Grey, dingy, dome roof - I must be talking about the Metrodome!

All about the Metrodome!
In a few years the Mighty Metrodome, in its entire grey dingy dome roof splendor, will be retired. There was an article in this morning’s Star Tribune with facts about eating habits in the Metrodome. Here are some of the morning interesting ones:
· Baseball fans eat and drink more at the Metrodome when the Twins are winning, they prefer draft beer to bottled and spend the most at concession stands on Tuesdays. And they love their ice cream -- possibly more than at any other major league ballpark. Jen’s note: Helmet Sundaes!!!
· The combined sales of draft (16.66 percent) and bottled beer (16.3 percent) comprise one-third of the total concession sales at Twins games. Jen’s note: However, Foley accounts for 12.6 percent of all Miller Lite consumption.
· Much of that food is purchased on Tuesday nights, when fans spend an average of $8.31 at concession stands. Fans spend the least on Wednesdays, an average of $6.62. Jen’s note: Wednesday nights are Dollar Dog Night so it is much cheaper to eat.

There are many options for seeing a game in the dingy old Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. It depends on your mood: Do you want cheap seats last minute? Do you want to see the game happening in front of you? Do you want to escape all the college kids that are there on Half-Price Student ID night? I have sat in ALL the possible sections and I like them all for different reasons.
Behind Home Plate – I have sat in the section behind home plate and it is not as glamorous and you may think. First of all, yes, you get a prime view of the catcher’s behind but otherwise you can’t see the calls and the net darkens your view a little.
Lower Level, First Base side – This just happens to be Amy’s favorite spot. Hmm…wonder why, eh? Could it be a certain blonde Canadian, eh? Would it be the first baseman right in front of us, eh? It is a pretty cool spot to view the pitcher, batter and Morneausey’s butt but the fear of getting pegged by a foul ball. Yes sir, I don’t care if Amy does get me a batting helmet to wear (which would look stupid) it just won’t make me feel safe to have my noggin in the way of a tipped foul ball. Nope. My life is worth more than Morneausey’s butt.
Lower Level, Third Base side – Twice now Amy and I have scored sweet seats in the first row at the Twins bullpen. These are my favorite seats minus the fact we have to walk 40 rows up to go to the bathroom. It is worth having Johan warming up right in front of us. It is also worth trying not to awkwardly stare at “Baby Jesus” Mauer as he is squatting in front of us, I mean I could lean over the railing and knock on his helmet. It is also worth watching Amy watch Moreausey taking swings at the warm-up plate in front of us. The funny part, we were trying not to stare and take pictures so the came out fuzzy due to the fact we weren’t really focusing. I did take a few pics with my camera phone which wasn’t as covert as I wanted it to be. Due to the fact that my camera button makes this loud shutter noise. Yep, a spy I am not. I have attached two photos below...
Lower Level, Left Field, Home Run Porch – these are good seats, you may be far from home plate but you get to have room to watch and chat.
Upper Level Behind Home Plate – Eh, I could take or leave these. Not great views.
Upper Level, Center Field, Cheap Seats – These are my favorites because they are not assigned and you can jockey for a cool spot. If you get in the right section and make enough noise Torii Hunter will wave back at you as he runs onto the field. It is also prime location for hanging and chatting whilst watching the game. Ideal: Sitting cheap seats on a Wednesday night, eating Dollar Dogs and playing Twingo (Twins Bingo). Life doesn’t get better than that.

Johan Santana warming up in the bullpen

Morneausey taking a few practice swings in front of us

Only 34 days until Home-Opener!!! Tomorrow night, Wednesday, February 28, the Twins play their first Spring Training game against Boston at 6:05. I don’t think it is televised but I will be listening to it on the radio…most likely. Y’all know it is my Aunt Karin’s and my TV night (Criminal Minds and CSI: NY). Lame but true.

Hey Ma! I am going to be on ESPN!

Hello Metrodome, see you in 42 days!

It appears that the next year is locked down in ink with the newest one-year deal going to Cuddyer. Cuddy signed a one year, $3.575 million deal and avoided an arbitration hearing. Looks like the decision makers are getting smarter about not going as far as having these arbitration hearings. Too bad they didn’t learn that lesson a year and a half ago with Kyle “Hissy Fit” Lohse. You know that I don’t like to speak ill of the traded but I am glad we don’t have to deal with Lohse anymore since the only thing he did well was kick water coolers and throw his glove, snot nosed little punk.

