Smalley selected here based solely on the mustache? I have other reasons.
Growing up when I did, Smalley was my favorite player. He filled a void after Carew was traded before the 1979 season. Another reason I selected this as my favorite card for this series is related to memories of his trades. He was included in three trades involving the Twins and I think they won them all including the first one which was a big one.
1976: Traded by the Texas Rangers to the Twins with our friend Jim Gideon above, Mike Cubbage, and Bill Singer, for the disgruntled Bert Blyleven and Danny Thompson. The Twins received 25.8 WAR from that trade while the Rangers got 10.5. 1982: Traded by the Twins to the New York Yankees for Paul Boris, Ron Davis, and Greg Gagne. Smalley was worth 6.1 WAR with the Yankees. Despite Ron Davis sucking for his Twins career, the Twins still won that trade because Mr. Gagne became a key piece of their 1987 and 1991 World Series championship teams. Gagne was a great fielder. If he could have laid off the low and away curve/slider maybe he would have been a good hitter as well. He did have some pop, hitting 111 home runs in his career. He achieved a 17.9 WAR with the Twins. 1985: Traded by the Chicago White Sox to the Twins for Ron Scheer and Randy Johnson. The Twins won this trade too. While Smalley was winding down his career, he still provided 2.1 of WAR. He was a valuable backup infielder, DH, and pinch hitter on the 1987 World Series team. Scheer never made it to MLB. Randy Johnson, who I for some reason loved in 1982, also never made it back to the major league level. There you go fans. In my judgment the 1977 design is better than the 1976 design. To me, a lot of these late 70s sets run together. We’ll see shortly how the 1978 and 1979 sets stack up.
As always, I would love to see your opinions and comments below. And Go Twins.

Hey Twins fans! This is the sixth post in my series about Minnesota Twins baseball cards. Please share your opinions, stories, comments, and memories below.
1976 Topps
Well, I feel like this entry is a bit of a dud. Few star players and few interesting cards. The 1976 Topps baseball card design is just OK in my opinion. I do like the colored bars on the bottom of the card showing the name of the player and team. I also like the player silhouette, but overall, I can’t say it’s one of my favorite designs. The 1976 set has 660 cards with 28 Twins cards including rookie cards of Dan Ford and Lyman Bostock among others. The images below are courtesy of www.tcdb.com.
MOST OBSCURE PLAYER
I found about half a dozen possibilities for the most obscure Twins player in the 1976 Topps set. After extensive review, my choice is pitcher Jim Hughes.

Hughes was born and raised in California and was drafted by the Twins in the 33rd round of the 1969 draft. He was used primarily as a starting pitcher working his way up through the minor leagues. He debuted in September of 1974, starting two games and completing one. In 1975 and 1976 he was a member of the Twins’ starting rotation. He started 34 games in 1975 and had a winning record of 16-14 pitching 249.2 innings. He had an amazing May of that season being named American League Player of the Month (this was prior to the existence of the separate Pitcher of the Month award). During that magical month he was an incredible 6-0, with five complete games and two of which were shutouts. In the other game he pitched, he entered in the third inning and gave up no runs the rest of the way and picked up the win. What a month!
Hughes went 9-14 in 1976, then pitched only two games in April 1977 before being sent to AAA Tacoma for the remainder of the season. He would pitch two more years in the American minor leagues and one season the Mexican League in 1980. It seems arm troubles ended his career (https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Jim_Hughes_(hugheji03)). Seems like he was quite the flash in the pan – one great month, but what a month it was.
THE BEST
The Rod Carew #400 is the most valuable Twins card in this set. And I agree it’s probably the best card in the set. It’s an interesting picture of Carew in the dugout with the AL All Star label. Carew has probably the best Twins card in many of the 1970s sets. Boring, I know.

PERSONAL FAVORITE
My favorite Twins card in the 1976 set is the all-star rookie cup card of Disco Dan Ford (#313). That choice may be based solely on the sideburns alone. And is it just me or did athletes, heck maybe even all people, just look way older in the 70s? I feel like Ford looks about 35 in this picture; he was 24.

There you have it folks, a review of the Twins cards in the 1976 Topps set. This is the shortest blog entry in my series. I’m sorry to say I don’t find 1976’s Topps design to be particularly interesting and in my judgment most of the pictures on the cards are dull. If you disagree, please, I would love to see your opinions and comments below. And Go Twins.

