Tonight the Twins begin their final series under the roof at the Metrodome. They'll be paying homage to the great baseball played there — but very few fans will actually miss the place.
Back in 1981 I was at one of the first Minnesota Twins games at the Metrodome, an exhibition match against the Philadelphia Phillies. As I recall, the game wasn't a big deal, as a college friend and I walked up and bought some pretty good seats down the first-place line. There were none of the histrionics you find today when a new ballpark opens: the game certainly wasn't sold out, and the bigger news was that Pete Rose would be playing for the Phils against a pretty lousy Twins team.
This weekend the Twins will play their last three games under the roof of the Metrodome. I won't be there; though I've been a season-ticket-holder for the Twins at various times, I just can't summon the energy to commemorate the end of the era there. Yes, there were some great memories created there; I was lucky enough to see a World Series game and many playoff games at the Dome, and I saw Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek and Brad Radke play their entire careers as Twins, mostly in the Dome. (Hrbek's rookie season was spent at the Met.)
First impressions are usually accurate, and I can still remember my first impression of the Metrodome: A terrible place to watch a baseball game.