With the Twins playing decent baseball this year, we decided to make a weekend trip down to Houston to catch them in action! For Johnny, this was his fourth MLB game, but likely first he will have any chance of having any recollection of. In the days leading up to the game he was very excited, tuning in to the Home Run Derby and learning the names of several Twins players including his favorite, Brian Dozier. He also learned the Twins theme song “We’re Gonna Win Twins!” (as well as the Wild theme song “State of Hockey” and Vikings song “Skol Vikings”). For the occasion, he even miraculously allowed a hat on his head for basically the first time ever.
We left for Houston around 11am Saturday and arrived around 2:30 at the home of former Valleyfair co-workers and friends Joe and Krista and their baby Lily where we’d be staying for the night. We visited for a while and then headed to Minute Maid Park through a heavy downpour. Aside from nearly being hit by a car as a pedestrian, we arrived at the park safely and in plenty of time for first pitch. Johnny enjoyed a hot dog, water, and ice cream throughout the game. While he had some fun watching, we were too far down the third base line for him to really see the action and he lost interest pretty fast. He had more fun wandering the concourse. With the Astros being extremely good this year, it was a near sellout and the place was a sea of orange. But we did spot a few dozen other Twins fans.
I’ve now seen the Twins as the away team in Houston, Texas, Seattle, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Boston, and New York (the old Yankee Stadium). The Yankees fans were the biggest jerks to me as an opposing fan, but truth be told none of them took terribly kindly to me decked out in Twins garb. It’s a blast to go to a rivalry like Twins-Royals or Twins-Brewers where it’s pretty even, but a lot less fun to be in the vast minority as a fan.
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