— My wife and I took in the Wednesday nooner in the new park, then returned the next morning for a tour.

A few things that I learned about Target Field— or perhaps knew but didn’t retain, but will now that they’ve added meaning:

1) The Twins used the third base dugout in the Metrodome but are in the first base dugout now — because the third base dugout offers no shade during day games. (After a game in a seat near that dugout, I see the home-team advantage to putting the visitors there.)

2) Kramarczuk’s sausages live up to their reputation. I had both the bratwurst and the Polish sausage Wednesday; it was the best Polish I’ve ever had, but I still prefer the brat.

3) I have noticed no odor from the garbage burner next door, which was a frequent concern/criticism of the site during construction. Our tour guide claimed that the team’s surveys found complaints — from the workers at the burner, about the smell of the hot dogs.

4) The memorabilia shop in the left field corner has caps not available in the bigger store in the right field corner.

5) The Twins have a full-time curator to tend to (and add to) the historical displays, supposedly the only such position in baseball. Our tour group encountered him, and he was excited about having closed the deal for the last home plate used at Metropolitan Stadium.  

6) Most of the historical stuff — and there is a lot of it — is in areas accessible to specific ticket holders. The tour is one way to see the things in the Champions Club without the expense of those season tickets.

7) A side benefit to taking the tour (which is only offered on non-game days) is that Target Plaza is much easier to navigate and see when there aren’t 40,000 fans descending on the park. You want a picture of your kid and the Kirby Puckett statue, this is a better time to make it.

8) The best of the three plaza statues is Rod Carew’s. It’s also the most out-of-the-way one — at the corner of 2nd Ave. N. and N. 7th St. I had to hunt around to find it.

What makes it the best is that it is facially recognizable as Sir Rodney. The Puckett and Harmon Killebrew statues (and Carew’s) show them in iconic poses, but one can’t really identify either Puckett or Killebrew by the face. I would hate to think that generations to come will think Puckett looked like that.

9) The gold glove sculpture in the plaza is located at the same distance from home plate as Killebrew’s longest home run at the old Met — same distance but not the same location. There wasn’t room to put the glove there.

10) The nine baseball bat-shaped light standards in the plaza have hops growing up them. They are lit one at a time, one per inning, so passersby can tell what inning it is by how many lights are on.

11) One piece of plaza artwork is visible from much of the park: The wind sculpture that covers the plaza side of one of the massive parking ramps adjacent to the park. It’s not that you’ll see it directly from your seat, but it is reflected in the glass of the Metropolitan Club, which overlooks the right field foul pole. Even during a day game, it creates an intriguing waterfall image.



Edward Thoma is a Free Press staff writer. He is at 344-6377 or at ethoma@

mankatofreepress.com. He also has a baseball blog at www.mankatofreepress.com