Who’s Watching Over Your Construction Site?
Posted on April 13th, 2008 – 1:13 PMBy La Velle
I’m not sure if everyone was aware of this story but I have several reactions.
1. I weep for us as a sports society because someone had the brainstorm to toss a perfectly good jersey into the concrete.
2. I weep for us as a sports society because the Yankees were so paranoid about it that they went in to retrieve it. Just read Hal Steinbrenner’s reaction in this AP story.
3. Was the time capsule full?
4. Why couldn’t the Yankees spin it their way and say it reflects how the Yankees have buried the Red Sox for a majority of the past century.
5. Big deal, someone threw a jersey in there. Some curses over the years have been documented but think of how many have failed. As a young sports fan, I attempted to place curses on the Cubs, Red Wings, Pistons, St. Rita High School, every sports team in Wisconsin and Dino Ciccarelli. None worked.
6. Um, who’s watching over the Twins’ construction site?
Seriously, I’ve heard the New Yankees Stadium will be the ultimate in opulence. For instance, the Yankees are basically getting two clubhouses. They will meet with the media in one area, but there will be a large separate area behind that first one where they can dress and unwind.
That seems unreal to me, but I was told during the Twins road trip there last year that the Yanks clubhouse will stretch to the right field foul pole. For Twins fans who have toured the clubhouse during TwinsFest, think about how big it would be if the current Twins clubhouse stretched to the foul pole. But that’s what $1.3 billion gets you.
By the way, the New Twins Ballpark is going to be pretty nice too. Jim Souhan wrote a great column about the day we got a look at the ballpark model and looked through a downtown window at the construction site.
I’m impressed with how most of the lights are attached to the canopy that runs from foul pole to foul pole. There’s only one, `light tower,’ and it will be over the scoreboard. The scoreboard won’t be as large as the monster you’re seeing in Kansas City this weekend, but it will blow the Dome scoreboard away.
I like quirks, so I think the overhang in right field is a nice touch. And the plaza behind right field is a no-brainer, as it will be a key point of entry from First Avenue into the stadium
The concourses will always be open, so commuters can take the light rail to the stadium, get off the train and cut through the ballpark on the way to work.
It’s unfortunate that there’s not a retractable roof on the ballpark, but it should be a great place to watch a game. Just remember, the last row of the upper deck of the new ballpark is equal to where the first row of the Dome’s left field upper deck is. Wow.
39 Responses to "Who’s Watching Over Your Construction Site?"
Great story La Velle!
I’m not sure that your curse against the Cubs didn’t work 
Really? Dino Cicarelli wasn’t cursed? How come he couldn’t keep his pants on?
“we’ll take the act that was a very, very bad act and turn it into something beautiful,” he said.
Very, very bad act.
How many “very’s” describe the average bad act committed by each New Yorker every hour?
This will be on “Law and Order” next month, except instead of finding Big Papi’s jersey, they will dig up Big Papi.
Hank’s just crazy. It’s New York so they have to make a big deal about this. Nothing’s ever not a big deal with the Red Sox and Yankees.
I’ve been following the construction progress of both Citi Field and the new Yankees Stadium and hadn’t seen the info about the dugout. It’s amazing that they’d need that amount of space, but then again, it’s the Steinbrenners. They can’t do something normal. It’s got to be bigger and better than anything. Just like Jerry Jones and the new Cowboys Stadium.
Can’t complain about a new stadium even without the roof. It’s outdoor baseball. A retractable roof would make it look too boxy since they’d need a track somewhere out in the outfield.
By the way, who on the Twins Construction site do we need to worry about? Not really anyone comes to mind for me. There’s no huge rivalry that would require any worrying about the same situation as in NY.
#1 he shoulda just kept his mouth shut until it was built.
#2 it wont really matter because babe ruth will curse the yankees for tearing down his house anyways.
#3 when is the dome blowing up party scheduled for? and no sir, i will NOT bite my tongue!
