Sarah

I am annoyed that they don't have paper voting in the stadiums any more. Does anyone know the reason behind this? Maybe I missed the coverage on that. First the Cubs are not on WGN in Minnesota because it's not a superstation any more and now no paper ballots for the All-Star Game. It's the end of an era...I looked forward to punching out my ballot as I watched the Twins game.

You will be in good company- I am going to be at the Cubs game on June 25 too! There will be a lot of knowledgeable fans there that day because I'm going with the people in town for the Society for American Baseball Research national convention which is in Chicago that week. I hear you about the amenities but I actually feel that way about the new Yankee Stadium. I went to the old stadium and yeah, it was a dump, but at least it had history. The new Yankee Stadium is just like a big corporate behemoth without a soul...yeah, kind of like the Yankees so it does fit. I have been to Wrigley four times and love it so I'm definitely looking forward to going back. It's a little hard comparing the really old ones to a game experience at Target Field- both are great, just different.

I went to CHS Field on Thursday for the first Saints game and it is beautiful. About 7,000 seats so very intimate, good picnic areas and views of the field from anywhere, nice berm in left field and drink rails too. The concessions left something to be desired but I know it's unfair comparing it to Target Field. The one thing is that if you're coming from the west (Minneapolis) it's a little hard to find a place to park. But I parked in the World Trade Center ramp by the Children's Museum and then you can either take the light rail two stops to the Union Depot or you can just walk- I walked since it was a beautiful night and it's about eight blocks. I will definitely be back and bring my niece and nephews.

Someone started a post about their favorite major league stadiums so I am wondering what everyone's favorite minor league stadiums are. I have been to a few and my favorite by far is the one in the Quad Cities. It was recently renovated and has a spectaular view of the Mississippi River. I have been there twice and would go back in a second! I have tickets to the first Saints game at CHS Field next week so I am looking forward to checking out that one too. Another one of my favorites is Wade Stadium in Duluth- just a classic old brick ballpark and you get a great view of Lake Superior if you are in the upper seats. The only one I can think of that I didn't like was the one in Beloit, but it wasn't really a ballpark just more like a city park which I'm guessing is part of the reason the Twins aren't there any more.

I have about a dozen left and so far my favorites are PNC Park, Target Field and AT&T Park. I love Wrigley and am going to a Cubs game in Chicago in about a month but it's hard to compare the old parks to the new ones. I completely agree about Milwaukee's roof- even when it's open you still feel like you're inside. I didn't like that ballpark much and Kramarczuk's bratwurst is better than the one I had there. (Or maybe I'm just biased because I'm a Twins fan.) Most of the ones I didn't like are not around any more - I hated Riverfront Stadium but haven't been back to the new one. I'm going to wait until Atlanta gets a new stadium to visit and then check out a Lookouts game at the same time and I need to make a trip to Texas to hit both of those stadiums. When I was in New York I went to a game at the new Yankee Stadium but the Mets were out of town and for some reason they weren't doing tours of Citi Field at the time. One lady I was talking to at Fan Fest last year was from Oakland and she suggested skipping that one. (And she was a huge A's fan from Oakland.) PNC Park was the one I really wanted to see because it seems like it is always up there with Target Field. They are both quite spectacular- I give Target Field the edge on the amenities but PNC Park has a beautiful view of the river. I'm going to check out Busch Stadium when I go to St. Louis this fall. So many stadiums so little money. :-)

I do not understand why they make the guys stand there- it makes the hosts look like they are about two feet tall. (Maybe that's the point but I guess I don't get it...) I was watching it earlier this week and Curt Schilling was talking and interrupting the other guys so much that I almost turned it off. Gawd, shut up already. I think the other guy last night was Jonah Keri.

And Edgar Martinez- I always liked him too. I knew I was getting old when I was talking to a woman in line at TwinsFest and when I mentioned Chuck Knoblauch her daughter said "who's Chuck Knoblauch?" All I could think was "Yes, I am getting old." So sad.

It was fun talking with him at the Twins Daily party, thanks Seth.

I remember when I met him at TwinsFest after he had been traded to the Twins- I still have the picture from back when you could take pictures with the players for free. I said "Welcome to Minnesota" and he somewhat surprisingly said "Oh, thank you!" He was a good player for the Twins, best wishes to him.

Do you mean this upcoming Thursday (April 9)? I would be interested in attending this- let us know how to sign up!

