Ode to the Metrodome

Considering the name of this blog and my on going reviews of baseball stadiums it seems strange that I have never reviewed the Hubert Humphrey Metrodome. It isn't like the place hasn't meant much to me. In fact it might be the opposite since the place has meant so much to me during my time up in the frozen tundra. Since this weekend is the final regular season home series it is about time I wrote something about a much loathed park.

I love the Metrodome. That doesn't mean I love everything about it or that I don't understand the many complaints about the place. I do. I know the aisles are long and the seats were apparently made for jockeys for who don't want to be facing home plate. There are some things I love that other people hate (a *Metrodome double) and some things I hate that other people love (the Dome Dog). Regardless the best things about the Metrodome are that the Twins play there and the tickets are cheap. That and the fond memories of games past.

*When a player loses a fly ball in the white background of the Dome usually the batter can make it to 2nd base for a double that in any other ballpark would have been an easy out. This is most common in the day time when the sun makes the Dome's roof even more tough on outfielders. The last Metrodome double I saw was a huge Orlando Cabrera double against the Tigers two weeks ago.

I have been to at least 63 games at the Metrodome. I can say this with complete confidence because I have the ticket stubs to back it up. There have been 51 Twins games, 5 NCAA tournament game, 4 Vikings games, 2 Gophers football games and 1 Gophers-Ohio St. baseball game. I didn't see the Rolling Stones play there, but I am as aware of that fact as I am that the Metrodome is the only place that has hosted a World Series, MLB All Star Game, Super Bowl and Final Four. I didn't meet my wife there, but I have gone on many dates with my future wife there. In fact the year (2006) I fell in love with her was the year I fell in the love with the Twins. That was the year of the tapas (not topless as my Mom initially thought) restaurant and the Piranhas.

My most memorable memories of the Metrdome:

• White Sox - Twins - 2008 - Twins sweep and take the AL Central lead with 3 games left on a dramatic comeback. I can still vividly remember Span chasing Gomez around the bases for his game tying triple.
• Orioles - Twins - 2009 - A what at the time seemed like a pretty meaningless game ends on a Delmon Young single.
• A's - Twins - Game 1 - 2006 - Frank Thomas. And then Frank Thomas again. Zito should give Frank Thomas part of his $126M contract that he got in part for beating Johan Santana in this game.
• A's - Twins - Game 2 - 2006 - Tori Hunter might have won a lot of Gold Gloves, but I always remember him diving and missing what ended up being a game losing inside the park home run.
• Yankees - Twins - 2008 - ***Long Twins/Stats tangent...feel free to skip***I am not into hyperbole, so take that into account when I write that I saw what might be the most statistically improbable event that I will ever see in my baseball watching life. Here is the situation: Twins down 3 runs with runners on 1st and 2nd and a 0 balls 2 strikes count to Delmon Young in the bottom of the 8th inning. The pitcher for the Yankees is none other than Mariano Rivera. The same Mariano Rivera who has a career 2.26 era and has given up only 60 home runs (11 in his first year) in 1089 innings pitched. In fact in 2006, 2007 and 2008 he gave up only 3, 4, 4 home runs respectively all year. That means there is about a 50 times more likely chance of Rivera getting an out than giving up a home run. Delmon Young through his career has hit 35 home runs in 1723 at bats, which means there is about a 2% chance of him hitting a home run in any one his at bats. However, remember that it is an 0-2 count, which takes all of those odds down a little bit. Anyway, Young hit an opposite field home run to tie a game that the Twins would eventually lose on an Alex Rodriguez extra inning home run.
• Kansas - Dayton - 2009 - Cole Aldrich dominates the Fliers by recording triple double.
• Tigers - Twins - 2009 - As previously mentioned Cabrera hits a Metrodome double that leads to a victory over Verlander that makes the AL Central race a little bit closer.

I started this post on Friday when it looked like the Twins wouldn't have much of chance of making it to the playoffs. They were 2 games behind the Tigers with only 3 games left. There was still a little hope, but a betting man would have placed a large wager on the fact that Sunday's game against the Royals would be the last Twins game at the Metrodome. Well a lot of things happened (The White Sox won 2 against the Tigers and the Twins won 2 against the Royals including beating the eventual Cy Young winner Zach Greinke) and coming in this morning the Twins were tied for first the White Sox with one game to go. A lot had changed since the beginning of this post.

