Riding The Metrodome
Posted: October 6th, 2009 | Filed under: Baseball | 107 Comments »
The place won’t die. That’s how it should be, I suppose. That’s how it goes in horror movies. The killer gets burned, drowned, chopped in half, run over by a car, crushed by a tree, shot 12 times in the chest … but the killer keeps coming back, more and more ticked off with each near-death experience.
That’s the Metrodome. You think you’ve killed it, but no, it will not die. It will keep coming back, again and again, shoving itself into the limelight like a frustrated chorus girl. The last game in the Metrodome was supposed to be Sunday. The touching eulogies were written — yes, even the villains get touching eulogies. But the old barn had one more glorious day — deafening noise, twirling hankies, a big home victory. Now, today, we get a one-game playoff — Twins vs. Tigers — and once again it could be the last day of baggie baseball. But don’t bet on it. The creepy music plays. The phone lines have been disconnected. The Metrodome is looking like it might stick around for a while.
There have been other grim ballparks, of course. Grim ballparks are a part of baseball. Jarry Park Stadium in Montreal — Stade Parc Jarry — was by all accounts a dismal place where the sun would blind first basemen and a cold wind would pour in from all directions. Ron Hunt got hit by 54 pitches there. Cleveland Municipal Stadium was famously awful for baseball — metal beams blocked the field from every vantage point, and the infield featured mounds that suggested hastily buried bodies. Shea Stadium had the look and feel of a long-abandoned amusement park that wasn’t all that great in the first place. The Kingdome had its charms but it never felt entirely study. Tropicana Field feels plenty sturdy, but it has never had many charms. The multi-use stadiums in Philadelphia and Cincinnati, especially at the end, seemed a lot like really big eight-track tapes.
But it’s probably fair to say that no park in a half century has been quite as despised as the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. I suspect the Metrodome itself would consider that a point of honor. Even people who love it, hate it. Well, how else can you feel about playing baseball in a football stadium with plastic grass, a baseball-colored roof, an echo and a giant glad trash bags just beyond the fence? How else can you feel about going to the ballpark on a beautiful July day in Minneapolis — there aren’t many seasons in America as beautiful as Minnesota summers — and then finding yourself watching something resembling baseball in this dank building with all the romance of a bank vault. It’s like playing Monopoly in your friends basement when it’s 70 degrees and sunny outside.
“What’s wrong with you kids,” our mothers would yell. “Go play outside!”
And that’s what I always wanted to yell — I sensed that’s what EVERYBODY wanted to yell — while watching games in the Metrodome. You know what Dan Quisenberry said about the place when he first saw it, right? “I don’t think there are any good uses for nuclear weapons but, then, this might be one.” He said that about the Dome back in the mid 1980s. John Schuerholz, when he was GM of the Royals, said something similar — something about nuclear weapons and blowing the place up. The Metrodome did bring out violent wishes. Billy Martin, who knew a little something about violent wishes, was direct: “This place stinks,” he said. “It’s a shame a great guy like HHH had to be named after it.”
And so on. There never has been a shortage of people willing to bash the Metrodome. Torii Hunter played centerfield beautifully there. He hated it. Kent Hrbek became a Minnesota baseball legend in the Dome. He thinks it is an oddly lovable but grisly place for ball.
Well, you can ask anybody. Even someone writing a story under the headline A Case for the Metrodome sum up its baseball powers like so: “It’s a terrible place to watch a baseball game.” There does not seem to be many opposing opinions, even in Minnesota where the Dome played a key role — maybe even the starring role — in 1987 and 1991 World Series championships. The Twins have played .541 baseball in the Dome* and .441 baseball on the road. Baseball in the Dome can be such a dispiriting thing that even winning doesn’t always feel worth it. In Kansas City, when there are 11,000 people in the stands, it still feels pleasant, the fountains are going, the grass is crayon-green, it’s just nice. In Minnesota, when 11,000 people are in the Dome, you feel like you are at an especially depressing demolition derby.
*Believe it or not … only one team in baseball has played sub .500 baseball at home since 1982, the first year of the Dome. And even that isn’t exactly right — the team is Tampa Bay and the Rays have only played since 1998. Conversely, two teams have played better than .500 baseball on the road over the last 28 seasons — and you probably can guess those: The Yankees and Atlanta.
But that doesn’t mean the place lacks magic. Haunted houses have magic. When the Dome is filled, it’s the loudest park in baseball. And when it’s loud, crazy stuff happens here. Infielders drop fly balls. Baseballs bounce over outfielder’s heads. High line drives can get caught in the air conditioning and ride the air stream over the fence. Hard ground balls can scoot around fielders Barry Sanders, and bounce off walls, and turn singles into triples. Centerfielders leap high against the wall and make remarkable catches.
It had to go, of course. But while everyone wanted it to go year after year — everybody from players to writers to announcers to fans to everybody — the Metrodome endured. There was history there — Kirby and Hrbek and Jack Morris in Game 7. There was shelter from the cold in those April games. There was the certainty of baseball — come rain, snow, hail, locusts, whatever. There was the impossible cost of building a new stadium. There was all that it brought to Minnesota — the Dome was always a good pro football stadium, it brought in Final Fours and various huge events. It made the Twin Cities matter, in some ways.