The Yankees should just be glad they don’t have Jimmy Hoffa buried in the concrete of their new stadium or maybe they do! He could have been moved from his former location, wherever that may have been (the Meadowlands? naw)
O I think most of us knew about the story… it seems as though if a player sneezes too loud while in a Yankee or Red Sox uniform, then ESPN is required to at least spend an hour talking about the impact of the sneeze on their playoff chances.
I’m still not sold on the Retractable roof stadium. Frankly Miller Park is pretty ugly it looks like a huge warehouse. When you are inside you hardly feel like you are outdoors, its like a triangle is cut out of the roof.
When you are in an “outdoor” park such as Comerica Park, Wrigley Field, or Yankee Stadium it is wide open and lovely. Buffalo, New York, New England, all football teams that play outdoors in winter. It’s stimple if it’s cold outside dress for it.
Yeah there may be some postponements but it’s life. This winter is an oddity. Also, what happens on that 60 degree night with a “chance” of rain, if the Twins are anything like the Brewers ROOF CLOSED!
I’ve been to a half dozen games in Milwaukee and half the time the roof has been closed because of a threat of weather, and two games were in the mid 50s and the roof was closed because it was “too cold”
I’ll take the good with the bad thank you very much!
dan, you should check out safeco in seattle.
Mickey-
It’s at the top of my list. I guess the majority of retractable roof parks ive been to have been a disappointment.
Chase Field- open in april closed the rest of the year(Basically) i mean its not 100 degrees at 7:00 pm and its a dry heat!
Miller Park- Reasons Stated above
Rogers Centre- Closed at End of April LOVELY day outside not a cloud in the Sky Temp in low 60s
Never been to Minute Maid but the whole 2005 playoffs issue with them INTENTIONALLY keeping the roof closed for “noise purposes” was absolutely BOGUS.
Anyway I’d love to get out to Safeco except its not very good for a road trip since it is so far out of the way, and for the record I HATE coordinated trips, i took a trip out to Seattle with my church(NOT BY CHOICE!) and the Twins were playing the Mariners when i was out there COULDNT GO! I WAS IRATE! Anyway I have had nothing but good luck in my baseball trips only had 1 rainout and it was my second game i was going to see at RFK(NO BIG LOSS THERE!) and I saw a 7 inning game Twins/Yankees that was ended due to rain.(Twins Victory BTW!)
i don’t buy the sox jersey story.
come on la velle, a roof, really? a roof makes every ballpark that has one look like crap. who wants a monster structure lurking over a dandy new park cutting out half of the sky even when open? not me, that’s for sure. plus you know some wcco weather fanatic would be in charge of the roof and they would close it up as soon as a cloud floats over fargo or the temps drop into the 60’s. we all should consider ourselves lucky as heck that we are getting a true ballpark with no chance of a roof coming close to the thing. outdoor ball all the way!!!
you are right on dan, the brewers fans got hosed with that roof! hey mickey, if you like the looks of safeco with that lame roof, i feel sorry for you.
and for any of the out of town whiners wanting a roof on the twins park so they can be assured of a game after traveling a few miles… you can keep on driving to milwaukee!
I think a Dick Such jersey would cause pitchers to get hurt.
A joe vavra jersey would cause people to strike out, and not move runners over.
A Nick Punto Jersey would turn the team’s bats into Italian bread loaves, and we’d see them all hitting weak ground balls to the pitcher.
As for players on other teams?
K-rod is the one guy that has always owned this team.
I know back in the 80’s Eddie Murray and Fred Lynn couldn’t get out against the Twins, and I was at a game where Ben Oglivie hit home run in the upper deck in almost dead center field… it went about 12 row over the clock in Right Center.
Seriously, the Twins haven’t been good enough to have one particular rival, or one particular player to kill us terribly.
Frank Thomas and Jim Thome are the best hitters against us I think in baseball, but neither one is hardly a curse kind of guy.
