The Awl http://www.theawl.com/ Be Less Stupid Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:15:04 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.2 Real America, with Abe Sauer: The Last Game of Baseball in the Metrodome http://www.theawl.com/2009/10/real-america-with-abe-sauer-the-last-game-of-baseball-in-the-metrodome http://www.theawl.com/2009/10/real-america-with-abe-sauer-the-last-game-of-baseball-in-the-metrodome#comments Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:15:04 +0000 Abe Sauer http://www.theawl.com/2009/10/real-america-with-abe-sauer-the-last-game-of-baseball-in-the-metrodome metrodome-2At 5 p.m. (EDT) the Twins will play the Tigers in an extra season game (163!) for the American League Central title. While the Twins' inspired play helped them get here, the game is mostly the result of the Tigers' complete-complete!-meltdown. It's the second straight year the Twins season has ended with such a playoff game. It's the 108th year the Tigers season has ended with them still being from Detroit. But even more woeful is that, should the Twins lose, it's the last baseball game ever at the Metrodome.

The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome opened in April of 1982. Technically, it was "inflated." As anyone who has ever exited the Metrodome knows, the facility is actually pressurized by air, like a hot air balloon.

From the beginning, the Metrodome has become everything an urban sports complex is not supposed to be: it was built cheap and came in several million dollars under budget. It was made to "get fans in, let 'em see a game, and let 'em go home"-not to separate them from as much of their money as humanly possible. It has hosted two world series championships, a super bowl, Kirby Puckett and a number of division titles. It is an Iowan breeding ground and in Kevin Costner's post apocalyptic America, the president governs from here. In perhaps the greatest of all stadium sins, it was instantly, and permanently, profitable for the city. Being a native of Wisconsin, where stadiums run millions over-budget, rob taxpayers blind, produce no hope of championships, immediately break and literally kill human beings, the Metrodome is a horrendous insult to baseball.

metrodome-1Players and fans complain that the Metrodome is too good for the long-ball, giving Twins hitters an unfair season-long advantage. Statistics have proven this to be untrue. But the Metrodome's interior teflon-coated fiberglass cloth has resulted in many fielders losing the ball in the ceiling-though as many of those errors seems to have been by the Twins as by their competitors. On two occasions balls have literally been lost in the vent holes in the fabric.

Next year the Twins will be playing at a brand new outdoor stadium. It, like everything else in Minnesota, is named "Target" (suck it Best Buy!), yet two-thirds was paid for by taxpayers. Still, today's game is perfect example of the drawbacks of outdoor baseball in Minnesota, as it is 48 degrees and raining. (To say nothing of outdoor Minnesota baseball next April.)

So with the Twins at Target Field and the Gophers at their new TCF Bank Stadium and the Timberwolves at Target Center Arena and the Wild at the Xcel Energy Center, what Minneapolis certainly needs is another stadium. And of course that is now exactly what the Vikings want which will probably result in the dome being torn down in another year or so.


---

See more posts by Abe Sauer

36 comments

]]> metrodome-2At 5 p.m. (EDT) the Twins will play the Tigers in an extra season game (163!) for the American League Central title. While the Twins' inspired play helped them get here, the game is mostly the result of the Tigers' complete-complete!-meltdown. It's the second straight year the Twins season has ended with such a playoff game. It's the 108th year the Tigers season has ended with them still being from Detroit. But even more woeful is that, should the Twins lose, it's the last baseball game ever at the Metrodome.

The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome opened in April of 1982. Technically, it was "inflated." As anyone who has ever exited the Metrodome knows, the facility is actually pressurized by air, like a hot air balloon.

From the beginning, the Metrodome has become everything an urban sports complex is not supposed to be: it was built cheap and came in several million dollars under budget. It was made to "get fans in, let 'em see a game, and let 'em go home"-not to separate them from as much of their money as humanly possible. It has hosted two world series championships, a super bowl, Kirby Puckett and a number of division titles. It is an Iowan breeding ground and in Kevin Costner's post apocalyptic America, the president governs from here. In perhaps the greatest of all stadium sins, it was instantly, and permanently, profitable for the city. Being a native of Wisconsin, where stadiums run millions over-budget, rob taxpayers blind, produce no hope of championships, immediately break and literally kill human beings, the Metrodome is a horrendous insult to baseball.

metrodome-1Players and fans complain that the Metrodome is too good for the long-ball, giving Twins hitters an unfair season-long advantage. Statistics have proven this to be untrue. But the Metrodome's interior teflon-coated fiberglass cloth has resulted in many fielders losing the ball in the ceiling-though as many of those errors seems to have been by the Twins as by their competitors. On two occasions balls have literally been lost in the vent holes in the fabric.

Next year the Twins will be playing at a brand new outdoor stadium. It, like everything else in Minnesota, is named "Target" (suck it Best Buy!), yet two-thirds was paid for by taxpayers. Still, today's game is perfect example of the drawbacks of outdoor baseball in Minnesota, as it is 48 degrees and raining. (To say nothing of outdoor Minnesota baseball next April.)

So with the Twins at Target Field and the Gophers at their new TCF Bank Stadium and the Timberwolves at Target Center Arena and the Wild at the Xcel Energy Center, what Minneapolis certainly needs is another stadium. And of course that is now exactly what the Vikings want which will probably result in the dome being torn down in another year or so.


---

See more posts by Abe Sauer

36 comments

]]> http://www.theawl.com/2009/10/real-america-with-abe-sauer-the-last-game-of-baseball-in-the-metrodome/feed 36