Finally, there was inertia. Are you going to fix your drive or drive around the pothole? Truth is, after a while, you might even kind of learn to love that pothole. After all, it’s yours. And the Dome belonged to the Twins, belonged to Minnesota baseball fans. It was theirs: The worst stadium in baseball. Sure, that means something. It was something to COMPLAIN about. And stuff to complain about brings people together. In the South, it’s the humidity. Hot enough for you? In Buffalo, it’s the snow. In St. Louis, it’s the construction. In New York, maybe it’s the tourists., in Los Angeles the traffic, in Cleveland the Browns. In Miami, it’s the drivers. In Chicago, it’s the Bears quarterback. In Kansas City, it was for many years Carl Peterson … and I think people around Kansas City can’t help but miss him because it’s just not as much fun to complain about Scott Pioli.
The Metrodome would bring everyone together during baseball season. It was so dreadful, so indefensible, so anti-baseball that in a weird way it became the opposite of those things. My suspicion was always that Twins fans could take some pride in it.
How many games did you sit through at the Dome?
Oh man. Probably. Fifty?
Wow. You’re a stronger man than I am.
Of course, now the Twins will move into a new stadium, a beautiful new place where the grass will be green, and the food will be varied and the atmosphere will be alive and, yes, Opening Day may feel like the freezer car in “Goodfellas.” Well, you always have to endure something to get something else. It’s an exciting new time. But the future isn’t here yet. First, they have to close the Dome down. And the truth is, the Dome doesn’t want to close down. The Dome is like HAL in 2001, A Spacy Odyssey — it just ain’t ready to get disconnected. And so the Twins played fierce baseball the last three weeks of the season, and forced the playoff. If the Twins win today, they will force the Yankees to come back in one more time. If they somehow win that series …
Well, let’s not get ahead of the time. Horror movies end too. For now, for today at least, the creepy music plays and the Metrodome still has that killer’s gleam in the eye. It never was a thing of beauty. But it sure is damn hard to beat the Twins there on a day like today.
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I dunno. I thought the Dome was OK. I was there once.
And then the young hero swoops in to kill the horror movie villain…circle me, Rick Porcello! Please, put that cursed place out of my misery?
Joe, I don’t understand what you mean when you say “only two teams have been over .500 since 1982″. Do you mean over .500 on the road?
Looking forward to the “best thing ever” pics. Did Duane Kuiper use a black bat?
If the Twins beat the Tigers, then the last game at the Metrodome will be a drubbing at the hands of the Yankees. Again. I guess that’s fitting.
There could be ten more games at the Metrodome this year, if Twins go to World Series Game Seven. Or just one.
I cannot imagine how loud Game Seven would be, knowing for certain that it’s goodbye to the Dome.
At least there are no possible clashes with the Vikings any more – the only Vikes home game is Oct 18 and that’s a travel day in the ALCS.
I sat through a couple of hundred or so games at the Dome. I did more screaming and clapping and cheering there than anywhere else on earth. While I admit that it was a terrible park, I will miss it.
Oh, who am I kidding? It was terrible! You can’t see the ball! The PA system is horrible! Most seats face away from the action! It is dreary beyond belief! It is the worst place I have ever watched my favorite team win the World Series at, ever!
i have always had kind of a little sports-crush on the Twins–the roots of which were probably built around the misguided assumption of Kirby Puckett being the greatest guy on earth–but today I’ve got to root for the Tigers. I mean, on one hand you’ve got the magic of Favre last night….and on the other you have Miggy getting plowed and throwing down with his wife. Not to mention to obvious things going on in Detroit…I hope the gods of baseball (actually, Rick Porcello’s right arm) have something good in store today. Good god, 20 years old…I hope he’s too young to be nervous.
Growing up in Cincinnati, so called ‘anti-baseball’ coincides with the Reds best years. Generic Riverfront Stadium, the buttonless polyester uniforms, and astroturf were staples of the Big Red Machine. When the Reds shocked the A’s in the 1990 World Series, they were still wearing those polyester disco uniforms. When the team (along with everyone else) adopted retro-modern uniforms in the mid 90’s, something was lost. The 95 Reds had more talent than the 90 team, but lacked their cliched ‘it’ and were crushed by the Atlanta Braves in the NLCS.
Things only got worse when Great American Ball Park was opened. Sure, watching a game there is miles ahead of the ‘experience’ of Riverfront Stadium, but the winning is gone, and some days it feels like it will never return.
So I appreciate the imperfections, annoyances, and disasters of baseball’s presentations. I grin when see old clips of faint football yard lines in centerfield. I remember hum of some loud machine that was always in the background of radio broadcasts. I also get a kick out of seeing people wear gaudy 70s/80s retro uniforms. I am one of the few people that don’t like them out of a sense of irony.
