Target Field has become the jewel of baseball stadia in the Upper Midwest, and perhaps the nation. Perhaps you saw its majestic landscape on a recent cover of Sports Illustrated. The Minnesota Twins made extra effort to build a stadium the “right” way – sure, there are plenty of club seats and suites, concession choices, and quirky dimensions, all things one expects in a modern ballpark.  Yet the team wanted a standout facility, genuinely fan-friendly (not with the term merely in quotation marks) with “Minnesotan” flair.
    Twins fan and stadium geek that I am, I intently followed the park’s design and assembly for the past few years, checking the BallparkMagic.com site and the construction webcams every day. On Sept. 8 – my day to finally attend a game at Target Field – my mother and I headed to Minneapolis. Now I want to show you, the Chippewa Valley reader, what the ideal professional baseball experience is like – and it’s only an hour-and-a-half away.
    My excitement was palpable as we walked to the stadium past the statues of Rod Carew and former owner Calvin Griffith – the ballpark was alive with patrons. Earlier this year I had traipsed around the stadium a few times, but this was the first journey past the gates. The nerves built as the ticket scanner prepared to check my ticket. The ticket was OK’d and I stepped across the threshold and into the stadium – I was in my new baseball home. The massive grin did not leave my face for a good three minutes. I was finally in an outdoor Twins baseball stadium.
    The “little things” are what you notice when you go to a game at Target Field: hostas and other flowers and trees growing in the outfield seating area, Interstate 394 visible through a narrow space in the right field concourse, standing next to organist Sue Nelson as she played the ballpark organ in the Twins Pub, seeing jets fly overhead on ascent from MSP instead of merely hearing a roar behind a roof, moths flying about the upper deck, the Minneapolis skyline reflecting the stages of dusk (and the pink tone of the clouds at sunset), a breeze bringing a chill by the 9th inning. None of these things existed for 28 seasons of Twins’ baseball in the Metrodome.
 

  The food selection has been much talked-about, and I now know why. My gastronomical mission consisted of the “Twins Dog” (the same recipe as served at Metropolitan Stadium), and we later tried gelato and the Tony O’s Cuban Sandwich, featuring a recipe overseen by Twins’ legend Tony Oliva. As one might expect, the prices are a tad high, yet they’re tolerable, especially for ballpark food.
    Speaking of Mr. Oliva, as we made our way along the upper concourse, who was standing among the crowd next to his sandwich stand? Tony Oliva! No line, no security … nothing, just one of the best baseball players of all time hanging out amongst the fans. Needless to say, a handshake and photo op from me and a hug from my mother were in order. These are the kind of moments that happen at Target Field.
    Our seats were in the upper deck (officially known as the Terrace View level). My mother wondered where the nosebleed seats were; ours were close to the highest in the stadium, but if the view from our spot is any indication, “nosebleed seats” do not exist at Target Field.  Almost all seating perspectives are exceptional.
    These top-notch views included the technological and the personal: a 101-foot-wide HD video board, so crystal clear that it might as well have been a living room television; and open concourses that allowed me to run to the back of the seating bowl and watch the action upon hearing the roar of the crowd when the Twins scored a run.
    Walking away from the Twins’ win over the Royals, I looked back at the bright stadium lights illuminating the downtown – the first season such a scene has ever occurred. Thus was the end of one of the best baseball days in my life. And when you go to Target Field, you will have one of your best baseball days as well.