As I mentioned in my last post, our game in Cleveland was postponed due to rain. They rescheduled it for the next day as a double-header, but that didn’t work within our schedule. So, we drove on to Target Field.
Rescheduling our Cleveland Game
It took us some time to reschedule our visit to Progressive Field. In the interest of keeping this story moving, I’m going to jump around in time a bit.
When we woke up in Eau Claire, Wisconsin on Friday morning, we started working on rescheduling the Guardians game. Unfortunately, our tickets had disappeared from the MLB app, and we couldn’t find any information on the website about how to reschedule single tickets purchased through the MLB’s official third-party vendor, SeatGeek. Fortunately, we still had the receipt!
Over the weekend, we found the information about the games for which the tickets could be exchanged. All of the available games were in September! So, on Monday, Brad called the team directly to try to plead our case. Regardless of what the team did, we had already decided to try to purchase tickets for Wednesday’s game. We would be en route from Milwaukee to Pittsburgh, with one night in between.
That’s when our Guardians hero, Rob, made our day! After explaining what we were trying to do, Rob worked with his manager to arrange a full refund of our original tickets. Then, he helped us find great seats for the Guardians game on Wednesday the 23rd. We were so grateful for his help!
And now, back to our regularly scheduled ball game!
Parking in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Since we drove all night to get to Eau Claire, the drive into Target Field was relatively short. That allowed us to get there with plenty of time to find parking for both the truck and the Airstream!
Parking with the Airstream in a city lot requires two empty front-to-back parking spots in a lot, not a garage. I spotted a lot near the field on Google Maps and we headed for that. It turned out to be the players’ lot! As there wasn’t much room to turn around, the parking attendant allowed us to pull through the lot to exit. That’s about as close as we have been to players on our entire trip!!
We finally found an empty lot near the Greyhound station with the right parking configuration, pulled in, and paid for our two spots.
Our Impressions of Target Field
Target is a nice ballpark, but it looked like all of their “Hall of Fame” memorabilia was in the Club Section. We had access to it, but most people would not. They did have some nice statues around the ballpark, and a fun drone show instead of fireworks that evening.
Our Seats: Target Field was our first experience with Club Seats, and that certainly left a positive impression! The padded seats were a nice change from the hard plastic we have experienced on most of our trip. We were in Section E, Row 1, Seats 2 through 4.
The Food: While they offered service at our seats, we enjoyed wandering around. The Club section had shorter lines, but they didn’t offer everything that was available elsewhere. I was particularly interested in Walleye on a Stick. Unfortunately, they no longer have that, but I did enjoy Walleye fish and chips! Brad ordered the cheese curds, which were yummy!
Non-Alcoholic Beer Review: Target Field is another Bud Zero ballpark.
The Game Recap: 1 Home Run for Housing
After three innings with no runs, Twins centerfielder Michael Taylor got us started with one, two-run Home Run for Housing! The Twins extended their lead with a run in the bottom of the sixth. Twins pitcher Pablo Lopez extended his no run innings streak to 19 consecutive innings.
In the seventh inning, the Pirates finally got a run on the scoreboard with Twins pitcher Griffin Jax. However, the Twins extended their lead in the bottom of the seventh and ended the game with a win.
The Twins won 5 to 1 over the Pirates, with just one Home Run for Housing.
Up Next:
After the game, we travelled south about 45 minutes and spent the night at a Flying J. That was our first experience doing that, and likely our last. While we have had good experiences with rest stops, this overnight location seemed a bit sketchy. We were happy to be on our way the next morning.
Saturday, August 19, was a travel day. As we made our way to Chicago, we stopped to visit the Field of Dreams.
I love this baseball reporters story!! It is so marvelous that there are Air Stream Angels and Baseball Angels to support you and Well Spring!! Club Seats????? Very nice.