As someone who watched more than his fair share of Expos games, I have to take issue with calling the Metrodome the “worst stadium ever” – surely, for baseball at least, that honour has to go the the “Big O”. Why? 1) Unlike the Kingdome, which didn’t “seem sturdy”, the Big O actually wasn’t structurally sound; the Expos had to go on an extended road trip one season after huge concrete beams fell from the roof. 2) The retractable roof was never operational, despite the huge added cost of such a bizarre contraption (it was cloth, and was supposed to pull up like a tent). 3) It went something like 400% over budget, and ended up costing (I believe) over $1 billion – and it was built in the mid-1970s. This experience, I will always think, was directly responsible for the refusal in Montreal to build a new stadium for the Expos (after all, Montreal was still paying for the Big “Owe” well into the 1990s), which led to the Expos leaving, which led to the abomination that is the Washington Nationals.
So, in some, the Big O was a big, ugly, expensive, multi-purpose stadium that was literally falling apart and had a roof that never, ever opened. And it lead to the Expos leaving their city. Top that, Metrodome.
NB: should read “in sum”.
I have only been to one MLB park outside of Tiger Stadium and Comerica Park, and that was the Metrodome. A friend flew me out for a series against my home town Tigers a couple of years ago and for one game we sat about fifty feet beyond third base in the 10th row or so. My neck has still not recovered from craning it for nine innings trying to see home plate without leaning too far forward and obstructing the view of my entire row. Just a dismal, dismal, way to watch a ballgame. But I think that was dollar dog night, so at least I had that going for me.
I thought it was nice the first time I saw it, too. The next 15, not so much. I’ll miss the place because of the idiosyncracies and because I was married there. But I’ll be happy to watch a game outdoors, even in April.
I imagine that in 2030 people will be saying that it’s time all for those cookie-cutter ballparks from the 90s and 00s to finally be replaced.
They aren’t completely shutting it down though. Aren’t the Vikings staying there?
Kind of appropriate that the Metrodome goes out like the nickname of the person it was named after- “The Happy Warrior.”
There is zero question that the worst park ever was Colt Stadium. Rattlesnakes, Sauna-like temperatures, mosquito infestations…ugh. Plus it just looks hideous.
http://www.ballparks.com/baseball/national/coltst.htm
I took my girlfriend to this game there a couple yrs ago:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIN/MIN200708030.shtml
Santana vs Sabathia.
I kept trying to let her know what a great pitching matchup it was, she kept letting me know how terrible the Metrodome was. She’s no baseball fan, but she knows what a baseball stadium should feel like, and she was having none of the Metrodome, 2 best lefties in baseball or not.
@13: “cookie-cutter”? I don’t think the collection of parks built since Camden Yards are cookie-cutter. Not if you compare them to the parks built in the sixties. Shea, Three Rivers, Riverfront, Fulton County, Jack Murphy, Candlestick, old Busch and possibly others looked virtually identical. I think in an old Abstract Bill James called them “sterile ashtrays”.
Went my first game in 1982, sat in Right field and found out you couldn’t see the rightfielder. We moved quickly and I never sat there again.
I have a long connection with the Dome. I worked there for 5 years in concessions and even was the private waiter for Peter Ueberroth during 1985 All Star Game. Seeing the game from Field Level, I went to two World Series, a Final Four Game and concerts featuring Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead and the Rolling Stones.
The Dome cost 68 million to build and came in under budget. Dollar for dollar it was one of the best investments a state ever made for its people. Besides Pro, College (not just the Gophers but smaller area colleges) and High school football and baseball, Timberwolf and Gopher basketball, Concerts, Trade Shows and softball tourneys it was used as a walking and rollerblading track in the long Minnesota winters by thousands.
That all being said it was a depressing place to see a baseball game. Sterile and gray. The halls remind me of some type of government facility that is designed either to keep people out or lock them in. I never took pride in the place and always had to travel to Kansas City, Milwaukee, Chicago, Cleveland or the Midwest League to see a “real” baseball game. But even that had a upside as it really bonded my friends together as a baseball community looking to experience the game as it should be seen.
So like all things in life the Metrodome is neither all bad or all good, it is what it is. A football stadium that become a place of where Minnesotans came together. A village green for the State, albeit under a teflon roof.
Having partial season tickets, I have hurt my neck a lot in the dome, I am glad we are moving outside.
I will say that when the Final 4 was there in 1992 the feeling of walking through the doors from the concourse into the dome was awe inspiring.
“There does not seem to be many opposing opinions, even in Minnesota where the Dome played a key role — maybe even the starring role — in 1987 and 1991 World Series championships.”
This really cannot be understated. In the World Series those two years, the Twins record in the Dome was 8-0. On the road, their record was 0-6. Ask any Cardinals fan and it will definitely come up as Excuse #2 as to why the Cards don’t have more WS titles (Dekinger, of course, is Excuse #1).
@Jim K: I don’t think they’re cookie-cutter. I was just amusedly envisioning the fans of 2030 thinking that they are. When the newest ballparks have virtual reality suites and concessions teleported to your seat, places like Safeco, Coors, and Citifield are all going to seem like the same old dinosaur.
The Metrodome was built with football as the star attraction. The Twins were in danger of contraction, as I recall. Calvin Griffith was making noises about moving the team. After too many years under his cheapskate ownership, the teams were horrible to watch so very few in town cared of they left or not. Baseball was an after-thought in the design of the dome. So, we got a stadium where it’s always 72 degrees and dry (not a totally bad thing in Minnesota) and all the seats face the 50 yard line.