Hey Twins fans! This is the fifth post in my series about Minnesota Twins baseball cards. This post is in a little different order than prior posts. Because I tend to dive most deeply into the most obscure player of the set (we all know about Tony, the Killer, and Carew not to mention Puckett, Hrbek, Mauer, and Morneau), this post will start with a write up of the player I deem to be most obscure in this set. Also “best” and “favorite” might be the same card, hence no different write up. If my favorite is different than the best, I will certainly say so. In previous posts, I struggled to differentiate between best and favorite. That’s not the case for the 1973 Topps, my favorite is definitely different from the best (which, I’m sorry tends to trend toward the most valuable).
Anyway, here we go…
1973 Topps
I love the look of the 1973 Topps baseball cards – the black border on the picture, the white border of the cards, and especially the silhouette of the player and his position in the lower right corner. The player’s name and team are listed at the bottom of the card. These cards are the standard 2.5” x 3.5” which started in 1957. The complete set has 660 cards. The Twins have 29 cards in this set including two variations of #49, the Frank Quilici manager card with his coaches. One of the variations has palm trees in the backgrounds for two of the coaches. www.PSAcard.com states the values of the two variations are the same and the number of each variation graded by PSA are similar.
               
MOST OBSCURE PLAYER
The 1973 Topps set has about half a dozen decent options for the most obscure Twins Player in the set, but one of these never played for the Twins. Meet Mr. Ken Reynolds.

Reynolds was originally drafted by Philadelphia in the fourth round of the 1966 draft. He was primarily a starting pitcher in their minor leagues. He started 25 games in 1971 and 23 games in 1972 for bad to awful Phillies teams. He had a crazy bad record of 2-15 in 1972. Reynolds came to the Twins in a November 1972 trade. The Twins traded fan favorite and future Twins Hall of Famer Cesar Tover for Joe Lis, Ken Sanders, and Reynolds. It seems like Philadelphia won that trade but it wasn’t robbery. Tovar played only one season for the Phillies and had a WAR of 0.9 WAR. The players the Twins received totaled -1.4 for the time they played for the Twins. That -1.4 WAR does not include Reynolds as he never played for the Twins and was traded to the Brewers in March 1973 for Mike Ferraro. Ferraro also never played for the Twins and the organization released him in May. Reynolds had a 7.36 ERA in two games for the Brewers. Reynolds later pitched for the Cardinals in 1975 and the Padres in 1976, finishing his MLB career with a 7-29 record. He stuck around the minor leagues until 1979.
An interesting tidbit I discovered while researching Ken Reynolds was that he played for the Hawaii Islanders in 1976 which was a AAA team and part of the Pacific Coast League. I went to Hawaii three weeks ago. It took me 4-5 after coming home to readjust to the time change. It seems like having Hawaii in a North American league would make travel exciting but brutal for those minor leaguers who experienced it. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii_Islanders, the Hawaii Islanders were surprisingly part of the PCL from 1961 thought 1987. I found the entire Wikipedia entry to be fascinating and would encourage your perusal. Hall of Famers Barry Bonds and Tony Gwynn played for the Islanders. This is something this blog series has done for me, introduce me to interesting parts of the game I never knew.
THE BEST
The Rod Carew #330 is the most valuable Twins card in this set. I like the stance, the pose, the background, and just the general look of this card. And I just love the look of this set in general.

PERSONAL FAVORITE
There’s something about the Tony Oliva card (#80). I think it’s a great picture, great pose, and mine is autographed (with his phenomenal signature). In the 1960s, there are many players photographed standing in Yankee Stadium with an inauthentic stance or pose. Tony’s stance may not be overly competitive but the pose, to me, looks better than average. But it’s not my favorite card.

The Harmon Killebrew (#170) is one of my favorite autographed cards in my entire collection (again, an exceptional autograph). This action shot seems to show an aggressive stance like he’s ready to release his energy and hit a blast. Where is he? The catcher’s red and blue pant stripes and the stadium background suggests Cleveland to me. I’m not sure. What do you think? I love this picture. But it’s not my favorite card.

As an aside, seriously, whose autograph is better Oliva or Killebrew? I’ve heard many say Killebrew’s signature is the best, but Tony O’s is similarly clear, legible, and smooth. Please share your opinion below.
Even though I have those two autographed cards of Hall of Fame players, neither ranks as my favorite Twins card from 1973. That honor easily belongs to another Hall of Famer – the #530 card of Jim Kaat. I think it’s absolutely awesome that Topps chose a photograph of a pitcher, Mr. Jim Kaat, batting. I love that this 1973 Topps card was issued, ironically, during the first year of the Designated Hitter. American League pitchers simply did not bat in 1973. Kaat could probably be considered a very good hitting pitcher. He batted .185 in his 25-year career, .289 in 1972, and .375 in 1981 (but only 8 at bats). I love all of that, which makes this my favorite Twins card in the 1973 Topps set.