Dan and Between Innings guy,
I could not have said it any better. Every time I hear someone even mention their unhappiness about not having a roof I want to ring their neck. It gets so old listening to the whining. Lavelle, I thought you were above that!
If there’s a roof on that thing it will be closed for MOST games. I’m sure initially the Twins would leave it open as much as possible, but when the temps dip to the 60’s (SHUDDER!) the fan whining would start. The Twins would get sick of the whining and give in to fan pressure and next thing you know it’s an indoor park 75% of the time. You KNOW this would happen. I have no doubt! Thank God almighty there’s no roof.
Being outdoors in the elements adds character to the game, something that is severely lacking in the sterile environment at the Metrodump. Seriously, can you imagine watching a Yankee playoff game in New York with Yankee fans sitting indoors in their short sleave shirts? You think playing in the cold October weather doesn’t add an extra something special to the game? I firmly believe fans having to bundle up like the players makes fans feel more a part of the game.
Out-staters…. tough luck. Don’t like it? Don’t come! Baseball is meant to be played outdoors. Postponements are part of the game. Double-headers are part of the game. We’re going to have to learn how to be fans all over again. The Metrodome has really skewed our thinking.
“Out-staters…. tough luck. Don’t like it? Don’t come!”
Lose the revenue, lose the payroll, lose the players, lose the games,
lose more revenue, lose more payroll,
lose more players, lose more games…..
Twins move to Las Vegas.
New stadium used for WWF, Monster Trucks, rock concerts and Fundamentalist revivals.
i agree about miller park.. if it is not 70 degrees out side they keep the roof shut, i dont want a roof
I’m going to miss the Dome. A lot of smiles, laughs and great memories. But the new ball park will be great, but only when it’s warm and the sun is shining.
I think a great addition to the new stadium would be giant fans blowing people out of the exits after games, to mimick the pressurized doors at the dome. I’m going to miss that experience and I think it could be a good way to remember our past.
nothing good about retractables: they do nothing but create controversy and unneeded expense; plus they’re butt-ugly.
Buried jersey @ Twins park? bury a Pyrzinski jersey…under the urinals.
sane: the walk up on nice days will more than make up for out-staters that can’t handle making a trip to the cities without an insurance policy.
I am really looking forward to attending an outdoor baseball game again. It has been way too long.
I drove to a Brewers game form MN once thinking we were guaranteed a game (because of the roof), but a bank of the lights went out and GAME CANCELED! Ugly roof and still no game!
Thanks for the link LENIII. I hadn’t seen the updated photo galleries or latest the fly around/through video. I can’t wait! I’m a little concerned that the seats down the line aren’t oriented more toward the infield, and I wonder if the whole plaza won’t bounce like the 4th floor of the MOA when traffic goes under, but I’m looking forward to it.
Meanwhile in the “Are they still talking about that?” Dept.:
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8033686/Charges-for-worker-who-planted-Sox-jersey?&MSNHPHMA
There’s also a breaking story that Derek Jeter ate a burrito for lunch. I’ll keep scanning the Interwebs to see if I can discover if it was chicken or beef.
The Yankees kill me what a bunch of whiners. I thought this was funny as hell do they not even have a little sense of humor? Baseball is supposed to be entertaining and fun but i guess when your the evil empire there’s no time for fun.
funny last week michelle t and some guy were talking about there not being an east coast bias on espn. sat fox: sox-yanks, sunday espn: sox-yanks, wed.: espn sox-yanks, this morning about 50% of what was said on the radio had to do with the sox-yanks plus the ever present non biased peter gammons.
sick of it!
Don’t look now gook, but tomorrow’s ESPN Tuesday Night game is Sox/Indians.