I visited Arizona last weekend and since most of you will be posting about Florida I thought I’d add my thoughts about the “other” spring training. Arizona is nice because all of the teams are within about 20 minutes of Phoenix and if you fly out of MSP you have a few options on airlines. The main thing I didn’t like about the Phoenix area is that you will need to rent a car to get around and their rental car tax is about 18% total. Everything is close yet just far enough that you have to drive but considering it was -6 when I left Minnesota it was awesome to drive around with the windows open. Games generally start at 1 p.m. local time and I went to one game each at Sloan Park (Cubs home), Tempe Diablo Stadium (Angels home) and Salt River Fields (Rockies and Diamondbacks home, I was at the Rockies game). Sloan Park is VERY nice, probably my favorite out of the three. (Okay so I am a little biased since I’m a Cubs fan.) It’s only about two years old and is like a miniature Wrigley Field complete with the red sign and brick wall behind home plate (no manual scoreboard or ivy on the outfield walls though). They all had impressive team shops for merchandise and Salt River Fields had the designated driver program where you could sign up for a free soda (Tempe Diablo didn’t have designated driver and I forgot to ask at Sloan Park so they may have it too). They had great concessions at Sloan Park and Salt River Fields but the concessions at Tempe Diablo Stadium weren’t all that great. There is a Whataburger really close to the Angels stadium so I stopped there because we don’t have that in Minnesota and thought it was pretty good. Tempe Diablo is the oldest of the three (recently renovated though so it’s pretty nice) so that one was probably my least favorite but they do have free on street parking if you get there early enough. Parking at Sloan Park was $5 and there is a huge shopping complex by Salt River Fields called the Pavilions with Target, movie theatre, restaurants, etc. so I parked there for free and walked over to the stadium. If you are infirm there are a lot of bike cabs parked right outside the gate to take you to your car. (Sorry, don’t know how much they are.) There was also a huge classic car show in the parking lot near Salt River Fields after the Rockies game on Saturday afternoon so that was neat too. I also took a tour of Chase Field which is right downtown Phoenix (you really can’t miss it) and it’s only $7. You may want to get reservations in advance as the tour guide said they tend to get full during spring training. I took the first one at 9:30 and it was sold out. Luckily a guy who was a Rockies fan saw me standing there and gave me his extra ticket. Baseball fans are so nice. Since all of the teams are so close, the city is literally crawling with baseball fans. There seemed to be a lot of Giants fans which makes sense since they have won the World Series twice in the past few years. I would recommend getting tickets to the games ahead of time as well because the Saturday Rockies game we went to was sold out. If you go to the Cubs park you can get a free copy of Vineline right when you walk in the main gates where they sell the programs. (The current issue is a good one because it has Ernie Banks on the cover.) This may go without saying but do not forget your sunglasses or sunscreen and drink a lot of water. They even have free sunscreen dispensers at the Rockies/Diamondbacks stadium. The Cubs game I went to ended in a tie after nine innings. They just announce on the loud speaker in the top of the 9th “Ladies and Gentlemen if the game is tied after nine innings the game will end in a tie.” When I was at the Yankees spring training game in Florida the game ended after ten innings so maybe it’s up to the manager’s discretion or something. As I’m sure a lot people do during spring training games, I somewhat paid attention to the actual game. Pujols, Trout and Jered Weaver started in the Angels game I went to, Kris Bryant hit a long home run in the Cubs game I went to and Justin Morneau started in the Rockies game I went to (LaTroy Hawkins also pitched in that game). Since I was there for the first few games it was fun to see everyone so excited to be watching baseball again. For lack of a better term, I’ve found spring training to be super chill – mostly just a great excuse to sit outside in nice weather and watch baseball. I did some sightseeing in Phoenix too- if you have extra time I would recommend either the Wrigley Mansion (yes, that Wrigley), Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West or the Desert Botanical Garden. They are all pretty easy to find and interesting. I thought Phoenix in general was not terribly hard to navigate (I am directionally challenged so if I can get around, so can you) and the traffic didn’t seem to be any worse than it is in the Twin Cities. I hung out mostly on the east side of Phoenix in the Scottsdale/Tempe/Mesa area so I’ll just to go back someday to watch the teams on the west side. If you’ve never been to spring training I highly recommend it!

Oh that is cool- I like that idea too!

For anyone else watching on FSN, who is the guy doing analysis with Dick Bremer? I can't place his voice - this is the first spring training game I've been able to watch, been busy galavanting around the ballparks in Arizona. Thanks!

Darn- best wishes to him as he recovers.

I went on Sunday and the autograph lines seemed fairly long but otherwise it didn't seem that crowded. For some reason I started on the suite level which was just autographs even though I wasn't getting any autographs. I walked to the end of the hall and heard two fans coming out of one of the suites. The woman said, "He was so nice." And then the guy said, "Yeah, he seemed super chill." I looked into the room and chuckled- Torii Hunter. Lots of kids smiling, kind of fun to see a new batch of Twins fans meet him. I liked that they seemed to have a lot of kids stuff this year, I would take my nephews next year. It seemed like the players were really interactive with the fans- they had players playing with the kids at some of the games and in the Champions Club. I was telling someone what this woman told me at the MLB Fan Fest last summer. She said she had volunteered at a lot of them over the years and the one in Minneapolis was the most well-run. She said "Minnesotans are so easy!" She said the one the year before was in New York and everyone was rude and pushy - she said when she tried to stop one woman from cutting in line she said, "We survived Superstorm Sandy, you have no idea what we've been through!" (So that gives you the right to be rude...uh huh.) She said whenever she would tell anyone at the fan fest in Minneapolis where the line started they just said, "Okay, thanks!" Made me think of that when the players were saying that they enjoy TwinsFest.

That. Is. Hilarious. I hope someone keeps that and pulls it out when the kid is 20.