Please, I would love to see your opinions, criticisms, and suggestions in the comments below. I really want to know. Let’s have fun with this! And Go Twins.

Thanks, folks. 
A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog inviting feedback for some paint schemes for the wall in a room that has transitioned from our youngest son's bedroom to our office. Alas, he got married and moved to North Carolina -- we like the married part, just wish he didn't live so far from northern Indiana. That post is here: https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/23701-help-design-my-man-cave/ 
The goal was to combine a Fathead with some shelving to create a space to display the set of Tony Oliva baseball cards I've gathered, along with some others. I invited feedback to the following ideas: 
 
And the one I chose was...
No. 6. 
So, next up was using a friend's table saw to rip some MDF board into 5/8" x 5/8" strips, followed by cutting a quarter-inch angled groove to hold the cards. Then Mrs. IT took over, handling the priming and painting. Finally, my brother-in-law, much more adept at such projects than me, helped me stick the Fathead and place and mount the strips. 
Here's what I got: 

 
I'm pretty pleased. Mrs. IT needs to do a little touch-up painting, touching up the screw holes and a few more spots. What you see here are a complete set of Topps, Kelloggs and Hostess Oliva cards on the left, plus a couple extra odds and ends. On the upper right are my Killebrew cards, with Carews underneath. Neither of those are complete.
Eventually, I'll tighten them up so I can add some other favorites from over the years -- Hrbek, Puckett, Gaetti, etc. Probably need to get a Wynegar and some others. It may not take long for Lewis to make an appearance on the IT Wall of Fame. And depending on how full I want to make the space, I may also include a few non-Twin favorites and/or legends from over the years, namely Brock, Aaron, Clemente, etc. I don't have any that are particular valuable (and none graded), but on the wall will at least bring more enjoyment than in boxes under the bed. The total space is about 84 inches by 40 inches.
Thanks to @Cornholio, @Rod Carews Birthday, @Wyotwinsfan, @davidborton, @DocBauer, @gil4, @nclahammer, @Original_JB, @dcswede, @Khaddie and @Puckett34 for great insights and suggestions.
I was originally thinking I'd go with No. 8, but after coming up with a number of mockups, I was starting to lean toward No. 6 by the time I posted. So to get a couple early affirmations of that option helped firm up that decision. Some other comments:
There were some good suggestions that would have given it a much more professional feel (and would have been beyond my capability or cost more than I was prepared to spend. A couple folks cautioned about covering up too much of the Fathead. With that encouragement, I did move the strips out a bit. They end up overlapping by about three inches, rather than the six inches I originally planned. I think that was an improvement, so thanks for those suggestions. If I was to do anything different with the layout, I'd give each row another quarter to half inch of space (starting at the bottom) to push the top row up to have even less overlap with the letters.  A few people had ideas for some additions, suggesting some autographed photos, Homer Hankies, etc. (And speaking of, I need to track down one of this year's.) I do plan some of those things with the next steps. The exterior wall of the room has about 43 inches on each side of a window, so I'm thinking of putting in a relatively high shelf for the four Wheaties/Kelloggs boxes (still full) from 1987 and 1991. I may do a second shelf with some autographed balls, but I really don't have any significant ones. I do have some other things, however, such as a Rod Carew RC Cola can and an Oliva-signed cap, etc. I'm only a few years from retirement, so I'll need to consider where to go with two jerseys. I'm perhaps the only person on TD with a game-used Travis Miller jersey. I never thought I'd buy a gamer of anyone, but when you're in the team store and see one with your last name on it, it's tough to resist. My congregation gifted me another jersey when transitioned from pastoring there to another ministry opportunity. In total, I have another 10 or so linear feet of wall space on this half the room to use for such things. Mrs. IT gets the other side of the room. So again, thanks. If anyone heads through northern Indiana on the toll road and wants to stop off for a visit, I'd be glad to show it in person! 😃
 

And while I'm at it, I do have another spot in the house that folks might find interesting. I've been fortunate enough to have been able to combine some work-related travel with vacations and have been to all 30 current stadiums (plus a dozen or so that have been closed)*. I spent some time to create some collages from photos I've taken along the way (plus a handful from the Web of stadiums that I went to before I started taking pictures). Here's what we have in our entry hallway. Each frame is a division, with the teams in alphabetical order from top to bottom.
 
