…Continued from the previous post.

This day was 11 months and 13 days in the making. So there was no such thing as being too early for the game.

As enjoyable as watching opening round coverage of the NCAA Tournament is, Kels and I had no remorse about leaving March Madness behind in Scottsdale’s Fox Sports Grill at 3:45 PM for the 7:05 PM first pitch that would begin Event #100 – a Spring Training game between the Los Angeles Angels and the San Francisco Giants. After all, we had almost ten miles to travel.

Twenty minutes later we pulled into a free parking lot adjacent to Scottsdale Stadium – an absolute gem of an old-fashioned downtown ballpark. And we were by no means alone in our eagerness. It would be another 45 minutes until the gates would even open, but already there were hundreds of people milling around, even though all 11,622 tickets had long since been sold. These people, like us, just wanted to get inside and drink up the atmosphere as soon as possible.
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March 20^th is just another day. Equinox, schmequinox. And Punxsutawny Phil? He’s a groundhog, for God’s sake – just another figurehead with no real authority.

Ask any sports fan when Spring really begins and they’ll reply without hesitation:  The day that pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training. No matter where you live, from the snowiest of Frost Belt towns to the warmest Sun Belt city, the day that baseball’s pre-season camps open is always the most reliable harbinger of hope. And what is Spring anyway, if not the Official Sponsor of Hope?

When Spring Training begins, every team is a potential World Series champ. Yes, even the Pittsburgh Pirates! OK, that’s patently ridiculous, but see how easily the concept can sweep you away?

With that in mind, what better place to end my journey than at the home office of Renewal?
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Minneapolis has a great sports entertainment district, with tons of bars and restaurants within easy walking distance of the Viking’s Metrodome and the NBA Timberwolve’s Target Center. It makes for a safe and lively destination environment. So it stands to reason that when building a new ballpark, the Minnesota Twins had three good reasons for shoehorning Target Field into a very challenging piece of real estate. Location, location, location.

The decision to build upon this smallish parcel of land has its consequences though. Building a stadium “up” rather than “out” can make for a claustrophobia-inducing environment, as almost everywhere you go in Target Field you’re under some sort of overhang. Sometimes deep under that overhang, as is the case on the main concourse. And with thousands of people crowded into this cave-like area, the pre-game atmosphere on a warm evening can get a little…sauna-esque.

So as the ladies in the South might say, I was “misting” by the time I escaped the below-decks scrum and settled into Section V – home for the next nine innings of my life. As I sat there taking in the sights and sounds though, it troubled me to admit that the Target Field Kool-Aid that I had come to sample was not yet that easy to swallow.
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Minneapolis needs a better press agent. It’s not that there’s a lot of negative information out there about this gleaming metropolitan area. It’s that there’s pretty much no information out there. I’m sure that there is a Chamber of Commerce, a Convention & Visitors Bureau and a Tourism organization of some sort. But the day-to-day, nuts and bolts work of creating an image for Minneapolis? Not so much. Come to think about it, I’ve read much more over the years about the resurrection of St. Paul, the smaller of the Twin Cities.

But each time my travels bring me to Minneapolis it’s almost like I’m seeing the city for the first time. And each time I like it. In fact, there’s next to nothing not to like – well except for that six month winter thing-y. “I have to come here more often”, I say to myself. But then my visit concludes, I get on a plane and inevitably fail to think about Minneapolis again until business brings me back.

Fortunately there is an easy solution to this PR gap. If anyone in a position of power in Minneapolis is reading this, I urge you to seek out the publicist for Target Field and pay them whatever they ask to take on the city as a client.
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John Fogerty’s “Centerfield” is playing on the P.A. system. I’m sitting in the grandstand at an internationally recognized and beloved sporting event. I’ve parked, secured admission and had a little lunch in preparation for the Little League World Series International Championship game. Total cost thus far? Let me see…parking…plus ticket…add in a hot dog and a Powerade…total the column, carry the remainder…OK, if my math is correct, that comes out to a grand total of $4.50.

I haven’t even seen a pitch yet and this is already one of the best events on the “It’s Game Time Somewhere” Tour schedule to date. But then again, any day that starts with meeting a sportscasting legend certainly does get things rolling in the right direction.
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