And which of those four games in the 1987 World Series did the Dome adversely affect the Cardinals? They got blown out in three of them and the Game 7 wasn’t decided by the Dome, either. The 1980s Cardinal fans led the world in whining.
The Denkinger call cost me $50, when $50 was a lot to me (I had 1-0 Cardinals on a $0.50 board). But, watching Andujar and Herzog embarrass themselves the next night made the loss of $50 palatable. Wah. Cry me a river, Cardinals fans. And while you’re at it, answer me this: which World Series winning team had the worst record?
Pfft.
Any sports writer who makes a reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey in his blog is a cool guy in my book.
Although I already knew you were a cool guy, Joe.
I’ve been to one game at the Metrodome, about six, maybe seven years ago. It felt like a big lecture hall. There were various baseball-themed banners and posters, the Twins made an effort to spiff it up a bit, but there was just so much that could be done to make a difference.
If the Twins reach the postseason, the ‘Dome will become the fourth park since 1989 (when SkyDome kicked off the wave of construction) to close out in the postseason.
Amen, Brent! As a Braves fan, I HATE HATE HATE the Metrodome. In a world without the Dome, Bobby Cox has two WS rings.
I’ve never cared for the “kill the ump” argument–it was just one play, after all. (BTW, Weber’s As They See ‘Em has a great section on Denkinger.) But the Dome changed the course of TWO World Series! It is proof positive that baseball cannot be played under football conditions without ruining the sport. Good riddance!
Brent (#21) beat me to the exact post I wanted to make. Cards fans in my neck of the woods are almost as likely to go on a rant about the Dome as they are Denkinger.
For that alone, I will be a little bit sad when the place is gone. Anything that torments Cardinal fans can’t be all bad!
I’ll miss the dome. Two world series titles, Kirby Puckett and a real home field advantage. It’ll be sad to realize that Puckett never played at Target Field.
Alas, the Kingdome wasn’t all that sturdy. In ‘94 tiles fell into the stands before a tilt with the Orioles.
This isn’t a postseason game, but it should be pointed out that the Twins have lost their last seven postseason games at the Metrodome. And not all were to the Yankees.
I’ve never been to the Metrodome, but if someone who’s been to baseball games both there and RFK tells me that the Metrodome is worse, then I’ll accept that as gospel.
And if you’ve never been to RFK, lemme just say that if you imagine the old Busch Stadium transported into a hellish world akin to that of, say, Escape From New York, then you’ve got RFK. It was dismal, it was run-down, and it was in some ways just a scary place.
@Sabby: I grew up in Vermont, so the Expos were the other local team (after the Red Sox). Two things about Stade Olympique: my dad got hit in the head by a foul line drive there, and when I was in Montreal for a high school field trip on an off day, I climbed up to the top of the roof. So I have mixed feelings.
“…really big eight-track tapes.” Heh.
I’m happy that the Twins will be moving outdoors in ‘10 but I wonder when there are 6-12″ of snow on the ground some April (or May?!) if the Twins might play a few games indoors rather than create doubleheaders later in the season? Milwaukee has a retractable roof that allows for lousy, cold spring weather. I’m wondering how often Minnesotans will wish they had something similar.
I was in the Kingdome in ‘78 for a few Mariner Games. Wow, that place was depressing. I can only imagine how bad the dome in Montreal was. I think Sabby #9 made some very good points about that wretched building and how it created the demise of the Expos.
I hate the Twins with all of my heart (purely out of jealousy), but you perfectly summed up the dome’s simultaneous suckitude and mystique. Great post.
it’s not like it is much different in MN than in Cleveland or Boston. I think they did research, and the last two years there would have been less than 3 rain/snow outs a year.
I have no interest in a retractable roof. They are closed too often, and they eliminate the outdoor feel.
The dome is a terrible place to watch baseball. The memories I have are of the games and the players, not the place.
I grew up in Houston, watching bad baseball in the Astrodome. We had rainbow unis, white shoes (yek!), and a horrid ballpark. Yes we had comfortable, padded seats, the exploding bull home run show, and Nolan Ryan; but the setting and team were junk. Imagine my surprise when I moved to Minnesota in 1991, that the Astrodome was actually not the worst ballpark around. The Homer Dome is simply putrid.
From the wind tunnel explosion of the revolving door entrance to the cheap, fluorescent and plastic atmosphere, to the pathetic baggy in right field, the Metrodome was anti-baseball. Yet, it was strangely charming. Legendary Twins PA announcer Bob Casey had great schtick, the overweight midwestern women screamed at the players, and the fans stuck behind the team with all the hopeful Minnesota spirit they could conjure. What a contradiction?
@#31, but that’s impossible, Gardy is the best manager in baseball………….
[...] you only have it in you to read one thing today, read this Metrodome eulogy by Joe Posnanski. It’s typically [...]
I have been saying for many years now that a TSC God looms above the K preventing the Royals from having even a remotely decent season. Despite the awfulness of the Metrodome, it may just protect the Twins from any such outside power effecting them. Or may the Metrodome is the God that sees to it that they are a successful team. It will be interesting to see how things fair in the new stadium, which is beautiful from the pictures that I have seen.
Comment on the poll – obviously most of the readers of this blog are white.