 
*Lest you think that's impressive, what's more impressive is the amazing Mrs. IT. She's been to 24, even though she's not a baseball fan. When someone asked her about it, her response, "I don't like baseball, but I like some people who like baseball." 
 
 

Hi folks. I am Al from SoDak. I have been reading Twins Daily since its inception and always thought of contributing. Well, here I go.
I am a collector of Twins baseball cards. About 10-15 years ago, I made it a goal to get at least one card from every Twins player who had a card. That goal seems to have morphed into getting each Twins card for every Topps set (and a few other brands here and there). I currently have more than 2,400 cards from about 750 unique players. I have a plan for a series of posts to review and comment on each year’s set of Twins cards. But by no means will this be completed in one initial post. I plan to cover each year in order of the years I have completed. So, I will start with my first completed set (1963 Topps) and go forward to other completed sets. As I continue with my series, I will continue with my collecting. Hopefully when I get the most recent set, I will have more of the earlier sets completed and can loop back and comment on those. Hopefully we all find this an interesting exercise.
To start with I am going to give my opinion of the best card. This will likely be one of the most expensive cards but not necessarily the most expensive. I don’t want to have too many Killebrews, Olivas, Carews, etc. I will also give my opinion of my personal favorite card. This might be based on the look of the card, or a story behind the card or player. Finally, I will discuss the card of the most obscure player in my opinion. This will hopefully include a little research and history of this player so that we can learn more about lesser-known players. I anticipate the obscure player part ending up as the most detailed and longest part of the post.
We’ll see how this goes.
1963 TOPPS
This colorful set is one my favorites from the 1960s. The cards are 2.5” x 3.5” which has been the standard card size since 1957. Each card contains a larger color image of the player with a smaller black and white picture within a circle at the bottom of the card. The player’s name, team and position are on a colorful thick border at the bottom. The league leader cards and many of the rookie cards are of the notorious “floating head” design. This 1963 set contains the Tony Oliva #228 rookie card amongst its 33 Twins cards.

THE BEST
Many sources list the Oliva rookie card and Harmon Killebrew #500 as the most expensive Twins cards in the set. The Oliva card is of the often ridiculed “floating heads” design, so I am going to lean to the Harmon Killebrew card the best card. Hopefully this doesn’t start a trend of too many Killebrews.

PERSONAL FAVORITE
I like the Bob Allison #75 where he is shown in a solid batting pose. Jim Kaat (#165) stares down the camera at the start of a wind-up. To me, that’s a good card and made better by the fact that I was able to get mine autographed at TwinsFest a few years back. I also like that the AL Home Run Leaders #4 has Killebrew front and center as the top dog from 1962. The autograph on the good-looking Jim Kaat card puts that card on top for me as my personal favorite.
                     
MOST OBSCURE PLAYER
My choice as the most obscure Twins player included in the 1963 Topps baseball card set is George Banks (card #564).

Interestingly, the Twins had five rookie cards included in the 1963 Topps set. Four of those cards were like the Oliva rookie with “floating heads” design, but one rookie player got his own card – yes, Mr. Banks. Why? Well, he was signed in 1957 by the New York Yankees and had minor league success. George Banks hit 82 minor league home runs through 1960 (on his way to 223 home runs in 11 minor league seasons). In 1961 the Twins selected him in the Rule 5 draft, the mechanism that led to the Twins obtaining Shane Mack and Johan Santana (trade) many years later.
George Banks played mainly 3rd Base and Outfield. He played a total of five seasons in MLB, splitting his time between Minnesota and Cleveland. He was a piece in a key trade – He and Lee Stange were traded to Cleveland for Mudcat Grant who we all know won 21 games in the World Series year of 1965. Mudcat won Game 6 nearly all by himself. He led the Twins to a 5-1 win in this elimination game. He allowed only six hits and was also a force in the batter’s box with a 3-run home run.
Banks could never match his minor league prowess in the big leagues. His WAR was 0.3. He only got 203 at bats in MLB. He played 63 games in 1963, but only 25 in 1964. After the trade he played in a total of 17 games over parts of three seasons in Cleveland.
But George Banks did have a nice 1963 rookie card. The card shows him squaring to bunt which contrasts with his minor league propensity to his home runs. Love it!
So there it is. My first entry in what could end up being a long series about baseball cards and the Minnesota Twins. Hopefully I get some positive feedback, encouragement, and views to keep me motivated.
If you disagree with my opinions, I would love to see your opinions, criticisms, and suggestions in the comments below. Don’t be too hard on me. Let’s have fun with this!