Here is the recap of our big signings:
Joe “Baby Jesus” Mauer – four years and $33 million
Nick “Sparky” Punto – two years, $4.2 million
Morneausy –one year, $4.5 million
Leeeeeew Ford – one year, $985,000
Juan “Rinks” Rincon – one year, $2 million

Ah, Spring Training
Whilst perusing the official MN Twins site I came across some info regarding Spring Training. Here are the highlights:
· Twins are always one of the last clubs to have its pitchers & catchers report.
· First scheduled workout is this morning (Monday, February 19).
· Pitching is the big focus point, trying to build our rotation. So far Boof, Glen Perkins and Garza are in with a possibility of Baker.
· New faces: Ramon Ortiz, Sidney Ponson, J.D. Durbin and Kevin Slowey.
· Silvia is a question mark.
· Bullpen is looking good with Nathan, Reyes, Rinks, Pat “Sideshow” Neshek, Crain and Guerrier.
· Position spots are all filled with the DH being up for grabs.

42 Days until Home Opener. On that note the Baseball Masters of the Universe have moved the Twins home opener against the Orioles up an hour in the timeslot. It appears that ESPN has picked up the game so it will now start at 6:00 p.m. which ROCKS! A.) We be on ESPN, baby! I better be rocking my fancy hair and lipgloss just in case the camera shows my section. All my out-of-state friends, watch for me!!! B.) I am old so I am happy that I will get home an hour earlier. However, the guys are bummed because they say this is cutting into our tailgating drinking time. Guess we’ll have to leave work an hour earlier. C.) You know ESPN has picked up this game due to the rockstar status of the Twins which is giving major props.

Message from our 2006 American League MVP...

Made for my baseball partner in crime

Here are the high-level bullet points in baseball news:

· Hennepin County and the Minnesota Twins are still girl-fighting over where the new stadium will go.
· Pitchers are reporting to camp today.
· Amy is still in Arizona.
· It is Singles Awareness Day (S.A.D)
· 47 Days until Home-Opener!!!

In the case of my untimely demise...

Real news
Reported at Sports Illustrated.com (evidently they do other stuff besides the Swimsuit Edition):
Mark Pieper, the agent for first baseman Justin Morneau, has turned down a deal similar to Joe Mauer's. For now, Morneau will be paid $4.5 million for this season, a deal he agreed to earlier this month. Because of a difference in service time, Morneau can't become a free agent until after the 2010 season while Mauer could have become free a year earlier.

I know my opinion doesn’t really matter but I think we need to lock this kid in! I know Amy is down in AZ nodding her head in agreement. I don’t want the Twins to look like the chumps who let the MVP get away. Lock him in!!!

Not so important news
The next few months will be busy with putting myself into possibly dangerous situations so I want to make sure my bases are covered, pun intended. This week I will be venturing to the Mille Lacs Kathio State Park where there is a chance I could be mauled by deer, lost on a nature hike or die from hypothermia. In March I will be participating in more extreme happy hours than a normal human being. Finally, in April I will be going on a cruise to the Bahamas’. I have been reading up on the stats with cruises and the odds may be low of the ship going down but they are high with me falling (or get pushed) overboard or getting some weird flu. So, being the ever organized Obsessive Compulsive (OCS) person that I am I have written by Baseball Will.

In the case of my untimely demise I leave…

To Lucille Eskedar Anderson I leave my autographed Tony Oliva baseball and Giant Foam Finger. I know that Amy gave me the giant foam finger but I think Lucy (and Stacy) would benefit from the joy it can bring during a game. Also, Amy isn’t really the Rah-Rah Look at my Giant Foam Finger kind of person.

To Stacy K. Anderson I leave my Twins Piranha’s t-shirt. I hope that when she wears it she will tell the story of Bert Blyleven calling them the Pirantah’s. However, before she can take possession of the article she will need to answer a few quiz-like questions to be deemed worthy: 1.) What does the name “The Piranha’s” mean? 2.) Who are the Piranha’s? 3.) Who coined that name?

To Amy Wood I leave my two American League Champions (2002, 2006), Santana and Punto t-shirts, Twins hooded sweatshirt, blue Twins visor and white Twins visor. I am also leaving her this blog in hopes she will carry on the insanity of baseball.

To Heather “Feather” Foley I leave my 33 for MVP t-shirt since I know Amy won’t wear it anyways.

To my cousin Jason Anderson I leave my Baltimore Orioles visor, he understands.

To my mom I leave my 2007 MN Twins calendar so she can look fondly on my notes and handwriting and remember me at my best.

To Morgan Schneider I leave the MN Twins outfit (size 12 months) that I gave Lucy for her first Twins game.