If not, the results would reflect 82 degrees. That’s my sh!t. That’s my region up in there
#1: @24 – The two worst teams in World Series history are the 85-77 Twins of 1987, and the 83-78 Cardinals of 2006. Both teams had a common opponent in their World Series runs.
#2: The Tigers are gonna roll the credits today.
#3: It’s funny you bring out that home/road split Joe. When I was analyzing the game personally, I was curious to see if the Twins had the biggest homefield advantage in baseball and was surprised to see that they didn’t. At least not since 1982, when HHH Dome was built. The 100 point difference in winning pct. was tied with the Florida Marlins (Home – .528, Road – .428) for FIFTH. The Rockies were first at 152 (Home – .552, Road – .400), followed by the Rays at 124, the Rangers at 105, and the Astros at 102.
A few things worth noting are that Rangers and Astros both have played at two parks for rather significant periods of the time since 1982. I didn’t look any deeper to see if the difference was more pronounced at Arlington Stadium/Astrodome as opposed to The Ballpark/Minute Maid Park. The Rockies have played in two parks as well, but they only played two years at Mile High so I don’t think thats really statistically significant.
For the record, the Cincinnati Reds are on the bottom of this list with a split differential of 42. Since 1982, they’ve been .510 at home and .468 on the road.
Never have been to the Metrodome, but traveled to Stade Olympique several times (to see the Mets). It’s hard to imagine any place sucking the life out of a ballgame more than that. It was in a lovely setting, so it wasn’t a complete loss — but once you got inside the door, it was not just depressing for a ballpark, it was depressing for a structure of any kind. The world’s biggest basement.
I’ve only been a baseball fan since 1982 really, so I’ve only ever known the dome as the place for the Twins. It’s kinda weird for me to see them get a new stadium…like seeing the Mets get a new one. But hey, I don’t think tonight’s the final Twins game in the Metrodome.
I’ll let someone else (if interested) go to the stats and prove me wrong, but one thing that I find rather interesting and don’t hear much said about is the complete change of baseball played and related final scores in games played @ Coors Field in Denver. Yes, I know about the humidor and all but still the Rockies now have home games scores very similar to most other clubs. Can the humidor explain all of this? If so, why not use one in the new Yankee Stadium ? Maybe all of those homeruns that folks were complaining about after the new place opened would be cut down at least a little.
However, I get the impression that most Yankee fans and the players came to enjoy the increased home game home run totals as the season progressed. Pitching be damned!
Ah, Stade Olympique… I recall Opening Day 1987 when Darryl Strawberry smoked a line drive that struck the concrete ring that marked the base of the non-retractable roof. Astounding, even on television.
I have a similar first-hand recollection of Kevin Mitchell (then a Red) cracking a pair of homers against Charlie Hough in Joe Robbie Stadium, the second of which hit one of the banners that then circled the field in the upper deck. The whole park just made that ‘whooooooah’ sound, 25,000 or so falling dead silent in a hurry.
Circle me, Hubert Humphrey.
@24 SBG
Most cards fans didn’t whine about 1987 and whining still isnt that big a trait though the internet empowers whiners of all stripes of course (kind of like you whining at cards fans).
When the other team or its park or its fans beat you, then you were beaten and/or not properly prepared for the games. Period.
However when a paid umpire beats you on a play that could have been called correctly by a blind person’s guide dog, that is a different story.
As for the display in Game 7 that year, that was herzog and his players and something not condoned by any intelligent fan anywhere.
As for 06, it is certainly true that the cards had the worst season record but with essentially the same team that had won 100 the 2 years before it. LaRussa had released his puppet master strings those years with nothing to show for it and used them again in 06, creating a host of player/manager “issues.” Meaning that the talent truly underplayed their ability that year for the most part.
But that talent won out when they luckily managed to reach the playoffs.
The best team won in 87 and in 06 (both of which were the worst team in the playoffs those years); not so much in 1985.
D’oh – correction, it must have been Opening Day 1988. ‘87 was the infamous Duffy Rhodes game against the Cubs in Wrigley. Man, I’m gettin’ old.
@24: “So, we got a stadium where it’s always 72 degrees and dry (not a totally bad thing in Minnesota) and all the seats face the 50 yard line.”
It wasn’t dry nor was it 72 degrees for the first two seasons.
err I mean 23 not 24.
@26: Technically the play-in is post regular season… technically…
Wonderful article as usual etc. blah blah blah
But – the only sports venue in Minnesota that can be referred to as a barn is Williams Arena.
I took my French wife to a game at the dome. She thought Derek Jeter and Chuck Knobloch were cute and Americans get up every two minutes to eat. When I explained to her in the seventh inning that when the next player made an out everyone would stand up and sing – and then it happened on the next pitch she looked at me with some kind of mix of horror and fear…
I have a good feeling about today. Win Twins!
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I’m not sure I can handle anymore Denkinger talk. Please, Cards fans, let it go. You’ve won 2 World Series since ‘85. You’ve been blessed with the best player alive, and he’s a tremendous human being, and he was pilfered from Kansas City proper. Whenever I visit Busch for the I-70 series, your generosity and good nature is always on display. In the name of all that is holy, let it go.