Thanks, folks. 
A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog inviting feedback for some paint schemes for the wall in a room that has transitioned from our youngest son's bedroom to our office. Alas, he got married and moved to North Carolina -- we like the married part, just wish he didn't live so far from northern Indiana. That post is here: https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/23701-help-design-my-man-cave/ 
The goal was to combine a Fathead with some shelving to create a space to display the set of Tony Oliva baseball cards I've gathered, along with some others. I invited feedback to the following ideas: 
 
And the one I chose was...
No. 6. 
So, next up was using a friend's table saw to rip some MDF board into 5/8" x 5/8" strips, followed by cutting a quarter-inch angled groove to hold the cards. Then Mrs. IT took over, handling the priming and painting. Finally, my brother-in-law, much more adept at such projects than me, helped me stick the Fathead and place and mount the strips. 
Here's what I got: 

 
I'm pretty pleased. Mrs. IT needs to do a little touch-up painting, touching up the screw holes and a few more spots. What you see here are a complete set of Topps, Kelloggs and Hostess Oliva cards on the left, plus a couple extra odds and ends. On the upper right are my Killebrew cards, with Carews underneath. Neither of those are complete.
Eventually, I'll tighten them up so I can add some other favorites from over the years -- Hrbek, Puckett, Gaetti, etc. Probably need to get a Wynegar and some others. It may not take long for Lewis to make an appearance on the IT Wall of Fame. And depending on how full I want to make the space, I may also include a few non-Twin favorites and/or legends from over the years, namely Brock, Aaron, Clemente, etc. I don't have any that are particular valuable (and none graded), but on the wall will at least bring more enjoyment than in boxes under the bed. The total space is about 84 inches by 40 inches.
Thanks to @Cornholio, @Rod Carews Birthday, @Wyotwinsfan, @davidborton, @DocBauer, @gil4, @nclahammer, @Original_JB, @dcswede, @Khaddie and @Puckett34 for great insights and suggestions.
I was originally thinking I'd go with No. 8, but after coming up with a number of mockups, I was starting to lean toward No. 6 by the time I posted. So to get a couple early affirmations of that option helped firm up that decision. Some other comments:
There were some good suggestions that would have given it a much more professional feel (and would have been beyond my capability or cost more than I was prepared to spend. A couple folks cautioned about covering up too much of the Fathead. With that encouragement, I did move the strips out a bit. They end up overlapping by about three inches, rather than the six inches I originally planned. I think that was an improvement, so thanks for those suggestions. If I was to do anything different with the layout, I'd give each row another quarter to half inch of space (starting at the bottom) to push the top row up to have even less overlap with the letters.  A few people had ideas for some additions, suggesting some autographed photos, Homer Hankies, etc. (And speaking of, I need to track down one of this year's.) I do plan some of those things with the next steps. The exterior wall of the room has about 43 inches on each side of a window, so I'm thinking of putting in a relatively high shelf for the four Wheaties/Kelloggs boxes (still full) from 1987 and 1991. I may do a second shelf with some autographed balls, but I really don't have any significant ones. I do have some other things, however, such as a Rod Carew RC Cola can and an Oliva-signed cap, etc. I'm only a few years from retirement, so I'll need to consider where to go with two jerseys. I'm perhaps the only person on TD with a game-used Travis Miller jersey. I never thought I'd buy a gamer of anyone, but when you're in the team store and see one with your last name on it, it's tough to resist. My congregation gifted me another jersey when transitioned from pastoring there to another ministry opportunity. In total, I have another 10 or so linear feet of wall space on this half the room to use for such things. Mrs. IT gets the other side of the room. So again, thanks. If anyone heads through northern Indiana on the toll road and wants to stop off for a visit, I'd be glad to show it in person! 😃
 

And while I'm at it, I do have another spot in the house that folks might find interesting. I've been fortunate enough to have been able to combine some work-related travel with vacations and have been to all 30 current stadiums (plus a dozen or so that have been closed)*. I spent some time to create some collages from photos I've taken along the way (plus a handful from the Web of stadiums that I went to before I started taking pictures). Here's what we have in our entry hallway. Each frame is a division, with the teams in alphabetical order from top to bottom.
 
