My First Twins Home Opener!

All photos of 2025 Twins Home Opener available on Flickr.

I didn't want to admit it at the time, but part of me always knew when we moved to Minnesota that at some point it would no longer be feasible to make it back to Milwaukee for Opening Day every year.  We made it work last season since it lined up so perfectly with Easter, but schools don't really have a Spring Break where we live, and the weather is always so unpredictable in March and April, so I mentally prepared myself that 2024 may have been my last Brewers opener for awhile.  Sure enough, it just wasn't in the cards this year with how the schedules lined up.  However, I did manage to keep my streak of 16 consecutive non-Covid home openers alive this past Thursday by attending the Twins opener at Target Field.  The weather was not that different in Minneapolis than most openers were in Milwaukee in all the years since 2008 - the temp was 42° at first pitch with partly cloudy skies.  Megan and I arrived downtown bundled in layers around 1:30pm for a 3:10pm first pitch, and were greeted by something unfamiliar to a couple of AmFam Field veterans - completely sold out parking lots.  The 3 main ramps that service Target Field were full, as was my usual "secret hack" spot by the library, so we snagged the first available spot we could find in a garage for $38.  I've always found the parking situation to be atrocious at Target Field, but I wasn't about to let that get me down on Opening Day.  We still arrived in plenty of time to procure some beverages and take a lap around the stadium before settling in to our usual favorite standing room bar area.

When Megan and I go to Twins games, we generally just buy the cheapest tickets available and spend time at various bars and social spaces or just walking around, and Opening Day was no different.  We made a bee-line for what was formerly the Summit Brewing Pub on the 2nd level in the left field corner, only to find it had been renamed the "Surfside Iced Tea & Vodka" bar for this year.  After the initial shock of Miller Park becoming American Family Field wore off, I've learned to not get too attached to corporate sponsorships, so this didn't really faze me so long as they still sold Summit beer, which they did - and now with the added bonus of hoagie-sized cans of Surfside for sale, for which we had to procure a special larger sized can koozie.  The other very welcome part of being up on this level was all the heat lamps suspended from the ceiling and structure above.  They had these strewn about on the 1st level as well, but they really had a tangible impact up in the tighter quarters of this level.  I'm not sure if these are new or if I just never noticed them before, but they were amazing and the Brewers should absolutely install these in the concourses.  Despite the 40-degree temps and not wearing a jacket, between the heat lamps and the direct sunshine, very rarely did I feel cold unless I purposely chose to be in an area without these two things.  I was expecting to see more of a standing patio heater situation, but these lamps were a much more efficient way to heat while not taking up precious aisle space at a park that is already quite congested.  The third of what I would call "new things" at Target Field that we experienced (or at least new to us) was the Cutwater Cocktail Bar, which is located in dead center directly above the batter's eye and the Delta Airlines suite.  This reminded me a lot of the center field bar that Erik and I were at last year in Seattle (T-Mobile 'Pen), except it's a level above the field so the vantage point is much better.  There was a Red Cow burger stand, a Pizza Luce stand, and of course the cocktail bar in this area, along with a variety of seating types and drink rails, all open to and facing the field.  I'm not a big fan of the Cutwater canned cocktails, but that aside, I liked this bar even better than the Summit/Surfside bar.  We crushed some pie here and had a couple drinks, and this was the closest we came to actually being able to watch the game in the near-capacity crowd.  The pizza stand we ate at here sold a new pizza slice featured at the park this year that has pickles on it, which sounds super weird but don't knock it 'til you try it.

The attendance was just shy of a sellout at 36,783.  It's very foreign to me that a team would not sell out a home opener, but it was still an impressive total given the weather.  A packed and loud house witnessed the Twins drop their opener to the Astros by a score of 5-2, which put their record at 2-5 and dead last in the AL Central as of that game (they have since crawled above the lowly White Sox).  The game got off to a promising start in the bottom of the 1st, when Matt Wallner crushed the 4th pitch of a game for a triple and came around to score on a Carlos Correa ground out, followed by Trevor Larnach singling in Byron Buxton later in the inning for a 2-0 lead.  That lead was short-lived, however, despite the excitement from my father-in-law watching at home on a tape delay.  The Astros would tie the game in the top of the 2nd with back-to-back homers from Christian Walker and Jeremy Pena, and then take the lead in the 4th and never look back.  Joe Ryan was about as serviceable as you can be for an April start, giving up 4 over 5 and striking out 6.  Former Brewer Josh Hader nailed down the save with just 13 pitches to seal the victory.

It was not quite the same energy as a Brewers home opener, but nothing beats Opening day no matter where it is, and Megan and I had a fantastic time as always.  Game #1 of the season in the books!

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 4/7/25 (this year's over/under pari du jour is the A's):
Brewers 5-5, -1.0; 3 @ Rockies, 3 @ Diamondbacks
Twins 3-6, -2.0; 4 @ Royals, 3 v. Tigers
Athletics 4-6, -4.0; 3 v. Padres, 3 v. Mets

2025 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 0
Peter - 2