It’s just too bad that such an ugly stadium was named for a good and decent man. I think Hubert Humphrey deserved better. Horatio Hornblower deserved better, too.
I’ve been to many a game at the dome. In fact I was there for game 162. I was sad to leave because it was a big part of how I was introduced to baseball, but I also said as I left that I never intend to come back (and not just because the Twins won’t play there anymore).
What I do love the Dome for is the fact that in a way it saved the Twins. When Selig threatened to contract the Twins, a big part of what got them out of it was the fact that they still had a lease at the Dome for another year or two. I’m happy that after too many years of worrying the Twins would leave or disappear that they seem to have a safe future here in MN.
#47: “The best team won in 87 and in 06 (both of which were the worst team in the playoffs those years); not so much in 1985.”
That remark is kind of a slap in the face of the Royals, don’t you think? I get it, the call was bad. Terrible. Atrocious. But after the call, Orta was erased on a botched sac bunt–the only out the Cardinals recorded in that entire inning. As the saying goes, the umps don’t make more mistakes than the players. And what about Game 7?
The ‘85 Royals have at least as much claim to “best team” as the ‘87 Twins and ‘06 Cards.
[...] to save the entire city of Detroit and the Twins look to extend the life of a spirited stadium that everyone wants gone anyway! As game time approaches, Miguel Cabrera(notes) is in the lineup and saying that he made "a [...]
Although I will not argue against the horror of the Metrodome, I would like to officially nominate Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium as a strong competitor for the worst of all time.
The “Field of Seams” was a horribly ugly stadium with one of the worst fields you could ever imagine where a generally hostel crowd gathered; likely feeling that way because of the infestation of rats and cats that made the entire thing constantly smell like urine.
As Donovan McNabb said as it got close to demolition time,
“”I like to go over there every few weeks to see how much the cats have grown. They just get bigger and bigger.”
And that was a place you couldn’t just kill – PETA wouldnt have it. The animals created a humanity issue where destruction of the stadium became such a huge issue. It sure could kill you though, with the field being so bad that they actually called a 2001 preseason football game for fear of the players safety. “No way we’re playing on that” (said Brian Billick, in infamous fashion)
So where the Met was horrible, it wasnt nearly the problems of the Vet. Shoot, even Santa wasnt safe at Veterans.
[...] to save the entire city of Detroit and the Twins look to extend the life of a spirited stadium that everyone wants gone anyway! As game time approaches, Miguel Cabrera(notes) is in the lineup and saying that he made "a [...]
Jarry Park was a nice little ballpark. Sure it was cold there in April and September. It was in Montreal, what did you expect? But it was a real ballpark, and the fans were not that far from the action.
It was vastly better to be a little cold in Jarry Park than to be at a comfortable temperature in the horrid Olympic Stadium.
The Metrodome gave the Twins a big home field advantage, but it took one away from the Vikings.
The Vikes used to be a tough team to beat at home in the playoffs in the cold Minnesota weather, when they played outdoors like football should be played. They haven’t been back to the Super Bowl since they gave up their winter advantage, and it’s no coincidence in my opinion.
Is it just me, or are there others who longed to play on Astro-turf at night in a cookie-cutter stadium with big upper decks in the outfield? I recall as a kid I hated the Cubs because they played during the day on grass and you could see buildings beyond the chain-link fence behind the bleachers. It was like the softball field down at the Legion. Today, my priorities are back to normal, but I’ll never forget how cool I thought that Astro-turf and those upper decks were. Three Rivers, Riverfront, Veterans, the old Busch Stadium… I loved them all.
Sorry, Mark Daniel #62….The cookie cutter ballparks were horrid then and now when I think back to that period. The turf was only ugly green carpet on asphalt or concrete and I do not know why the move to those boring round stadiums also created the beltless, polyester uniforms but they sucked too.
When the Pirates left old Forbes Field and moved into that hideous donut-
chunk o’ concrete part of my heart was forever drowned in the nearby Ohio River. It wasn’t much or any better for the Steelers either. When they left Pitt Stadium they were able to say good-bye to their crappy history but that’s about all that was gained.
Buchholz Surfer #61: You have made me realize something re your comments about the Vikings playing outdoors at the Met pre 1982…. Do you find it interesting that the Buffalo Bills could say the same thing? Both teams got to SBowl 4 times and then lost each and every time- didn’t have that cold weather advantage in that final game.
That was a pretty gritty, gutty hustle double there in the first by Mauer.
[...] to save the entire city of Detroit and the Twins look to extend the life of a spirited stadium that everyone wants gone anyway! As game time approaches, Miguel Cabrera(notes) is in the lineup and saying that he made "a [...]
“Sure, that means something. It was something to COMPLAIN about. And stuff to complain about brings people together.”
Where do I start? Our summers are incredibly humid, our winters are frigid and last for six months, our roads are always torn up, our drivers don’t know how to drive, this also then means our traffic is pretty wretched, the Vikings have never really come close to winning it all, the Wolves are awful, we lost our “true” hockey team to Dallas, and Mary Tyler Moore didn’t really film her show in the Twin Cities.
We have PLENTY to complain about. And I will miss the Dome.
What an At Bat by Nick Punto!!!
Won’t miss it. The Met was the greatest. Temporarily lost my hearing when Gladden grand slammed the Cardinals in ‘87 WS.