 
*Lest you think that's impressive, what's more impressive is the amazing Mrs. IT. She's been to 24, even though she's not a baseball fan. When someone asked her about it, her response, "I don't like baseball, but I like some people who like baseball." 
 
 

Thanks, folks. 
A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog inviting feedback for some paint schemes for the wall in a room that has transitioned from our youngest son's bedroom to our office. Alas, he got married and moved to North Carolina -- we like the married part, just wish he didn't live so far from northern Indiana. That post is here: https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/23701-help-design-my-man-cave/ 
The goal was to combine a Fathead with some shelving to create a space to display the set of Tony Oliva baseball cards I've gathered, along with some others. I invited feedback to the following ideas: 
 
And the one I chose was...
No. 6. 
So, next up was using a friend's table saw to rip some MDF board into 5/8" x 5/8" strips, followed by cutting a quarter-inch angled groove to hold the cards. Then Mrs. IT took over, handling the priming and painting. Finally, my brother-in-law, much more adept at such projects than me, helped me stick the Fathead and place and mount the strips. 
Here's what I got: 

 
I'm pretty pleased. Mrs. IT needs to do a little touch-up painting, touching up the screw holes and a few more spots. What you see here are a complete set of Topps, Kelloggs and Hostess Oliva cards on the left, plus a couple extra odds and ends. On the upper right are my Killebrew cards, with Carews underneath. Neither of those are complete.
Eventually, I'll tighten them up so I can add some other favorites from over the years -- Hrbek, Puckett, Gaetti, etc. Probably need to get a Wynegar and some others. It may not take long for Lewis to make an appearance on the IT Wall of Fame. And depending on how full I want to make the space, I may also include a few non-Twin favorites and/or legends from over the years, namely Brock, Aaron, Clemente, etc. I don't have any that are particular valuable (and none graded), but on the wall will at least bring more enjoyment than in boxes under the bed. The total space is about 84 inches by 40 inches.
Thanks to @Cornholio, @Rod Carews Birthday, @Wyotwinsfan, @davidborton, @DocBauer, @gil4, @nclahammer, @Original_JB, @dcswede, @Khaddie and @Puckett34 for great insights and suggestions.
I was originally thinking I'd go with No. 8, but after coming up with a number of mockups, I was starting to lean toward No. 6 by the time I posted. So to get a couple early affirmations of that option helped firm up that decision. Some other comments:
There were some good suggestions that would have given it a much more professional feel (and would have been beyond my capability or cost more than I was prepared to spend. A couple folks cautioned about covering up too much of the Fathead. With that encouragement, I did move the strips out a bit. They end up overlapping by about three inches, rather than the six inches I originally planned. I think that was an improvement, so thanks for those suggestions. If I was to do anything different with the layout, I'd give each row another quarter to half inch of space (starting at the bottom) to push the top row up to have even less overlap with the letters.  A few people had ideas for some additions, suggesting some autographed photos, Homer Hankies, etc. (And speaking of, I need to track down one of this year's.) I do plan some of those things with the next steps. The exterior wall of the room has about 43 inches on each side of a window, so I'm thinking of putting in a relatively high shelf for the four Wheaties/Kelloggs boxes (still full) from 1987 and 1991. I may do a second shelf with some autographed balls, but I really don't have any significant ones. I do have some other things, however, such as a Rod Carew RC Cola can and an Oliva-signed cap, etc. I'm only a few years from retirement, so I'll need to consider where to go with two jerseys. I'm perhaps the only person on TD with a game-used Travis Miller jersey. I never thought I'd buy a gamer of anyone, but when you're in the team store and see one with your last name on it, it's tough to resist. My congregation gifted me another jersey when transitioned from pastoring there to another ministry opportunity. In total, I have another 10 or so linear feet of wall space on this half the room to use for such things. Mrs. IT gets the other side of the room. So again, thanks. If anyone heads through northern Indiana on the toll road and wants to stop off for a visit, I'd be glad to show it in person! 😃
 

And while I'm at it, I do have another spot in the house that folks might find interesting. I've been fortunate enough to have been able to combine some work-related travel with vacations and have been to all 30 current stadiums (plus a dozen or so that have been closed)*. I spent some time to create some collages from photos I've taken along the way (plus a handful from the Web of stadiums that I went to before I started taking pictures). Here's what we have in our entry hallway. Each frame is a division, with the teams in alphabetical order from top to bottom.
 
