As If You Haven't Read Enough About Target Field

Ok, I know that if you've spent any time at all on the web reading stories from the media and Twins fans, you've probably reached your limit of Target Field reports. I hope you have the patience for one more.

I'd really like to thank the Baseball Gods and Mother Nature, who apparently had a summit to flawlessly weave an outstanding game with terrific weather. I'm willing to bet the forecasts of showers were done by design just to make us appreciate it even more. It was mild and breezy; in the shade, it was windbreaker weather. Lovely.

My first ever cup of coffee at a Twins game, just to take the chill off. It was good, too.

The park itself is as good as advertised. It reminds me a little of the best of AT&T park, Busch Stadium, and Camden Yard, but it has its own personality. I really like the look of all the stone.

And the atmosphere is as great as anywhere.

Like any good baseball dork, I kept a score card. I wanted to remember everything.

Here are all the "Target Field Firsts" as I remembered and wrote them down:

YOUR Minnesota Twins

• First pitch - Carl Pavano to Marco Scutaro (ball)

• First base hit - Marco Scutaro (1st, off Pavano)
• First caught-stealing - Marco Scutaro (1st, Pavano to Hudson)
• First manager arguing - Terry Francona (1st, thought Pavano balked)
• First extra-base hit - Dustin Pedroia (1st, off Pavano)
• First base-on-balls - Denard Span (1st, off Lester)
• First Twins base hit - Orlando Hudson (1st, off Lester)
• First run batted in - Michael Cuddyer (1st, off Lester)
• First run scored - Denard Span

The first run on the scoreboard

• First strikeout - Carl Pavano (2nd, of Ortiz)
• First stolen base - Nick Punto (2nd, off Lester/Martinez), which also led to the first belt replacement

 Tim Tchida: "Keep your pants on, son."

• First Twins extra-base hit - Joe Mauer (2nd, off Lester)
• First fair/foul replay - Mike Camron (foul, 5th, off Pavano)
• First homerun - Jason Kubel (7th, off Atchison), which is kind a funny story -- all afternoon, whenever he, or any of the heavy hitters, came to the plate, I cheered "my mom wants to see a homerun!", but, of course, right before Kubes came to the plate, she went somewhere, and missed it.
• First final out - Jon Rauch (9th, of Beltre)

• First win - Carl Pavano
• First save - Jon Rauch

 First celebration

It takes a little longer now for the guys in the bullpen to join the high-fiving

Yay!

All in all, an amazing day!

If you're interested in seeing the rest of my pictures, here's a link to my Facebook album. It's public, so you don't need to be on Facebook to see them.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2055033&id=1533682127&l=57eec13d45