My friend Brian and I joined 51,000 people at the Metrodome and we were greeted with homer hankies and also a commemorative diploma celebrating the final regular season game. At the game there was the familiar sign in the home run porch counting down the remaining games at the Metrodome. All weekend was a celebration of the last games at the Metrodome. It turns out the only 1 game left countdown and the commemorative diploma were all for the second to last regular season game. The reason being is the Twins crushed the Royals and the Tigers beat the White Sox. That means for the second straight year the Twins will play in game 163 with the winner going to the playoffs to face the Yankees.

There is still a little more magic in the Metrodome. I will be in the upper club behind home plate for the game on Tuesday. I had made my peace with the Metrodome and was thankful that my last game there was a victory over the Tigers. The Metrodome wouldn't let go. The Twins did their best and with a lot of help the season will keep going for one more day. For such a much maligned ballpark it is appropriate that it ends this way. Let the record show that the final regular season game at Yankee Stadium was a pointless 7-3 victory over Baltimore. The final regular season game at the Metrodome was a very important Twins victory that forced a tiebreaker game against the division rival Tigers at of course the Metrodome.

This final series against the Royals combined with the Monday Night Football game between the Packers and Vikings and the tiebreaker on Tuesday with the Tigers helps serve as an example my final point on this long post. While the Metrodome might not have the best looking baseball stadium (partly because it is a football stadium), but for all its faults it can never be considered irrelevant.

If you are interested below are some other articles on the Metrodome:

Jim Caple's article on the Metrodome

The Metrodome - baseball's historical abomination...to many

Steve Aschburner's article's Memorable Metrodome moments

A long September

The winter winds came into Minnesota today and I was reminded that despite the prolonged warm weather the seasons have officially changed.   It is now time to prepare for shorter days and colder nights.   This is usually the time of the year when football starts gearing up as college teams get in their conference schedule and NFL teams start forming their identity.     September is a great month in that it ushers out summer/baseball and welcomes in football/fall.   For me it has been a long September since at the beginning of the month I had almost given up on the Twins and was excited for the AFC East defending champs to start their new season.   Now it looks like the Dolphins season is over (Pennington out for the year) and surprisingly the Twins are only 2 games back of the AL Central lead.   I guess I thought I would be following one team in late September, but I just didn't expect that one team to be the Twins.

In other news I went to the Vikings-49ers game yesterday.  I don't know if you heard or saw, but this old journeyman quarterback (3 teams in the past 3 years) with a strange last name completed a 32 yard touchdown pass to Greg Lewis with 2 seconds left in the game to give the Vikings a remarkable win.    Vikings fans were high fiving and hugging each other in euphoria rarely seen in the sports world.    Not a bad $17 I spent on the ticket to the game.  

Go Twins.  Keep the pressure on the Tigers. 

Salary and hard work

Normally I don't take the bait, but I guess yesterday I was feeling a little feisty.   The bait I am referring to is when people make Facebook posts that seem designed so that people will comment on them.   Usually they are political and from my Mississippi friends they are normally something that would make Bill O'Reilly proud.  Anyway, like I first wrote I normally just let these comments come and go because I don't care to make a scene especially on the internet.  Yesterday must have been different.   Below is the comment with all of the comments that came about because of it:

Jordan Cole Wow. Some anti-capitalist idiot on the news just asked: "why would anyone need to make more than 500k a year?" Lady, it's called hard work... And clearly you have no idea what that means. I guess we still can't fix stupid.

11 hours ago via Facebook for iPhone · Comment · Like

Joe J. Powell III

Ancient saying: Ignorance abounds. Those that care for others often choose poor tactics but have good soul. Those that have right tactic can lose their source. Best to work together and appreciate unique gifts of other.
My best! JP 

11 hours ago

Kevin Malphurs

Does everyone who makes over $500K work hard? Does that person who said that comment automatically not work hard? I am confused. It seems like you are making a lot of assumptions based on one comment.

11 hours ago · Delete

Jordan Cole

I have made little assumption on the matter, yet you have assumed my initial intention based on your own. I can only speak from personal experience, and everyone I know, that makes over $500k a year, works pretty damn hard for it, and has worked even harder to just get to a level to where they can be in said position. I don't know how "hard" the anti-capitalist individual works, but she clearly doesn't earn 500k a year as a PhD student (she is). As JP has indicated... I am sure her wishes are geared in the right direction, she has allowed something else to cloud her capability of logical thought in the process. If I work hard, I hope to be rewarded for doing so. If I do not work hard, I am a fool to think I should automatically receive something merely based on a "fairness" factor. These are simply my thoughts... not assumptions.

