Goodbye and Good Riddance (sort of).

Damn Metrodome. As you might of discerned from my last contribution to this blog, I was less than thrilled with my visit to the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome this weekend. My Tigers laid an egg on Friday night that put me in a sour mood, and the jackassery around me didn't help matters. Between the idiotic booing of intentional walks and El Tigres bats being dipped in liquid nitrogen, I was in a bad way all evening. That said, I was a still a little nostalgic about this being my last baseball game in this venue. I hadn't been to a baseball game there in over 5 years, and all the little annoyances were still there. The 'baggie' of a right field wall, the crappy elevated box seats, the baseball-colored teflon ceiling (a lost flyball cost the Tigers game 2 of the series, of course), and the dangerously close to the field-of-play bullpens. But really, were the Twinkies my team, I can see how some of these 'features' could become beloved in their own way. I was lucky enough to visit historic Tiger Stadium in my youth, and that place had the same deal, the right field overhang, the Das Boot-like bullpens, and the unpadded cage of an outfield wall. Plus you couldn't get near the place without being accosted by panhandlers.

All lame. Yet some how endearing. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right?


That said, I also took a look at the Twins new digs the following day. I only got to see the outside, but I was definitely impressed.

Pretty sweet by all accounts. A road trip up there next year should be fun, even if Joe Blow from Eden Prairie is whining about Eddie Jackson giving Mauer an intentional pass two rows behind me. I won't say I'll miss baseball in the Metrodome, but I will say it was a unique(-ly bad) venue. But I won't say goodbye and good riddance to that building just yet. After all the Vikings still play there, and being the sports masochist that I am, Gopher Bandanna Guy will be returning there (no doubt in my super secret alter ego, "Lions Bandanna Guy") to see the Honolulu Blue & Silver endure another beating this November. Good times.