Matt Shalbrack/Winonan

As a big baseball fan, I went to Brewers games all the time. At both County Stadium and Miller Park. I’ve seen games at Wrigley Field, Nationals Park, U.S. Cellular Field on the Southside of Chicago and Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati. I’ve toured Busch Stadium in St. Louis and Coors Field in Colorado.

Tonight, I’m going to my first Twins game at Target Field. I get to cross another stadium off my list – I want to witness a game at every MLB ballpark before I die.

This won’t be my first Twins game – I went to game 163 between the Tigers and the Twins in 2009. But this will be my first Twins game at Target Field.

It was a spur of the moment purchase and I’m happy with the $11 tickets that I have for tonight with one of my best friends, Linzey. I’m a big advocate of sitting wherever is cheapest (you have to have an actual seat though, none of that standing room only garbage), so Section 307, Row 13, Seat 19 will do for me this evening against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Before setting foot in the stadium, I really liked the fact that for the most part, Target Field was connected by the Skywalk – just like the majority of everything else in the city. I was really impressed at how well Target Field blended in with the cityscape itself. The developers did a fantastic job on the aesthetics of the ballpark.

The Twins staff was very friendly while walking in, something I expected because of that “Minnesota Nice” mentality. The inside of the stadium was very well lit and it was actually unlike any other ballpark that I have been to before.

I sat in section 307, row 13, so basically the nosebleeds. But these seats were great! I would definitely sit in this section again, and I would even sit in any of the 300 sections for a game. Our seats had a great view of the big scoreboard in left field, and it felt like we were always able to see the action.

In terms of food, I thought it was your average ballpark food. I had a brat with ketchup and sauerkraut and it was pretty tasty. I also had a Bud Light and that was delicious as usual. Linzey had a cheeseburger with fries and it looked pretty good as well. No complaints. No highlights.

The game itself was a great game. The Twins found themselves down 1-0 after the first inning and then down 6-1after three. Slowly but surely though, the Twins mounted a comeback, but came up just short as they lost by a final score of 6-5. Justin Morneau’s replacement, Chris Colabello, hit his seventh homerun of the year, a two-run shot. Later in the game, Joe Mauer’s backup, Josmil Pinto, hit his first home run of the season.

Overall, my first time at Target Field was a good one. I would definitely go back to another game, and I’m quite excited to see the ballpark filled up next year for the 2014 MLB All-Star game.

Contact Matt at [email protected]