10 hours ago

Kevin Malphurs

I didn't assume anything, but merely was asking clarifying questions. I don't think there is as much correlation between salary and hard work as you might believe. I know plenty of people who might not make a lot of money, but work very hard and vice versa. Overall I hope we all can agree on the saying that life isn't fair.

10 hours ago · Delete

Jordan Cole

The whole "life isn't fair" argument is pretty much played out. It's moreover a question of one's own mortality. Why am I lucky? Why am I better off? Etc.

I think this particular argument is more geared towards: why did I (or not) take advantage of certain opportunities and others did not? I've worked hard to get where I am, and I will never feel bad for doing so.

10 hours ago

Curt Griffin

I just want to make 500k don't care If I have to work hard or not. I don't stepping on people to do it.... Yeah I am ass so what

10 hours ago

Andrew Balthrop

you have the causality backwards. efficiency wages dictate that you work hard because you are getting paid in excess of your productivity. High wages are a motivator, but it is because they make you afraid to be fired.

8 hours ago

Jon Harris

Oh come now Jordan. You don't seriously believe all this fox news bullshit do you? No one is arguing against hard work, they are arguing against a broken system that makes it hard or impossible for the "hard workers" to reach those upper brackets of pay. And if this lady IS in fact stupid, well then do a google scholar search for Wage inequality and see how many educated folk out there think it is an equally large problem...and by your ASSUMPTION are also stupid.

I guess american CEOs "just work harder" than their foreign counterparts...
http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~kjmurphy/Pauper.pdf

And those people working several jobs but still can't pay for basic human needs "just aren't working hard enough"
http://lsj.sagepub.com/cgi/pdf_extract/28/4/96

7 hours ago

Random Thoughts

It has been awhile since I tried to get some random thoughts down on my blog, so let me try to address all relevant and not so relevant topics that have been floating around in my head:

Twins

• This team is starting to grow on me.   Of course it only took the entire summer, but I am really starting to enjoy watching this completely average team.   They keep getting setbacks like Slowly's injury, Perkins/Liriano's disappearance, Morneau's injury and now Span's mild concussion.   They have responding with lineups that include players like Matt Tolbert, Nick Punto, Brendan Harris and starting pitchers like Brian Duensing.  
• By the Twins as I write this are 3 games behind the Tigers with an 8-5 lead against the White Sox.
• This past Saturday they finally had their signature win of the season.   Thanks to a Cabrerra  Metrodome double (are opposing teams more excited about Target Field than the Twins?) followed by a Kubel hit and another clutch Cuddyer home run the Twins treated my parents to a 6-2 victory over the Tigers ace Justin Verlander.  
• The Twins will continue to be must see TV as long as their games behind is greater than the number of games they have left against the Tigers.  Right now it is 3 compared to 4.

Miami

• The pro team (the Dolphins) had a unique loss yesterday on the anniversary of the Wildcat.  I could write chapters about the conservative play calling, the defense, the terrible missed holding calls and of course the missed Ted Ginn Jr. touchdown. What frustrated me most was the final 3 minutes and the Dolphins final possession.  A team could probably never run a worse 2 minute drill while still advancing the ball down the field.  
• I partially blame the loss yesterday on poor preparation by my fellow Dolphins fan and me.  We had the plan in place to get ribs and chopped pork from Ted Cook's (the reigning BBQ champ in our minds) only to find out that Ted Cook's is closed on Monday.   Of course it has been so long since we had a Monday Night Football game to get excited about, so we didn't even consider the possibility that Ted Cook's would be closed.  
• The college team (The Redhawks) might be the worst team in college football.  They were ranked as such last week and after a loss to one of the directional Michigans I don't see why their spot will change.  

Wedding planning

• The current question that I am asking myself is how best to figure out how many people will actually show up at the wedding?  As a professional forecaster I am probably doing way too much analysis on the probabilities on my Wedding List excel grid.   Yes, I am that much of a dork.   
• I don't know if I mentioned this, but M and I have picked a date, church, reception place, bridal party, dress (for her), dresses (for her bridesmaids) and are currently working on DJ and photographer.   And by working I mean I watch the Twins game and she emails people.   
• Any ideas on entrance theme/music for the bridal party?   I want to continue with the basketball theme especially since there are 5 groomsmen and 5 bridesmaids.  
• The BBQ idea for the rehearsal dinner is still a possibility.   I think I might have to do some convincing of key parties, but at least it is still in the running.