 
*Lest you think that's impressive, what's more impressive is the amazing Mrs. IT. She's been to 24, even though she's not a baseball fan. When someone asked her about it, her response, "I don't like baseball, but I like some people who like baseball." 
 
 

Thanks, folks. 
A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog inviting feedback for some paint schemes for the wall in a room that has transitioned from our youngest son's bedroom to our office. Alas, he got married and moved to North Carolina -- we like the married part, just wish he didn't live so far from northern Indiana. That post is here: https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/23701-help-design-my-man-cave/ 
The goal was to combine a Fathead with some shelving to create a space to display the set of Tony Oliva baseball cards I've gathered, along with some others. I invited feedback to the following ideas: 
 
And the one I chose was...
No. 6. 
So, next up was using a friend's table saw to rip some MDF board into 5/8" x 5/8" strips, followed by cutting a quarter-inch angled groove to hold the cards. Then Mrs. IT took over, handling the priming and painting. Finally, my brother-in-law, much more adept at such projects than me, helped me stick the Fathead and place and mount the strips. 
Here's what I got: 

 
I'm pretty pleased. Mrs. IT needs to do a little touch-up painting, touching up the screw holes and a few more spots. What you see here are a complete set of Topps, Kelloggs and Hostess Oliva cards on the left, plus a couple extra odds and ends. On the upper right are my Killebrew cards, with Carews underneath. Neither of those are complete.
Eventually, I'll tighten them up so I can add some other favorites from over the years -- Hrbek, Puckett, Gaetti, etc. Probably need to get a Wynegar and some others. It may not take long for Lewis to make an appearance on the IT Wall of Fame. And depending on how full I want to make the space, I may also include a few non-Twin favorites and/or legends from over the years, namely Brock, Aaron, Clemente, etc. I don't have any that are particular valuable (and none graded), but on the wall will at least bring more enjoyment than in boxes under the bed. The total space is about 84 inches by 40 inches.
Thanks to @Cornholio, @Rod Carews Birthday, @Wyotwinsfan, @davidborton, @DocBauer, @gil4, @nclahammer, @Original_JB, @dcswede, @Khaddie and @Puckett34 for great insights and suggestions.
I was originally thinking I'd go with No. 8, but after coming up with a number of mockups, I was starting to lean toward No. 6 by the time I posted. So to get a couple early affirmations of that option helped firm up that decision. Some other comments:
There were some good suggestions that would have given it a much more professional feel (and would have been beyond my capability or cost more than I was prepared to spend. A couple folks cautioned about covering up too much of the Fathead. With that encouragement, I did move the strips out a bit. They end up overlapping by about three inches, rather than the six inches I originally planned. I think that was an improvement, so thanks for those suggestions. If I was to do anything different with the layout, I'd give each row another quarter to half inch of space (starting at the bottom) to push the top row up to have even less overlap with the letters.  A few people had ideas for some additions, suggesting some autographed photos, Homer Hankies, etc. (And speaking of, I need to track down one of this year's.) I do plan some of those things with the next steps. The exterior wall of the room has about 43 inches on each side of a window, so I'm thinking of putting in a relatively high shelf for the four Wheaties/Kelloggs boxes (still full) from 1987 and 1991. I may do a second shelf with some autographed balls, but I really don't have any significant ones. I do have some other things, however, such as a Rod Carew RC Cola can and an Oliva-signed cap, etc. I'm only a few years from retirement, so I'll need to consider where to go with two jerseys. I'm perhaps the only person on TD with a game-used Travis Miller jersey. I never thought I'd buy a gamer of anyone, but when you're in the team store and see one with your last name on it, it's tough to resist. My congregation gifted me another jersey when transitioned from pastoring there to another ministry opportunity. In total, I have another 10 or so linear feet of wall space on this half the room to use for such things. Mrs. IT gets the other side of the room. So again, thanks. If anyone heads through northern Indiana on the toll road and wants to stop off for a visit, I'd be glad to show it in person! 😃
 

And while I'm at it, I do have another spot in the house that folks might find interesting. I've been fortunate enough to have been able to combine some work-related travel with vacations and have been to all 30 current stadiums (plus a dozen or so that have been closed)*. I spent some time to create some collages from photos I've taken along the way (plus a handful from the Web of stadiums that I went to before I started taking pictures). Here's what we have in our entry hallway. Each frame is a division, with the teams in alphabetical order from top to bottom.
 
 
*Lest you think that's impressive, what's more impressive is the amazing Mrs. IT. She's been to 24, even though she's not a baseball fan. When someone asked her about it, her response, "I don't like baseball, but I like some people who like baseball." 
 
