Minnesota is proud of their "great, white North" heritage. From freezing Vikings games at The Met and TCF Bank Stadium, to frozen 5Ks, polar plunges and various winter celebrations the cold and the snow are part of Minnesota culture.
But not so much for baseball.
"Spring" 2018 was unseasonably cold, wrecking havoc across the baseball landscape. The New York Yankees, Mets and Detroit Tigers all had their home openers snowed out. Detroit had six of their first twelve home games rescheduled due to weather.
But the worst was still coming.
Winter Storm Xanto hit the the Midwest Friday April 13th 2018 and dumped 15-22 inches of snow in the Metro Area in Minnesota. The Twins had a four game series against the Chicago White Sox scheduled the 12th thru the 15th.
The fountain (and literally everything else) froze
at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City
The one game the Twins played was a 4-0 win over the southsiders on Thursday the 12th. The other three games were all postponed due to the snow.
And that begs the question that sparked a debate across Twins Territory: should Target Field have been built with a retractable roof like Milwaukee?
One click of a button, and no snow-outs in Milwaukee
The coldest game played at Target Field was April 17 2014 with a temperature of 31 degrees at first pitch. The Milwaukee Brewers played at home the same day, but nobody inside Miller Park made a big deal about the snow until they went to their cars and realized the roads home were covered in snow and ice. Inside the stadium during game time, it was a balmy 62 degrees.
Rain outs and snow outs are a part of baseball. During Xanto, the Atlanta Braves and Chicago Cubs played a game in 38 degree weather, 24 MPH winds, snow and sleet. But nobody is demanding Wrigley Field be rebuilt with a roof.
Every single time there’s a rainout (or a snow out), people complain because the Twins used to have the Metrodome. Rain or shine, you could count on the game being played in the Dome and everyone was happy. Except, The Dome was ugly. We had to crane our necks because home plate was 70° off to the side. Fly balls were lost in the white roof and ground balls bounced over defenders or raced past them at breakneck speed. It was not a pleasant experience for anyone involved, unless you came from North Dakota, because at least your trip to the Twin Cities to see the Twins came to fruition because you were able to watch the Twins.
Though there were discussions to put a retractable roof on the new ballpark, it was ultimately decided that it would be an open-air stadium. The space where Target Field was built used to be a parking lot, meaning the ballpark had to be tiny.
Literally, a parking lot
Not only would a retractable roof cost tax payers more money, but there wasn't really any place to put it because of the size crunch the stadium was already in with their construction site.
The original design of Target Field did include a retractable roof,
But, as terrible as the weather was (for everyone) during Winter Storm Xanto, there probably aren't many Twins fans that would trade a couple more games in early April for a view like this:
No comments:
Post a Comment