There are plenty of things that we all miss during quarantine and one of them is a sunny afternoon at Target Field. The home of the Twins has been absent as MLB’s season was delayed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, but that doesn’t mean its luster has worn off.
In a poll by the Boston Globe, its five beat writers ranked Target Field seventh as their favorite stadiums in all of baseball. While it couldn’t take down San Francisco’s Oracle Park, which finished first, Target Field drew rave reviews for squeezing a stadium into what used to be a parking lot.
“Downtown ballpark with local limestone accents is squeezed into a small site,” Globe writer Michael Silverman, who ranked Target Field seventh, said. “But it doesn’t feel cramped.”
“A new park with a smaller footprint preserves some sense of intimacy,” said Alex Spier, who put Target Field seventh. “And gives the illusion that balls crushed to right might bounce off neighboring buildings.”
While Spier may not have heard Jason Giambi’s “drying concrete” theory, some simply marveled at the scenery compared to the Twins’ old home, the Metrodome.
“Locating it conveniently on the edge of downtown, the Twins built a beautiful park after years at the inelegant Metrodome.” Peter Abraham said after also ranking it seventh.
Julian Williams ranked Target Field eighth but called it the most underrated stadium in baseball and Michael Silverman gave it a third-place ranking, complementing the stadium’s limestone.
While the compliments are nice, only one writer didn’t rank Target Field in his top 10 as Dan Shaughnessy opted to include the Oakland Coliseum, which happened to win the title of the worst stadium.
“Total dump, but I love this place,” Shaugnessy said of Oakland. “Ghosts of Billy Martin and Al Davis. BART (local transit) nearby. Infinite foul territory. Stuff happened here.”
If you say so…
