First day at Target Field

As I said on Twitter, I haven't seen this many happy Minnesota sports fans since the day Dan Monson got fired.

i walked around the concourses and found people just standing, staring and smiling. The Gophers and Louisiana Tech players felt pretty much the same way, which is what I wrote about for the Sunday paper.

One thing I didn't cover in my column was how the field played. Gophers coach John Anderson, who hopes to get more chances in the future to play at Target Field, said ``I think it's going to play fair. I like the fact there isn't a lot of foul territory.

``The fans are close to the action. It looks like it has some interesting angles to it but I think it's going to play exceptionally well. I like baseball games that are decided between the white lines. I don't like outs made in foul territory. There's a short backstop behind home plate. I think it's going to be a wonderful ballpark to watch a ballgame in, but I also think it's going to be a fair game.

``I think it's going to bring all three phases in the game into play, which is what I as a baseball puritst really enjoy."

I rode the light rail with the Gophers to the game. They lost, 9-1, but were thrilled to be the team that got to open Target Field.

-I love the way the rightfield plaza opens to the city. If I were going to buy season tickets, I think I'd want to sit in the part of rightfield that juts over the playing field. Or the stands down the line that are almost in fair territory. There will be a lot of ground-rule doubles caused by fans reaching out and grabbing shots down the line.

-There are a lot of places to drink in this ballpark. A lot.

-One nit I have about March Madness is that if the game isn't a crazy, buzzer-beating game like the one Xavier and Kansas State played, you notice that the quality of play in most of the games isn't very high.

-I can't believe the Target Field grass is this green at this time of year.

-Now that Auburn has filled its coaching vacancy, what job is Tubby Smith going to use for leverage now? MCTC?

-Tomorrow morning on am-1500 we have the Ron Gardenhire Show at 9:30 followed by Sunday Sports Talk at 10. Lindsay Whalen will be one of our guests, and we'll have at least one Twins representative.

-You can follow me on Twitter at SouhanStrib.

petterson...

it was pretty awesome. it was exstrelmely flat. i gopt down to the game...smooth surface..pretty impressive...

flat is good...

the whole thing was pretty cool. i likeed the whole skyline comiing in over rightfield...

that whole lower bowl was full and they were screaming for us when we ran out there. that was a pretty cool feeling...

kyle