I know the big name teams are big time draws for ratings…but isn’t there also something to the fact that a few more national games here and there would benefit even some of the smaller teams.?(Not to mention give baseball fans across the country a chance to get to know guys not in Boston or New York)
Look at Liriano vs. Clemens a few years back. That was supposed to be EPSN’s moment to crown the return of the Rocket. And he was completely outshined by the relative “nobody” Liriano (quotes used because to anybody who followed baseball Liriano was at the time somebody to watch out for)
I’m with BetweenInnings, I don’t remember the peeps in ND, SD, and IA agreeing to pay and extra .15% sales tax to contribute to the stadium…even if they did, the collectives of each of those 3 states wouldn’t give enough sales tax revenue to pay for the urinal cakes in each of the main concorses bathrooms. Seriously, of the over 2M spectators that come to visit the park and watch a Twins game already, I’d be willing to bet that most aren’t out-staters anyway. And here’s a newsflash, you get a voucher for the rescheduled game if it rains out, plus in 1 weekend they typically play more than 1 game (most weekends are scheduled with 2 or 3 games). So, you can watch a game the next day by picking up a ticket at the ticket window…trust me, roof’less was the way to go! Go WILD!
And one more tidbit - watching outdoor baseball hasn’t stopped the floods of Twins fans from following their club to Kansas City … I’ve been there during a rain game, best time i’ve ever had! Went on a weekend trip to Chi’town too…caught a game there durning a “feels like” 110 degree day…so yeah, what makes us believe that the out-staters are going to stay away from the opportunity to see this amazing new state of the art stadium just because it doesn’t have a roof - if they don’t, they’re fair weather fans anyway…who needs’em?
can’t wait for the wild to have a game in the new twins stadium.
Anyone hear Torii Hunters comments on who should be allowed to honor jackie robinson? What a joke. Hunter needs to get over himself. He thinks that only black players should be able to honor Robinson! What happened to being color-blind?
The new stadium is another bandbox. Anyone, will be able to hit a HR. Even Delmon might poke one out.
At least the new stadium is of contemporary design. It doesn’t follow the obnoxious and ubiquitous pattern of incorporating old-time styling, into a new baseball stadium.
Im an Iowan and Im all for the outdoor stadium. Right now, I make at least a couple trips a year to the Dome but the first thing I look for when the schedule comes out is “when are the Twins in KC or Chicago” because I’d much rather see them play outdoors.
Granted, I may not plan many early April trips to Mpls to watch games, but I’ll take my chances with rain the rest of the season.
I don’t think it’s a bandbox ballpark. It’s neither a pitcher park or a hitters park. It’s something in between. That’s how it should be.
I don’t think we’re going to know if it’s hitter or pitcher friendly until they actually play a few games in it. It’s hard to say what’s going to happen with wind and what not.
5 closest ballpark dimensions to the New Twins Ballpark
1) Nationals Park
2) HHH Metrodome
3) Angel Stadium
4) Busch Stadium
5) Great American
No reliable data on Nationals Park yet (14 so far in 2008 but the sample size is 4 games so…) For 2007 the others were 28th, 8th, 22nd, and 7th for park adjusted runs. As you can see that data are really all over the place, so it’s probably going to end up depending on the specifics of the environment.
The new park will be slightly smaller than the Dome at all points except right field ‘1 longer down the line, same power alley, and same wall height so they’re basically replicating the baggy. The Dome is clearly a pitchers park so I think the new one has a good chance to be fair for everyone.
Bison,
It’s IMPOSSIBLE to compare the dome to any outdoor park, Wind, humidity etc are all going to effect how the ball flies. Basically it’s a wait and see. Anyone think the cold is going to deter free agents from signing here….wait, free agents, never mind.
Yeah, I know dan. It’s impossible to compare any of them one to one for the other reason you mentioned as well (wind, humidity, etc.) That’s why I looked at a number that were of similar dimensions and found that some or hitters and other are pitchers parks despite their dimensional similarities. It’s definately going to depend heavily on the local conditions.
I went to specifics on the dome because I thought an earlier poster ‘another band box’ may have been under the impression that the HomerDome is a hitters park when it’s not.
La Velle can pay for the roof on his salary.
