Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports
Sunday Night Football is something you do not want to bring up to a Minnesota Vikings fan right now. The Vikings lost an ugly looking game to the rival Green Bay Packers, 44-31 in primetime in front of the whole nation.
Lost in the shuffle was the lit up and always beautiful Target Field, the sparkling new home of the Minnesota Twins. It’s hard to imagine the Twins ever played in the Dome when it was so juxtaposed to the Metrodome on the Sunday night telecast.
It’s hard to imagine that 12 years ago we were far from positive that Target Field would ever happen and furthermore if the Twins would survive.
The following is from Twins Trivia:
October 28, 2001
Eliminating two major league teams by the start of next season remains a viable option, baseball commissioner Bud Selig said before Game 2 of the World Series. “Can it be worked out for 2002? I can’t tell you that. But I wouldn’t rule it out,” Selig said as he stood by the New York Yankees dugout at Bank One Ballpark. Some owners want to eliminate teams that are losing money and taking a large part of the $160 million in the revenue-sharing fund this year. If owners approve contraction, they would eliminate the Montreal Expos plus one other team, with the Florida Marlins and Minnesota Twins among the candidates. All three teams have sought government assistance in constructing new ballparks. “As the (economic) problems have exacerbated,” Selig said, “it has become clearer to me that everything should be on the table, including contraction.”
Looking at the stands in Florida, now Miami, maybe they should have been contracted or at least their owner should be, but they got a new ballpark.
So did the Expos, granted they had to move south to Washington, D.C., but they got a beautiful ballpark.
The Twins moved from one of the most loved-hated stadiums in the Dome to one of the best stadiums in the world in Target Field.
Just think how cranky we’d all be if the Twins were still playing in the Dome. Think about how there would be nobody going to Twins games if it wasn’t for Target Field! Not a whole lot were going by the end of the past two seasons, but it would be so much worse.
I’m not trying to be an apologist for this franchise. What I’m trying to say is this: I’d rather have a horrible baseball team with a beautiful stadium than not have a baseball team at all.