It … will … not … die …
NMark W #63: The Bills played seven January home playoff games in their Super Bowl run. Obviously, they won them all.
Not all the games were in snowy conditions, but I’d bet most of them were in the cold, and the Bills were definitely comfortable and experienced in the cold weather.
Unlike the Vikings, they still have that potential advantage, but they aren’t able to get to the playoffs anymore, much less host playoff games.
@Spud no it will not. dylan thomas is now a fan of the metrodome….
Game. Of. The. Year.
Not even Chip Caray can ruin this.
Matt Holliday just called to say that Casilla was obviously safe at home.
The collapse is complete. The Metrodome lives.
What an amazing game. Awesome.
It’s as if the Metrodome has a soul and wants to prove it.
One of the best I’ve ever seen. We’ll be remembering this masterpiece for years.
Epic. It is as if the Metrodome has a life of its own — the Twins love it (48-33 there, I think?) and I’m excited to see at least a few more games there.
[...] Joe Posnanski » Blog Archive » Riding The Metrodome [...]
Dave Dombrowski should immediately fire whomever made the decision to give an intentional walk to Delmon Young.
Nothing beats watching sports with your son who is a real fan for the first time this year. Nothing.
[...] into the limelight like a frustrated chorus girl. The last game in the Metrodome was supposed to be Read more Share and [...]
What a game. Playoff baseball is amazing. But largely because it is such a crapshoot and most close games have so many important plays that could go either way.
The crapshoot element is shown by the Twins winning the game with base hits by Casilla (BA 198 and OBP 277 ) and Gomez (BA 227 and OBP 285 )?
How could they even get tied for first place with those guys in the line up?
Even with the crapshoot of a short playoff series, it is hard to see the Twins beating the Yankees. But a game for the ages.
I’m happy for all those Twins fan at the possible farewell game at the Metrodome (which I also went to once and did not think it was so bad).
What an amazing game!!! This building will just not die!!!
Minnesota people… The Homer Dome has to be one of the few true home-field advantage parks, right? The noise seems unreal and I can’t imagine you can see the ball very well if you don’t have pick-the-ball-up tricks up your sleeve… right?
This is the most devastating game I’ve had to watch since I was sitting in the 500 level of Busch Stadium during Game 4 of the 2006 World Series and saw Curtis Granderson slip and fall on the wet outfield grass.
Through my pain, I want to congratulate the Twins. I don’t particularly approve of the Tigers season being painted as a collapse in consideration of the fact that their winning percentage in August/September was greater than their overall winning percentage. What’s fact is that the Twins closed it out 17-4. That’s almost impossible to do, and they achieved it. I tip my cap to them (begrudingly), and congratulate them on their accomplishment.
I’m also happy that I never have to watch another baseball game played in that horrible dome ever again in life (unless the Twins play the Red Sox in the ALCS). Good riddance, Metrodome.
Of course, neither of those two singles were hit hard enough to break a pane of glass.
And BOBBY KEPPEL somehow manages to get four outs without giving up a run under the highest pressure imaginable? I thought they should have left in Mahay.
Baseball fever. Catch it!!
What’s next for the HHH Dome? After the last weekend plus Monday & Tuesday I’d say The Beatles need to reunite and play there before the Yankees come to town up 2 games to none…
[...] Field at Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, will happily have to wait for at least a few more days. The place won’t die, as Joe Posnanski writes. (Posnanski’s post, along with being generally amusing, also [...]
hey joe
did you ask that sleep weather question because you saw the first episode of the new season of curb your enthusiasm?
Fantastic game last night.
The Twins may have played a 5 hour game in which they used almost their entire pitching staff, then had to fly halfway across the country in the middle of the night, but the Yankees aren’t without their problems either. I read this morning that the Yankees STILL haven’t decided whether to put a third catcher on the roster, or to choose a pinch runner or a 2nd lefty out of the bullpen.
Mike in MN, that is awesome. That’s something I’m really looking forward to. Must be amazing.
Hope you and your son enjoy the last three games of the Twins season
Well, I’m one of those annoying “realist” fans, so I’d guess we have one, maybe two games left in the dome. My son gets a little too much sarcasm from me about certain players at times (Punto and Young and Gardy among my biggest complaints), but the last few weeks I’ve tried to be “just a fan” with him (and myself). Sometimes it’s just more fun not thinking about numbers, and decisions, and just letting the emotion soak in. This last week has been that kind of week.
While I didn’t agree with all of Gardy’s decisions, at some point you just have to acknowledge that somehow his teams do compete in the regular season. Maybe it’s hard to think a manager is great when you see his every mistake. Maybe Gardy is best enjoyed from a distance, I don’t know. But I’ll do my best not to rip him next year….
In your recent SI.com article about October success, you have a picture of the 04 Red Sox as teams that were “mediocre” but won the World Series. Don’t you think the 07 Cards fit that bill a little better? But all one has to do is take one look at the picture to see the clear bias for major sports markets. David Ortiz doesn’t embody mediocrity that succeeds in the clutch. David Eckstein would have been a much better choice. But the media loves sucking the Red Sox to death, so what’s new?