Any additional items that I may have missed I give to EBay and hope of the selling of said items I can have some cheap bastard use the money to put flowers on my grave.

Morbid but true.

Everybody loves Joe Mauer, he's the hometown hero...

#7, Catcher, 2006 American League Batting Champion

The Minnesota Twins and GM Terry Ryan just signed Joe “Baby Jesus” Mauer to a four-year, $33 million contract. Looks like those radio commercials have paid off. In case you are scratching your head and wondering what the H-ell I am talking about I heard a commercial this weekend talking about Twins Territory and renaming everything with Mauer, example: Mauersota and the Mauer of America.

Note: Micheal Cuddyer (RF) is the last player left in arbitration. Let’s hope they will secure him.

I received the tickets for the Home Opener game. They have a new look to them but each ticket still has various players pictured on them. Yes, Amy, you will get the Morneausy one as Greg will get the Baby Jesus one.

49 Days until Twins Home Opener!

Let's get the stats out of the way...

Here we are up close and personal to TC the Bear!

55 days until home-opener

Co-baseball team-mate Amy will be in AZ for three weeks. That means she will miss the Spring Training game opener on February 28 but we’ll adjust.



On to the business of baseball!
Today we’ll be taking care of the non-funny, non-gossipy side of Real World Baseball – Statistics. After some research on various sites (official Twins page, Sports Illustrated and MLB.com) I have written my lists.

Projected Line-up for 2007
2B Luis Castillo - .296 BA, 3 HR, 49 RBI in 2006
3B Nick Punto - .290 BA, 1 HR, 45 RBI in 2006
C Joe Mauer - .347 BA, 13 HR, 84 RBI in 2006
RF Michael Cuddyer - .284 BA, 24 HR, 109 RBI in 2006
1B Justin Morneau - .321 BA, 34 HR, 130 RBI in 2006
CF Torii Hunter - .278 BA, 31 HR, 98 RBI in 2006
LF Rondell White - .246 BA, 7 HR, 38 RBI in 2006
DH Jason Kubel - .248 BA, 8 HR, 26 RBI in 2006
SS Jason Bartlett - .309 BA, 2 HR, 32 RBI in 2006

Pitching Rotation for 2007
LHP Johan Santana 19-6, 2.77 ERA
RHP Boof Bonser 7-6, 4.22 ERA
RHP Ramon Ortiz 11-16, 5.57 ERA
RHP Carlos Silva 11-15, 5.94 ERA
LHP Glen Perkins 0-0, 1.59 ERA

Bullpen for 2007
Closer: Joe Nathan – 36 saves, 1.58 ERA
RH Set-up Jesse Crain – 3.52 ERA
LH Set-up Dennys Reyes - .89 ERA

*I promise that the next entry will have some action and adventure.

Non-baseball related sporting news:
Hockey Alert! I watched the Detroit Redwings at New York Rangers game last night. Where were the Rangers? They started big and then gave up. I had to watch the game on the sly whilst Stacy was busy with other activities since evidently baseball is enough of a household sport. Between baseball and hockey there would always be a sport on television.

Let the countdown begin...

Here Lucy is at her 1st Twins game on her 1st birthday!

60 days until Minnesota Home Opener
60 days until I am sitting in Section 233, Row 12, Seat 1
60 days until I have to decide which Twins t-shirt I will wear
60 days until tailgating
60 days until the Twins Rally in the IDS Crystal Court
Which leads into 60 days until I have to think of a reason for being absent from work during the rally time
60 days until I get goose bumps and teary eyes from the 2006 montage
60 days until the introductions of our players are made on the field (some of them starting with: Your 2006 Cy Young…, Your 2006 MVP…, Your 2006 Golden Glove…, Your 2006 Batting Champion…)
60 days until BASEBALL!!!

Are you ready for some baseball news? It appears that New York’s Yankee Stadium will be hosting the 2008 All-Star game. 2008 will also be the last season that the Yankees will be playing in Yankee Stadium as they will be moving to their new stadium. What will happen to the House that Babe Ruth Built?

So have I have been throwing around this idea of going to New York to watch the MN Twins play against the NY Mets in June. I haven’t finalized anything yet so I don’t know if I am going to drive or fly or teleport. I did ask Amy if she wanted to go but she’s non-committal at this point *hint, hint* and I know that Stacy would love to go back to New York *alternative hint, hint* so there are options out there.

Did you know the distance from the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome to Shea Stadium is 1214.80 miles? That would take about 19 hours and 20 minutes to drive (according to Mapquest). Roadtrip anyone?