 

Thanks, folks. 
A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog inviting feedback for some paint schemes for the wall in a room that has transitioned from our youngest son's bedroom to our office. Alas, he got married and moved to North Carolina -- we like the married part, just wish he didn't live so far from northern Indiana. That post is here: https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/23701-help-design-my-man-cave/ 
The goal was to combine a Fathead with some shelving to create a space to display the set of Tony Oliva baseball cards I've gathered, along with some others. I invited feedback to the following ideas: 
 
And the one I chose was...
No. 6. 
So, next up was using a friend's table saw to rip some MDF board into 5/8" x 5/8" strips, followed by cutting a quarter-inch angled groove to hold the cards. Then Mrs. IT took over, handling the priming and painting. Finally, my brother-in-law, much more adept at such projects than me, helped me stick the Fathead and place and mount the strips. 
Here's what I got: 

 
I'm pretty pleased. Mrs. IT needs to do a little touch-up painting, touching up the screw holes and a few more spots. What you see here are a complete set of Topps, Kelloggs and Hostess Oliva cards on the left, plus a couple extra odds and ends. On the upper right are my Killebrew cards, with Carews underneath. Neither of those are complete.
Eventually, I'll tighten them up so I can add some other favorites from over the years -- Hrbek, Puckett, Gaetti, etc. Probably need to get a Wynegar and some others. It may not take long for Lewis to make an appearance on the IT Wall of Fame. And depending on how full I want to make the space, I may also include a few non-Twin favorites and/or legends from over the years, namely Brock, Aaron, Clemente, etc. I don't have any that are particular valuable (and none graded), but on the wall will at least bring more enjoyment than in boxes under the bed. The total space is about 84 inches by 40 inches.
Thanks to @Cornholio, @Rod Carews Birthday, @Wyotwinsfan, @davidborton, @DocBauer, @gil4, @nclahammer, @Original_JB, @dcswede, @Khaddie and @Puckett34 for great insights and suggestions.
I was originally thinking I'd go with No. 8, but after coming up with a number of mockups, I was starting to lean toward No. 6 by the time I posted. So to get a couple early affirmations of that option helped firm up that decision. Some other comments:
There were some good suggestions that would have given it a much more professional feel (and would have been beyond my capability or cost more than I was prepared to spend. A couple folks cautioned about covering up too much of the Fathead. With that encouragement, I did move the strips out a bit. They end up overlapping by about three inches, rather than the six inches I originally planned. I think that was an improvement, so thanks for those suggestions. If I was to do anything different with the layout, I'd give each row another quarter to half inch of space (starting at the bottom) to push the top row up to have even less overlap with the letters.  A few people had ideas for some additions, suggesting some autographed photos, Homer Hankies, etc. (And speaking of, I need to track down one of this year's.) I do plan some of those things with the next steps. The exterior wall of the room has about 43 inches on each side of a window, so I'm thinking of putting in a relatively high shelf for the four Wheaties/Kelloggs boxes (still full) from 1987 and 1991. I may do a second shelf with some autographed balls, but I really don't have any significant ones. I do have some other things, however, such as a Rod Carew RC Cola can and an Oliva-signed cap, etc. I'm only a few years from retirement, so I'll need to consider where to go with two jerseys. I'm perhaps the only person on TD with a game-used Travis Miller jersey. I never thought I'd buy a gamer of anyone, but when you're in the team store and see one with your last name on it, it's tough to resist. My congregation gifted me another jersey when transitioned from pastoring there to another ministry opportunity. In total, I have another 10 or so linear feet of wall space on this half the room to use for such things. Mrs. IT gets the other side of the room. So again, thanks. If anyone heads through northern Indiana on the toll road and wants to stop off for a visit, I'd be glad to show it in person! 😃
 

And while I'm at it, I do have another spot in the house that folks might find interesting. I've been fortunate enough to have been able to combine some work-related travel with vacations and have been to all 30 current stadiums (plus a dozen or so that have been closed)*. I spent some time to create some collages from photos I've taken along the way (plus a handful from the Web of stadiums that I went to before I started taking pictures). Here's what we have in our entry hallway. Each frame is a division, with the teams in alphabetical order from top to bottom.
 
 
*Lest you think that's impressive, what's more impressive is the amazing Mrs. IT. She's been to 24, even though she's not a baseball fan. When someone asked her about it, her response, "I don't like baseball, but I like some people who like baseball."