A Rainbow of Fun at Target Field-Blackie Polishes Off Detroit

Rainbow at Target Field

The rainbow encircling Target Field is something you'd never see in the Dome.   And you don't often see a Twins pitcher finish a game.  But we saw both at the May 4 Detroit game, a winning effort by Nick Blackburn with a pretty darn good assist by J. J. Hardy.

The windy weather provided some entertainment to us folks up in Section 320 right at the start of the game.  From up there you can see the full descent of french fry boxes and paper napkins into the field.  At first I was surprised the man-made precipitation was ignored, but then I realized that it doesn't take long for all of the detritus to be wind-swept to the side of the field somewhere.

The debris didn't seem to bother Blackie who pitched a great game, though for me a little tense.  Blackie, as he puts it, is a contact hitter.  That means he gets outs by letting the opposing team hit the ball.    As a fan, I can't help get a bit nervous that the hit ball will not land in someones glove.  But on this night, most of the time, it did just that.  When he came back out in the 9th everyone cheered.  I'm sure Bert Blyleven was happy.  But then the moment I feared happened.  The hit ball did not go in a glove.  In fact it went over the fence tying the game.   The game had gotten quite intense, just like the sky overhead.

That's when Hardy went to work with some fancy game-saving fielding, catching a tough grounder, and tossing quickly to Punto to catch Detroit's go-ahead runner rounding too soon to home.  Tag.  You're out.   Then on offense he hit a triple and scored the walk-off winning run in the bottom of the ninth on a wild pitch.

Other stuff.   I got to the field a little early and had a chance to meander around the park before going to my seat.  Got to peer down into the bullpen.  No one there yet of course.   And I watched Fox Sports do a little pre-game show which was kind of cool.    One thing you notice from up high is how many people seem to never sit down in a seat.  There are always crowds of folks just standing behind the seats watching the game or wandering to their next beer stand.  Perhaps it was that way at the Dome.  You couldn't see the corridors from your seat so who knows.  But, I think maybe it is just a little more entertaining at Target Field.  I still have a lot of sight-seeing left to do myself.