Baseball Culture

Sunday, Day 5 (Already?!)

We decided to take on a major league event today, along with a crowd numbering 34,780.
To be exact.

 

Welcome to Target Field, home stadium of the Minnesota Twins. (Get it--twins? Read yesterday's post otherwise.) The first thing you notice upon trying to enter the stadium is the sheer size of crowd you must merge into, and sometimes swim upstream against, to get deeper inside. I felt like a salmon.

Going deeper into the jungle of concrete, food stands and bobbing baseball caps, the next thing you encounter is the smells. The olfactory cacophony of a million frying oils is as loud and alive as the din of the crowd all around you. Finally, as you round a last bend, you see the whole field open up before you, framed by thousands of seats and lights on every side.

--Better stand up now, the National Anthem is starting...

The game itself was just about everything a tourist could hope for: two homeruns culminating in a win for the home team. (I especially liked that a Canadian hit the first homerun, not that I'm biased or anything.) The excitement of the crowd is contagious, a cheer erupting with every crack of the bat and swelling to a roar with every step run to the next base. I'm not even a sports fan myself, but the fun of being part of such a big event--a cultural event, I might add--made sitting through the game quite worthwhile.