Last word on the 85 Series:
They played 7 games, in which KC outscored STL 28-13. That is one of the larger run differentials in WS history. One missed call means that STL was better than KC?
Wow. A more logical conclusion would be that the KC pitching staff DOMINATED the Cardinals, who hit under 200 for the series, one of the worst hitting performances in the WS in the modern era.
Thems the facts, regardless of the screwup by Denkinger.
Whenever people talk about how great a college football playoff would be, I always think about champions that played mediocre regular seasons. Rather than proving once and for all which team is the best, it simply gives underachievers a second chance. They are the SATs of sports. While the bowl system is knuts, I applaud college football for not following the crowd and going to a playoff system.
I had a hockey game last night, and saw the eighth and ninth – hugely disappointed because I had to go play.
Of course, then I went back upstairs after the game, just in time to watch the full count, bases loaded strikeout to close the visitor’s twelfth, and then the finale. I got pretty much the whole highlight package except for the tenth inning.
AND we won 3-1. Good times. Unbelieveable ball game.
Studies are clear, one game playoffs are VERY bad about having the “best” win at something. There is a lot of interesting math on sites dedicated to pinewood derbies, and why single elimination events are bad at deciding the best.
I agree completely with you bsg. I’ve long been an opponent of lengthy playoffs in all sports. As far as I’m concerned, no more than 4 teams should ever make the playoffs. I understand that this would cost leagues alot of money and it will never happen (again), but its been my prevailing opinion for quite a long time.
Larry, why only four teams? Why the arbitrary number?
Not necessarily relevant to this post, but in his blog at chron.com (Houston Chronicle website), columnist Richard Justice writes, “Come to think of it, if you throw out my two worst columns of every week, I might be mentioned in the same breath with Joe Posnanski.”
[...] game and the better team won at home. From everything I’ve read, the Metrodome is just an awful place to see baseball but it’s got to be pretty cool for the home fans to see such a run in its last [...]
Mike,
I don’t know if it’s easier to enjoy Gardy from a distance, but speaking as a Royals fan, I’d be pretty ecstatic with a coach whose team has won its division five of the eight years he’s been coaching.
Fans complaining about coaches who frequently get to the playoffs “but can’t win the big one” remind me too much of the complaints about Marty Schottenheimer before he left. Turns out there are worse things than losing in the playoffs each year. Just ask a Chiefs fan.
Well, if a few of the upcoming playoff games are as good as this one, we are in store for a heckuva October.
I was at the game last night, and wouldn’t you know it, it may very well have been the 163rd game I’d been to at the Dome since 2002-ya know, give or take. Been to games in all sorts of outside weather, and it’s always been a comfy 67-70 degrees inside. After all that time in wonderful, if indoor baseball weather, after all the games I’ve been to, last night, about the 8th inning, the roof started leaking, and visible drips could be seen in multiple left field spots. Ironically perfect timing, really.
“In Kansas City, it was for many years Carl Peterson … and I think people around Kansas City can’t help but miss him because it’s just not as much fun to complain about Scott Pioli.”
Take a look at the comment boards at the STAR, Joe; Pioli is catching up fast.
Rainy out, freezeing out, 100degrees out Hey I’m not going to the new park in those conditions. Minnesota tax payer you got the shaft!
didn’t have time to read through every single comment, but I thought I’d add Candlestick Park in San Francisco to the “grim ballparks” list. yes, the twins may open up in weather reminiscent of the freezer in goodfellas…but a giants game in july could morph into similar conditions.
great stuff as always joe.
Wow, tough decision on your Pop Music vote. I went with The Beatles; of the choices listed they did the most to expand pop music both technologically in the instruments and technology they used, and musically by expanding and incorporating more styles of music, making it okay to use (say) a baroque trumpet in a pop song. But I’m not sure I’d have picked The Beatles ahead of Irving Berlin (“White Christmas”) or George Gershwin, who almost single handedly led classical music onto Broadway and then into modern pop culture. I mean, for a guy who died in his 30s Gershwin accomplished a ton. I think Elvis and Ray Charles and lots of jazz/blues guys did a lot to create the environment that enabled The Beatles to work. Note that the Fab Four also covered some great Broadway songs*, so guys like Meredith Willson and Lerner and Loewe and maybe Richard Rogers also deserve a nod, even though maybe few of you know what they did. Mostly what they did was write great (and some not so great) songs for musicals. Elvis was more a performer than a composer, and The Beatles wrote more great pop music (and arguably as much great rock music) as anybody else. So I agree with the top three, and in that order, of these choices.
*On my first visit to England, an attractive young Englishwoman invited me back to her house, and had just poured us some wine when the conversation turned to classical music. I opined that just as classical music of today really was just the popular music of Mozart’s time (and Beethoven’s and Gershwin’s) so too maybe around 2020 The Beatles would be considered classical music. I note that Sir Paul McCartney has done a superb film soundtrack and IIRC an oratorio, and one of the hottest tix in classical music today is the full orchestral version of the Star Wars scores. She contended that classical was classical, The Beatles were not classical, and if I intended to get more from her than one glass of wine I’d better face facts. I sometimes regret sticking to my guns, but on balance I think that 32 years later I’m not sorry I took a long walk back to my hotel that night.