15-3

Tilly handing out All-Star Ballots to the boys in our section.

Gazing down upon her adoring fans.

Sweet spot to see the game.

So tired...but we're home.

So...last night was the 52 week anniversary of the first time I took Tilly to a Twins game. Friday May 22 2009 was the night she first went to the Dome with me, wore those pink earphones, saw (ie, slept through) Michael Cuddyer hitting for the cycle and got up on the scoreboard in the bottom of the 6th inning. The Twins beat up on the Brewers that night, 11-5, and the same thing happened last night.

We were a tiny bit late to the game--we walked in right as Orlando Hudson hit a single to follow Denard Span's lead-off walk. Tilly put her head on my shoulder and snuggled in to me. I thought she was sleeping, but the people around me said she was looking around at everyone and everything. She stayed relaxed and contemplative like that until the end of the third inning.

In the mean time, the Twins scored 7 runs in first inning with only one out. I think Joe Mauer grounded in to a double play to finally end the carnage. The Brewers pitcher, a guy named Bush, lost his cool after his third or fourth walk in the first, and just about got tossed.

I was sitting there remembering trips to County Stadium to see the Twins play there in 1989, 1992, 1995...and it was apparent to me that if the Twins had another 7 run inning in the second, that there would be a greatly enhanced chance that the drunken hoardes--hopped up on friendly Minnesota-Wisconsin rivalry and lots of beer--would quickly break out in a crazy ass hot mess of a shit show. Luckily for the unarmed and underpaid security staff, the Twins didn't score again til they put up 5 in the 4th or something. So by that time, everyone had accepted the inevitable outcome on this night in a more measured way, and all was well.

Our seats were in the limestone overhang in right field. We were sitting behind 40 high school seniors from Baudette-Lake of the Woods High School on their class trip. In 1988, my classmates and I at Arlington-Green Isle also took our senior trip to see the Twins play. They got smoked by Kansas City that day, 14-0 or something like that. That was a day game indoors at the Dome, and at that time there was still a hangover from them winning the World Series the year before.

We stayed at the Normandy Inn downtown Minneapolis, which is still there (under a different name) and which still brings back memories--every time I drive by the building--of going to Shinders to buy baseball cards and playing chicken fights or something in the hotel pool. I think that was the first time I'd ever had a 17 or 18 year old girl sitting on my shoulders in a pool wearing a swimsuit, so it left a lasting impression.

Anyway...I digress. Flash to last night. One of the Baudette girls had a "Circle Me Bert" sign that she kept holding up in between innings. Around the 4th inning, one of the chaperones got a cell phone call that this girl had indeed been circled by Bert for all of FSN viewing land to see. Shortly thereafter, the whole group of kids got a photo of the circled girl--taken from television--texted to them. That really hit home for me about how thoroughly the world has changed since I was in high school, not even a generation ago. What will things be like 20 years from now, or 17 years, if Tilly goes to a Twins game with her high school friends?

Anyway, it was another joyous, memorable night at the ballpark with Tilly. We sat in our seats for another three innings after she lifted her head from my shoulder, and then wandered in our Grand Loop for the last three innings, winding up down the left field line in the second level--the Skyline View Deck I think it's called.

Sitting there, chatting with super friendly people, watching Tilly walk up and down the row of seats between me and some junior high girls who couldn't stop fawning over her, it struck me (as I watched Carlos Gomez make an ass of himself after hitting a monstrous homerun): the Twins did it right.

It is hard to find the superlatives that that ballpark truly deserves, and that it truly represents in a comparative sense with the scene from even one year ago...same two teams, same city, same game, same result, but an intensely more fun, sweeter, grander, and visually more stunning experience. Each time I get to Target Field, I enjoy it more and more. It's just an unbelievably fun place to go watch a game, and hang out with your daughter.

Tilly and I have our first Twins tradition established now: each year from now on when the Brewers come to town, we have to go to the Friday night game. Good things just seem to happen.