Random

• Why do people say things like "I'm not even lying, but..." or "Quite honestly?"   Really?  I am supposed to trust these people ever again after saying that?
• Is it just that Democrats think that there is a lot of luck in the world and that Republicans think that there is little to no luck?   Does that explain each side's position on welfare, affirmative action and now this healthcare debate?   As a generalization do Republicans just believe that you get were you are because of what you do and not because of society.   The world is a just place and left to their free will people are treated fairly by the market.  If you are without healthcare or a job it is because you are either dumb or you didn't work hard and not because of any other thing.   Does that sum things up?
• Shouldn't somebody come up with a healthy alternative to the cigarette break?  I sure would like to take a break every hour or two to talk with some fellow coworkers or friends outside.  

That's it for now.   I am going to try and forget about football for awhile and just focus on the Twins.   Let's hope for the best.

Michael Jordan

I don't know if there will ever be a player I dislike more than Michael Jordan.   Sure there have been times when I have disliked Tyler Hansbrough, Tim Tebow, Barry Bonds or Chris Webber, but none of them carry along the same level of disdain I have for the "greatest basketball player of all time."    Jordan played for hated rival UNC (thus giving UNC a nice recruiting pitch for the next 100 years) before going off to Chicago and helping the Bulls beat the Jazz in the 1997 and 1998 Finals.  He was a very talented player, but the way he carried himself on and off the court was something that irked me.   He seemed phony.  He was someone would have no problem playing the smiling ad man on TV, while on the court he looked like a tyrant of a teammate.   

That is why all of this talk about his Hall of Fame speech has been so gratifying.  I have enjoyed reading other writers criticize Jordan for what I thought was a tasteless speech especially considering the moment.  If you care read the articles linked below:

Adrian Wojnarowski - Jordan's night to remember turns petty

National Sports Review - Michael Jordan's HOF Induction Speech: When Demons Rule

Washington Times - Be like David Robinson, not Michael Jordan

Rick Reily - Be like Michael Jordan? No thanks.

Labor Day visit

A few pictures from this weekend.  

The miracle of birth center at the state fair - 

Elisabeth and M at the state fair - 

Garrison Keillor during the taping of a Prairie Home Companion- 

On the walk around Lake Harriet

Out to dinner last night at Cafe 28 - 

Hope you enjoyed.

Miami football

As a 17/18 year old you have to make a big decision on what college you want to attend.   For some people the decision is pretty easy because they just pick a local school that they were always destined to go to.   I really think some people (most people?) spend more time researching hotel options for a vacation than they do researching college options.   (Of course there are other students who are highly motivated and look to get in the best school possible, but I am not going to get into that.) 

I picked Miami because I loved the campus, the athletics, the reputation and everything I read about the school.   Another appeal was that it was a big school that really seemed to focus on undergraduate education.  I didn't want to go to a small school where I felt like I knew everyone, but I also didn't want to go a huge school were I felt like I was just a number.   Miami with their 14K student body was the perfect 3 Bears solution.  

One thing that I knew going to Miami was that I wasn't picking the school for its football reputation.   I had been to a Saturday night football game at Tiger Stadium and I understood the appeal of Howard's Rock at Clemson.   I knew that by picking Miami I would be picking a MAC school with no shot at a national title or even any ESPN televised games.   

Over my 4 years I was surprised to see Miami's football program rise primarily because of the talent of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.   They were playing games televised by ESPN and renovating Yager Stadium.   There was the longest winning streak in the nation and a #10th ranking in the final national poll.   Things were looking up and with the fertile recruiting ground in Ohio there was no reason to think that Miami couldn't be one of those Boise St. mid major like programs.

Then the coach (Terry Hoeppner) left for Indiana, but I tried to convince myself that the young offensive coordinator who had groomed Roethlisberger was going to keep the program headed in the right direction.   After a few below-average seasons though the bottom dropped out last year with a 2-10 season.   Now, Miami University is back to being an after thought in the college football world.   It is probably their rightful place in the hierarchy, but still for Miami fans it is disheartening.   

Today, Miami plays Kentucky in football and is down 21-0.   I know that I picked Miami for a bunch of reasons and I had amazing 4 years there, but is it too much to ask for a respectable football team?   I see everyone posting facebook messages getting excited about the beginning of football season and I find it hard to get excited for a team coming off a 2-10 season playing in a game that isn't being televised.    Still I sit here in my 2003 football season shirt celebrating the 13-1 year and hope for the best.  Like Andy Dufresne I believe in hope and that is what I hold on to with Redhawk football.   Go Redhawks.  I hope for a comeback.