I’m combining my two Target Field games into one post because, well, they felt a lot like the same game.  Except that yesterday Jim Thome was on the team and today he wasn’t… but I’ll get to that.  The games worked like this:

1. Twins play team with grey, orange, and black away jerseys (Baltimore Orioles yesterday afternoon, Detroit Tigers tonight)
2. Twins score one run early (3rd inning yesterday, 2nd inning tonight)
3. Visiting team scores a ton more runs and the Twins are never really in it (6 runs yesterday, 8 runs tonight)

But there were a few differences in my game going experiences.  Yesterday I took the light rail to the game from my mom’s office and went by myself after getting a cheap ticket off of StubHub to sit in the Legend’s Club.  (Since the Twins have been out of any sort of playoff hunt, it’s possible to get tickets now for below face value.)  The Legend’s Club is pretty nice — you must have a ticket in that section to get up there and it is home to all sorts of memorabilia commemorating the first three Twins Hall of Famers: Killebrew, Carew, and Puckett.  Plus, there are air conditioned lounges and bars for you to watch the game in if it gets too hot (or cold?) to sit in your seat.  I didn’t really take advantage of these as it was nice outside.  The fourth Twins HOFer, Bert Blyleven, having only been inducted a few weeks ago, doesn’t have a trophy case there yet.  I wonder if that will change next season.  Barring major construction, he certainly won’t get his own room like the other players, but a kiosk of mementos would be nice.

Also, in the Legend’s Club, you can get one heckuva root beer float.  They line the cup with soft serve ice cream from bottom to top, leaving just a hollow center.  In this hollow center, they poor as much of a bottle of Killebrew Root Beer as will fit in the hollow space, and give you the remainder of the bottle.  As I discovered tonight, this is not available downstairs for the “regular” people — that root beer float was just some root beer in a cup with about a third the amount of ice cream.  And they don’t give you the rest of the bottle of root beer.

Tonight, you see, I was not in the Legend’s Club, but was sitting downstairs with my parents in seats I paid full price for a few months ago, back when I thought a late season Twins-Tigers series was going to be an exciting series for the division title.  But not so much.  On the plus side, tonight was a give-away game and my parents and I are all proud owners of Jim Thome wind-up walkers.  (I’ll maybe post a picture, eventually.)  Unfortunately, as of this afternoon, Thome is no longer a Minnesota Twin.  He was traded to Cleveland, his first team, for a player to be named later.  Thanks for the memories Jim… it was a thrill seeing you crush 597 in Oakland.