Target Field Succeeds Where Citi Fails
By Mike Silva ~ October 12th, 2009. Filed under: Mike Silva.
The writers were given a chance to tour Minnesota’s new Target Field this weekend. Ken Davidoff of Newsday had a great reaction to the experience. In contrast to what we saw at Citi Field, the Twins are honoring their history with:
- The entrance gates are numbered 3,6, 14, 29 and 34.
- There are atriums named after Kirby Puckett and Rod Carew along with portraits of each
- After a home run an old fashioned Twins logo lights up in centerfield. For the younger fans, this was the Twins symbol before the M.
- A bar is named after the home run total of Harmon Killebrew (573) and another after Kent Hrbek.
- Outside the press box there are famous Twins game calls carved in stone.
There are some other nuances, including a huge wall where the ball is in play, that you can read in Davidoff’s column. The only knock is the lack of a retractable roof. If a game was played on Saturday the temperature would have been in the twenties. I understand a roof isn’t something you can buy off the clearance rack, but knowing the weather in Minnesota I am not sure October baseball won’t be enjoyable for the fans and players. Perhaps MLB can use some common sense and schedule Minnesota games earlier in the day. I might be asking for too much on that one.
Once again you have to wonder what the Mets were thinking. They build this great ballpark and then leave out the history. Jim Baumbach had the best line calling it the Marriott of baseball parks earlier in the year. Close your eyes and you could be in any city in the country. All that is water under the bridge, let’s see how they correct the problem, or make it a whole lot worse.
October 12th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Structurally, i wouldn’t say its generic in that sense that It’s pretty obvious that it’s Citi Field, as long as you know Citi Field. However, they need to do a _lot_ more with the Mets history. I don’t need to overname everything, or rename the gates (Citi Field’s gates, while named for it’s location, which is actually helpful in terms of finding it, actually do have the silouttes, honoring famous Mets plays. Does it need to be as over the top to name it out? nah..)
The biggest things I want to see are renaming things, which supposedly they’re planning to do. Koogan’s Landing, (Coogan? I never remember) rename the Bridge. name the promenade food court the Piazza (it’as behind home plate after all) more Mets logos. Even just plaster one in the stairwell at every landing. (Speakers would be nice here too, it’s the only place in the park that you cant hear or see the game besides the rotunda/entrances)
If there’s a blank spot, put a picture up. If something is named something generic like “Metropolitan Box”..actually, that one’s okay. But “baseline box”? just call it Shea box. shut people up.
On the other hand, I do think they should leave a little room to grow too. Hopefully 15-20 years from now we’ll be looking for things to name after Wright, Reyes and maybe Beltran and Santana.
October 12th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
I greed with much of what Ceetar said. Add Mets logos. Color pix of Mets players (from each decade). Rename the mysterious Ebbetts Club. How about Shea Club? Shea Shack?
Where are the plans for a bona fide Mets Museum??
October 12th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
A roof over Target Field wouldn’t have made it any warmer. For that to happen,you would need an enclosed structure,like,say,a dome.Hard as it may be to believe,outdoor baseball was played in Bloomington,Minnesota for 22 years before the horrible Humphery dome was fostered upon us,and not one fan ever froze to death. The new Target Field does feature heated “warming areas” for fans to thaw out between innings,and I would think the players will be afforded a similar luxury during April/October baseball.
October 12th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
I read about the heated field, which keeps the game no lower than 40 degrees, after I wrote that post. Regardless, the word is that if there was a Game 4 tonight the weather was forboding. Not sure how October baseball will work in Minnesota, but sounds like they are confident it can and will. Worrying about Oct baseball is never a bad thing for a franchise.
October 12th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Bill
According to Wilpon and David Howard there will be a Mets museum by opening day. Lets see if its well done or as pathetic as the one at Shea outside the Diamond Club.
October 12th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Ceetar is right on the money re: the stairwells at Citi Field. They are huge concrete boxes just crying to be decorated. Rikers’s Island has more decoration. How about the scoreboards? I am so disappointed in the scoreboards. If you took a wide angle photo of Citi Field behind home plate and blacked out the huge “Citi Field” sign in left center, you would have no idea who played there. How about the lame “Let’s Go Mets” sign in block letters above the Jumbotron? They might as well have posted something that says “Post No Bills”. They couldn’t put it in the distinctive Mets script!? I hope all the shortcomings were just a case of getting the place functional when April rolled around and some real thought be done this winter. Change the Ebbetts Club to “Payson’s Place!”
October 20th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
“- Outside the press box there is famous Twins game calls carved in stone.”
Using the word “are” in place of “is” would be proper here.
October 20th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Thanks for the catch!
October 24th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
Went to a game in mid sept., and they didn’t even have a mets logo ball in the entire park. I checked every store, incld. the kids one. Not only that, there weren’t any citi field inaugural baseballs. I guess since it was late in the season and they werent making the playoffs they didnt want any left over. Still it is the only MLB park I have been to where they didnt have the team logo on a rawlings ball. That’s sad.