on the subject of baseball...

A recent email from a certain uncle of mine (Hi Uncle J! =) talked about how "Baseball is a game meant to be played outdoors...on real grass and dirt." I have no problem with that opinion at all, in fact that is a great way to watch baseball! But it got me thinking about my baseball watching experience and I emailed him back about the memories that I have of indoor baseball and thought I would share it with all of you...

Next year Twins baseball will be played outdoors in their new stadium and I am looking forward to it. (Especially since the commuter/light rail by our house will be finished then and we can walk to the station and hop the train to the game!) That being said, the Metrodome holds a lot of very special memories for me as it was the place where we went every summer for vacation. When you live on a farm, you don't take summer vacations very often because that is a busy time for working in the fields. We listened to the Twins on the radio everyday, and dropped almost everything to watch the 2 or three games that were shown on TV during the season. But usually once a summer, when there would be a day or two of rain that would prevent work in the fields, we would pack up and head for the big cities and take in a Twins game. And we could, because the Dome allowed us to watch baseball indoors when it was raining outside. And it was magical! Especially for this farmgirl. There were 10-15+ times more people attending the games than lived in our town! So I still smile every time I see it in the skyline when driving downtown, and it still takes my breath away when you walk in the doors and see the field. Our kids won't remember any games in the Dome, they will know the joy of outdoor baseball instead, but they will hopefully have many fond memories of baseball games taken in together as a family, just like I do.

Go Twins!
-C